ALYOF - A Year in Review

2015 was indeed A Lovely Year of Finishes. I proud to say that I set and met 12 monthly goals. Only one needed a little tweaking (due to circumstances a little out of my control).

You can check out each of my monthly finishes here. Some were large, some were small. But they all got done!

January -  Charm Pack Cherry sans Cherries
February - Final blocks of Skill Builder BOM 2014
March - For the Love of Sewing (Skill Builder BOM 2014)
April - Getting started on Technicolor Galaxy (Skill Builder BOM 2015)
May - Kona Strip Quilt Binding
June - Underwater
July - Improv Herringbone Quilt Top
August - Bali Strip Pop
September - Trio of Swaps
October - Remaining Blocks from QPP Project #1
November - Jumbo Jaw Breaker
December - Christmas Cotton + Steel Squares & Strips Quilt Top

Thank you again to the wonderful organizers of ALYOF over at Fibre of All Sorts and Bittersweet Designs. I've had a very productive year and have polished off a pile of WIPs thanks to your motivating link-up! I am, of course, linking up with the Grand Finale!

J

ALYOF December Finish!

It was a cold and blustery day. -19 degrees Celsius with windchill to be exact. But the sun was shining and there was fresh snow on the ground. Time for a quilty photo shoot! And time to show off some progress on my December goal for ALYOF!

That goal was to get as much done on this quilt as possible.  I was #55 on the Goal Setting Party at the beginning of the month.

This Christmas-y flimsy finish makes me smile. I hoped to have the same kind of miracle as with my November ALYOF goal, alas, in this month of holiday chaos, it just didn't happen. I am pleased to say that I already have backing fabric and the MMQG January Sew In beckons! It'll definitely be done for Christmas 2016.

You can read a little more about the construction of this lovely here. The pattern is a Cluck Cluck Sew tutorial called  Squares and Strips.

So much Cotton + Steel goodness here. I love those 16 patch blocks. They're more work than the others, but they're just so danged scrap happy. I'm sure my junior high pal Joel didn't quite have this kind of Scrappy Happiness in mind when he made his album. But he should have.

I was sad to learn that 2015 will be the final year of ALYOF. It just goes to show that if you see a linky/challenge/QAL that speaks to you, you should jump on it with both feet. You just never know when it will end. Thank you so much to Fiber of All Sorts and Bittersweet Designs for organizing it for three years. I am, of course, linking up with the final Finishes Party over at Fiber of All Sorts. And since it's Wednesday, I'm also linking up with the Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts.

J

P.S. Blooper! Windy days are NOT optimal for photo shoots!

WIP Wednesday - It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

...at least on my design wall. This week I went all bonkers and started two new projects - one large, one small. Warning... this post turned into a Christmas-y behemoth! ☺

Once I finally decided on what to make with my Naughty or Nice Bundle from Pile O Fabric and set my ALYOF goal for December, I couldn't stop working on it!

I got a little carried away! Cutting happened on Saturday and sewing was underway on Sunday. The hardest part was the element of pre-cuts. When Allison @ Cluck Cluck Sew says there's very little waste, she means it. It also means that you're down to the last ¼ inch on some of those FQs, especially if you're a pre-washer like yours truly. I'd not normally leave a frayed edge, but this time... well, you gotta do what you gotta do!

 

These square in a square blocks came together nicely. Simple but effective!

Next up, the strip blocks. To get that planned scrappy look, I turned my trusty Rubbermaid box. It's great for holding current scraps or for mixing up squares or strips. Just pull two out and sew 'em... unless they look horrid together. Can't have that.

I must have been a little tired (imagine?!) while cutting. I noticed more than one oddball piece. ½ an inch too long, you say? Yup.

 And lickity split, a stack of strip blocks. Did I mention this is coming together quickly?

I took a page from Dominique @ The Running Thimble's book for these miscuts. In her recent scrappy Christmas quilt, she pieced some of her squares so as not to waste fabric. Mine was to cover some inattention while cutting. Either way, in a scrappy quilt, no one's going to notice!

Then on to the most labour intensive blocks, the 16 patches. This pile of squares makes me so very happy!

