A Focus on Finishes

Okay...It is time for me to get a little more control in my sewing room!

I knew I had been starting all sorts of projects and ignoring the piles of projects littering my sewing surfaces but I found out today in black and white just how bad things had gotten.

As I dug deep in the piles to document all the projects in various stages, I soon had a whole page full of projects needing attention.  Some projects are on-going and a few I just might adopt out in September during the next Quilty Orphan Adoption event. (The last one was in the Spring.)

So now I am motivated to pluck the low hanging fruit and strive for some quick finishes.  Some of the projects just need to be laid out and sewn.  I am starting with my bowtie blocks.  There are lots of layout options but I am trying to make a final decision.  This one is queen size but I hope to share a finish soon!

I am so glad I have a big order of clearance fabrics and quilt backings coming next week from Connecting Threads.

Perfect timing!

Craftsy is also having a Maker's Black Friday sales so I just might have to see what deals I can find there.  Maybe a Kaffe Fassett backing for this bowtie quilt!

Follow Me on Bloglovin'          Follow me thru Email          Follow me on Feedly

Linking Up:

My Quilt Infatuation (Needle & Thread)

Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!)

Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or not Friday)

This post contains affiliate links.  I appreciate the support!

Gazing into my Crystal Ball

I always find I spend the last few weeks of December looking ahead to the future.  Contemplating what projects and events I want to tackle, deciding where I want to spend my time in the coming year and setting goals for my business.

Back in January, I declared 2016 "The year of Cyndy"....Ha!

Looking at that post, I remember how exhausted I was from an extremely busy 2015.  And early in 2016, I did adjust how and where I was spending my time.

Well, the pendulum definitely swung to the other extreme because I over committed myself with "fun" projects and by mid-year, my projects all began feeling like a chore. 

So this year, I hope to find a happy medium.

I am really making a concerted effort on my UFOs.  It is time to clean these up and get them off my shoulders.  I am down to having only 20.  I decided to make a list of 12 and join American Patchwork for their UFO challenge.  Each month they will pick a number and that will be the project I work on throughout the month.  I may not finish it, but I hope to make some progress on each of these.

This is the year I am going to start learning to sew garments.  I have been collecting patterns and fabric for a few years but I have failed so miserably in the past, I have been frozen to start.  Well, I have signed up for a class at a new local store and I will share my journey with you. 

This should be interesting!

Remember my Scrappy Sampler?  I have been thinking about hosting a Quilt Along and if there is enough of an interest I will get planning on something very similar.

What do you like to see in a QAL?

Scraps will be a big part of 2017. Scrap-A-Palooza is coming back and I will still be hosting Oh Scrap every Sunday.   I also plan on participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge but I am keeping it simple this year.
 Scraps really make me happy!

In March and September, I will be once again hosting the Quilty Orphan Adoption. It is great to see UFOs that are languishing get packaged up, sent off and finished, sometimes for donation to some great charities. In fact, if you have adopted and finished a picture, I would love it if you shared a photo.

So that is my plan for the year. 

I have decided to not commit myself to a lot of long term projects.  I have also decided not to list a bunch of things I would like to achieve throughout the coming year.

I am keeping it simple this year!

Thank you all for your friendship, support and encouragement!  It warms my heart so much to know so many follow along on my quilty journey.

I wish you all a happy 2017 filled with laughter, good health and great success!

I am joining the fun over at Quilting Jetgirl.  Yvonne holds a Planning Party every year.  I enjoy seeing what everyone has planned for the coming year!

Follow Me on Bloglovin'          Follow me thru Email          Follow me on Feedly

Best of 2016!

As 2017 come screaming towards me, I have been spending this week contemplating what the future holds and looking back on the past year.  I am a strong believer in having a plan and when you look forward, you have to look where you have been to see what you want to change.

Personally, 2017 can't get here soon enough for me.  2016 really sucked!

But there were still some great things about it.  One of which was the support, encouragement and inspiration I received from all of you.  I cannot express enough how much I appreciate you!