I even had to pull the same trick to get one more 16 patch block... I didn't want to repeat any fabric squares! Who pieces a 2½ inch square anyway? Me, apparently.

 In the end, I had eight 16 patch blocks and I love 'em.

Squee! With the other 41 blocks being 8½ inch squares, I'll ready to lay this baby out. Only my design wall is a little small...#firstworldstudioproblems

As for the small project, it's all thanks to BT's profound love of pillows. He drags them all around the living room and flops on them. I figured he needed another Christmas one. You know, because he knows it's almost Christmas. So off to the stash I went for a fabric pull!

Some Sun Print Bike Path in Brown, Kona Latte, C+S XOXO in Picnic Gold, C+S Sprinkle in Black Cat, and C+S  Dottie in Cotton Candy Gold. Look at me using my stash! And there's that Latte from this week's Sunday Stash. I know the suspense was killing you diehards.

Just like with the Dog Gone Cute blocks, I reached for my trusty masking tape to label all those little bits. Honestly, the extra effort pays off in the end!

I ♥ chain piecing.

Lately, I've been hoarding scraps. Honestly, I think whatever ScrapMaster has is contagious. It seems like every project I work on breed another one in scraps. But I'm drawing the line at these. I will not make them into HSTs. I will not.

And here they are!  Some lovely little reindeer!

The  pattern is courtesy of the lovely and talented Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts. She shared it with us Dog Gone Cute Blog Hoppers as a thank you, but if you'd like your own copy, pop out and pick up the current Quiltmaker 100 Quilt Blocks magazine. Perhaps you'll make all nine of Santa's reindeer. I'm stopping at 3... for now.

What a week! If I keep up this level of productivity, I might even have a finish for Friday! I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts, as well as WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced. Hope you took a little time away from the Christmas preparations to sew a little something too!

J 

ALYOF - December Goal!

Well, this is it. The last goal for 2015. I can hardly believe I've managed to achieve all of them to date. factoring in that Himself is still away for work and that there's no MMQG Sew In this month, I had a tough time deciding on a goal. But I did choose one! I can't opt out on the last month!

After hemming and hawing for literally years, I've pulled the trigger on a Christmas quilt! I'm turning this...

into a twin sized version of Cluck Cluck Sew's Squares and Strips. It's scrappy and fun. It's easy, but doesn't just look like I sewed FQs together. I thought about doing a throw sized quilt, but there's a chance that down the road DT would like to sleep under a Christmas quilt. Yes, another one will be required. Yes, they will fight over who gets which one. And yes, I'm prepared for that.

So what's the goal, you say? My goal is to get as far as I can into this quilt by the end of the month. Heck, it worked last month. I ended up with a finished quilt !And so did Ms. K.V!

The cutting has already begun!

 Okay.... let's be honest. It's more than begun. I got a little carried away and stayed up WAY too late.

I'm linking up with the December Goal Setting Party over at Fibre of All Sorts. I have loved, loved, loved the motivation this link-up has given me all year long. If there's a 2016 edition, I'll likely be on board! You should be too!

J

Friday Finish - Jumbo Jaw Breaker (and ALYOF - November Finish!)

Sometimes you surprise even yourself. When I set this goal at the beginning of November, I thought it was a long shot... at best. (I happened to be #63 on the Goal Setting Party).

But lo and behold, I actually did finish Jumbo Jaw Breaker... and in time to gift it to my dear friend and quilt holder, Ms. K.V, for her birthday tomorrow.   

I was heading to one of my fav surf beaches, Lawerencetown, but the kite surfers were in the air at pre-beach! I always think it would be so cool to cover that hill in the distance with quilts. We'd just need a few. ☺

In the absence of a quilt holder, one must improvise. Cobble beaches offer so many possibilities for quilt weights. There are so many special fabrics in this quilt... many of them were also used for DT's Plus Two Quilts. For the quilting, I did an assymetrical hexagon pattern, echoing out from one of the hexies on the quilt top.  Those echoes covered the entire quilt, reaching right out to the edges.
Then I chose two more hexies and did some echoes off of them. The echoes overlap like ripples in a pond when you throw more than one pebble. This pic also shows off my pieced back.
I even remembered to put on one of quilt labels before I quilted and bound it. My stock of these is dwindling... time for a new order!