Here are a few other highlights from the year...

Are you curious what post was viewed the most?  It was one of my string quilt finishes.  Most of the hits come from Pinterest.  I am always pleased with how many quilters love string quilts like I do!

If that is you, buckle up....because over the next year there are going to be a rainbow of them getting made.  I have lots of scrappy strings to burn through!

The finish I was most pleased with was this Kaffe Fassett quilt.  It was not a favorite quilt but it was one of my oldest UFOs. 

Boy, it feels good to get an old project finished! 

By far, the silliest finish was the Pig Race quilt.  I donated this quilt to a kid's charity but I still love coming across photos of the blocks. I hope it found a good home and made a child smile!

And you cannot put out a "Best of" without including your favorite quilts. 

My favorite scrappy finish was this colorwash quilt.   Using scraps to play with color is probably my favorite past-time.  So I pretty much enjoyed every step of making this quilt!
http://www.shareasale.com/u.cfm?d=387397&m=29190&u=1009810

And the quilt I cherish the most is my Park Bench quilt.  It doesn't come out of the cupboard very often but when it does, I always feel great pride in it.

Cheryl over at Meadow Mist Designs is hosting the Best of 2016 linky party.  So I thought I would share my best there too.  I hope to see you there!

In a separate post, I will soon be sharing my plans for the coming year.  I have some fun things planned and cannot wait to share them with you!  So here is your chance, if you want to see something in the coming year, speak now! 

Follow Me on Bloglovin'          Follow me thru Email          Follow me on Feedly

Linking Up:

Young Texan Mama (Sew Cute Tuesday)

QuiltStory (Fabric Tuesday)

Sew Fresh Quilts (Bee Social)

My Quilt Infatuation (Needle & Thread)






If you want to spend some of that Christmas money and get some good deals, Craftsy is having their end of the year supplies event.  I am an affiliate so clicking through this link and making a purchase means I make a commission (at no additional cost to you).  I really appreciate the support!

Trying Something Different

I have been giving a LOT of thought lately to my long list of WIPs.  Every January I say "this is the year I am going to finish them!"  While I do make progress in reducing their numbers, the list remains far too long.

So this year, I am trying something different!

One of the reasons I have so many projects going on is I enjoy a lot of different quilting techniques. And I like to have the option of being in the right mood to work on each. So I decided to break up my list by technique and see what happens.

Hand Quilting: I have not hand quilted for over 5 years! But I do have an antique family hexagon quilt top I was given and have it about halfway finished.  Thankfully I don't have any other project in this category. 

Hand Applique: There are currently three projects in this category. My Quilty 365 is the project I am working on right now. But I also have a bunch of previously made flower blocks and some birdhouse blocks that I need to get back to or choose to abandon.

English Paper Piecing: When I have the energy to hand sew in the evening, I have been working on these fun stars. Sadly, I seem to have lost interest in an older EPP project using 1" hexagons - hence the loss of interest!  So there are only two projects in this category.

Paper Piecing: I have two active projects here. I REALLY want to finish my Sew Kitschy wall hanging. But I also have my basketweave stars project that I work on occasionally.  Time to move my kitchen wallhanging back to the top of the list!

Bucket List Quilts: Currently, my Park Bench Quilt is the active project in this category. I have a long list and a big stack of fabrics already purchased for future quilts.  I have two projects in this category that have been started.

Scrap-A-Palooza Quilt: I just finished my 18th quilt of this series and have pulled scraps for the next one. I will be sharing my plans soon.  I can reveal I plan on using my low volume scraps and some odd shaped triangle scraps.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge Quilt. Somehow, this category got a bit out of control. I not only started the Column Along but I am making both Piglet and chain blocks each month.  I am happy to say I did finish the RSC15 quilts!

Sew my Stash or Leader/Ended Quilts: I am tempted too often by scraps, Orphan Blocks or ideas for sewing up my older stash. These tend to be impulsive and are finished quickly. Right now I am focused on sewing up this stack of fabrics that have been sitting on my coffee table since I pulled them many months ago.

 

Quilt Along or Modern Quilts: I enjoy working with new fabrics or joining in on Quilt Alongs.  Right now, I am not participating in any QALs so I am going to work on a project that I started cutting years ago when I belonged to a group that met at my LQS and made projects using Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  The group disbanded and I never finished my quilt.

Publications and Secret Sewing: These projects rarely get shared before they get published either in magazines or as patterns. Right now I have 4 in the works that fall in this category and I cannot share a single one right now.  So no pictures :(

Crafty Sewing or Commissions: I have three active projects in this category. My kitchen curtains, a quilt for my sister's camper and a Christmas tree skirt.  The oldest project is the curtains for my newly renovated kitchen - that is now 3 years old.

So what have I learned? I will ALWAYS have about a dozen  projects going on at any time. Now I realize I can not be so hard on myself when I see that I am starting the year out with 23.  What I do need to do is whittle down or abandon some projects in each category.  I think THAT I can work on!

So I am going to claim the projects pictured above for each category and actively work on it until it is finished. I will not start another project in a category until all the projects in that category are finished. We shall see how many projects I chose to abandon!

If you are still reading, thanks for sticking in there.  I needed to get all this down for my own sanity.  I have found in the past that setting goals through Finish Alongs have helped so I am going to participate in a few again this year.

I am going to make completing the Sew my Stash project pictured above my January One Monthly Goal with Red Letter Quilts.  I know I will want to move onto something else soon!













And for my first quarter goals with the 2016 Finish A Long, I am going to list my Sew Kitschy wallhanging, my Park Bench quilt and my kitchen curtains.  That means I will have all three of these items finished by the end of March!

Now that I have a plan, all of these projects don't seem quite so daunting.  Rather than have a list of 23 items, I now have a smaller, achievable number in each category.  Now it is time to get sewing!

Linking Up:

My Quilt Infatuation (Needle & Thread)

Red Letter Quilts (OMG)
 A Quilter's Table (2016 FAL)

Bring on 2016!

My plans today were to write a long lengthy post about how I performed against my 2015 goals and to list all the great things I plan to do in 2016. After spending half the day quilting on a client's quilt, organizing my desk and updating all my spreadsheet for the new year, it finally dawned on me that 2016 is supposed to be the year of Cyndy....

so I put up my feet and appliqued my first circle for Quilty 365.

I have decided to sew circles onto a Kona navy background. Five circles and two half square triangles will make a block that will represent each week. Once I get a few weeks into the year, I will be able to share what the block will look like. Today I can only show you my circle for the first day of the year.

2015 was a tough year for me. It was hard on my body, my gardens and home were neglected and I was not always able to make the time to do the things that feed my creativity.

Don't get me wrong, I love my life and I enjoy quilting for others but I over committed myself last year. This year, being the year of Cyndy, will have lots of "me" days scheduled in. I still plan on supporting my existing clients (I mean, look at the amazing quilts my customers send me) but I will only be taking on new clients if my backlog is low.

Just how busy was I last year?  I fired up my longarm 342 days out of the 365 in the year! I made 53 quilts from my own stash, of which 14 were donated to various organizations.  I had two quilts published in magazines, participated in a few blog hops and I released two more of my own patterns.  There were also a few classes taught and some presentations made.  

No wonder I am tired.  I have earned a little time for me. 

So, in the year of Cyndy, I will still be playing with scraps. I will be continuing to share my processes with my Scrap-A-Palooza quilts, I will still be hosting Oh Scrap every Sunday, and I plan on participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

 Scraps make me happy!




In March and September, I will be hosting the Quilty Orphan Adoption again. It is great to see UFO s that are languishing get packaged up, sent off and finished, sometimes for donation to some great charities. In fact, if you have adopted and finished a picture, I would love it if you shared a photo.

I will be using my "me" time this year to work on my own projects. I love designing quilts and hope to publish more patterns and create more quilts for my own quilt collection. I have a long list of challenging quilts on my bucket list and would love to have time to work on them.  For example, I have had all of the Park Bench blocks completed for months and just haven't found quality time to sew up the top.

So I am pretty excited about this new year! Change is always a bit scary but I think these changes will be for the good. I certainly couldn't make some of these changes without the support of so many. I feel quite blessed to have so many great friends, wonderful clients, and supportive followers.

 I wish you all Happy 2016!

Linking Up:

Quilty Folk
Val's Quilting Studio
Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Mid Year Goal Review

Back in December of last year, I put together 10 goals for my blog in 2015. Knowing it is always easier to write up goals than achieve them, I thought I would take a look and make sure I am still on track in accomplishing them.

 

1. Lots of readers were in support of continuing the Scrap-A-Palooza series. This month I started the 16th quilt (Woo Hoo!) and I still have ideas for many more. You can check out the Scrap-A-Palooza quilt gallery any time you need some inspiration. I would be over the moon if you share any quilts you make so I can feature them here!



2. I announced the new Oh Scrap! link up. It happens every Sunday and each week I am continually inspired by the scrappy projects that are linked up. Thanks to everyone for your support!

3. While I am still trying to sew up some older fabric stash, already this year I have started 8 projects using fresh new fabrics. About half of those are finished but some I am still working on.  My favorite so far?  Definitely the Layers of Charm quilt made with a Mimosa layercake.

4. More Tutorials on my blog - Hmmm...I can certainly get a bit better at this. I do most of my sewing at night so those in-process pictures are always a bit challenging. I have however been sharing links to tutorials by others as part of the Oh Scrap! link up and I continue to share my process as I sew up each Scrap-A-Palooza quilt. 

5. Improving my photography - this one still needs a lot of work!  I have made some progress. I did download and watch the first chapter of the  Shoot It! photography class from Craftsy.  I think I am going to learn a lot if I can just find a block of time to watch the videos. I have also bought some foam board to make some of these design boards.  Having a nice background for photographs I think will help immensely too.

6. I did start work on my bucket list quilts. I finished my Pineapple quilt back in April and now I am working on my Park Bench Quilt. So definitely making progress there!

7. I am happy to say I have made some progress on getting some more patterns published. Letters of Love was published in the Jan/Feb issue of Quilty magazine and I have two more magazine publications coming out later this year.  I have also released two more patterns for purchase - Life is a Highway and All That Jazz.  I will be sharing some quilts later this week made using my patterns but here is a sneak preview of one made using Life is a Highway.  I am currently working on another one but that lack of time issue seems to get in the way of getting it done!

8. This year I have made and donated 7 quilts to charities so far. Five that went to a domestic violence shelter and two that will be distributed to kids in crisis. But I am proudest of a recent Orphan Adoption Event I hosted here on my blog. There were 12 partially completed projects linked up that will soon be finding a new home where many are going to be completed for various charities.  

So many angels out there!  

I am happy to announce the Orphan Adoption will become a regular event with the next one happening some time this fall. After that, it will become a biannual event, occurring in the spring and fall. More specific information will be shared soon.  So be sure you are following along so you don't miss it!

9. My goal for more giveaways and sponsors is progressing well. So far this year, I have hosted 4 giveaways. Two of those giveaways were sponsored - the sponsors were Fat Quarter Shop and Benartex Fabrics.  I am hoping to host another one soon so stay tuned!

10.  My final goal was to spend more time on all the various social media platforms.  Honestly, I do pretty well for a bit then run short on time and get out of the habit of posting. I really enjoy sharing on my blog so I spend most of my time here but with so many folks also following me on Craftsy, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Google +, I need to keep appearances on those platforms too.  Definitely still an area I can improve upon!

 All in all, I am feeling pretty good about where I am at on my goals with half a year still to go.  

Life is good!