I love the way the backing fabrics work with the top. And I love that they were in my stash! Some were hard to part with, but it one is going to buy fabric, they should be prepared to use it!

So many glamour shots of this quilt. Once it was done with the cobbles, it really wanted to play on the dune grass. Who was I to say no?

The Deets  
Title: Jumbo Jaw Breaker (Jaw Breaker from Jaybird Quilts)
Size: 51 by 51 inches (it's not big, but it's small!)
Fabric Used: A big ole pile of teals from my stash with pops of acid green
Konas Used: None... it's shocking!
Quilting: Assymetrical echo ghost hexies in white and two shades of teal
Binding: Dottie's Cousin in Lime (Cotton & Steel), hand stitched with Gutterman 20 (White) 

Backing: Pieced from my stash

Favourite Part(s): Being able to met what I thought was an impossible deadline and buying only batting to complete this quilt

So happiest of birthdays to you, Ms K.V., with  much love from me, Himself, BT, and especially your favourite twin, GT. Your support in the past year means so much to all of us. From Friday BPM nights to early Sunday morning circus school, you've earned the title of Auntie!

And of course, I'm going all link-up crazy. I'm linking up with TGIFF @ Quilting Among the Groves, Finish up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts, and ALYOF November Finishes Party @ Fibre of All Sorts. If you've got an hour (or two), head on over to all those link ups and check out the productivity and creativity on display!

J

ALYOF - November Goal!

Okay... scrambling again. How can I possibly achieve a goal for the month if I can barely find the time/energy to write the post? Wah wah wah.

This month's goal is a pretty natural one - it's the quilt that's dominating my design wall, Jumbo Jawbreaker, and is meant as a birthday gift for a friend. And her birthday's at the end of the month. So here's my goal: get as much done as possible before those candles get lit and the singing starts!

And of course, I'm linking up with Fibre of All Sorts for the November Goal Setting Party. Just two months left in 2015... isn't that scary!

J

AYLOF - October Finish!

Another month, another goal achieved! I'm 10 for 10. I was #52 on the Goal Setting Party and here's my post. My goal was to finish the blocks for Quilting Protection Program Project #1. 

 

I finished off the last 5 blocks today.  And given the top secret nature of this project, I can only show you snippets. Patience, patience, patience!

Squee! There is so much Kona loveliness in this pile. I am going to have a tonne of colours to cross off my Kona Love list when the time comes!

I'm linking up with the October Finishes Party over at Fibre of All Sorts. Now to think up a goal for November!

J

ALYOF - October Goal

October! Really? How did that happen? Just three more months left in the 2015 edition of A Lovely Year of Finishes. To date, I've met every goal I've set for myself. And I'm pretty pleased about that. Sometimes it meant taking a good hard look at what was achievable in a month. Other times it meant making time to sew when I might otherwise have "wasted" the time Netflix bingeing.

With nine successful finishes this year, I want to keep the streak going. I've opted to set myself a moderately challenging goal for this month...

This is not an exciting picture. That much I will admit. But it's as much as I can show you of QPP Project #1. Really.

To date, I have 22 of 30 blocks finished for the top. My goal this month is to get all 30 crossed off that little purple post-it. If things go really well, I might even get to work on the sashing and put the top together. But those are secondary goals!

I'm linking up today with the October Goal Setting Party over at Fibre of All Sorts. And I'm not even doing it at the last minute. I still have almost two days before the linky closes. That means you do too if you'd like to jump on board!

J

ALYOF - September Finish(es)!

I set myself a lofty goal for September's version of A Lovely Year of Finishes (Post #2 on the Goal Setting Party). Not one, not two, but three goals. Yes, I broke the rules. And guess what? I managed to finish them all... along with solo parenting the now 10 month old, walking whirling dervishes that are Double Trouble for many of September's 30 days. Enough about my supermom-ness, on to the quilting!

Goal 1 - QPP Project #3 - MMQG Mini Swap (Due September 10th)

You can read the finish post for this little lovely here.

Goal 2 - QPP Project #4 - Do Bees FQ Swap (Due September 24th)

I finished this one with a vengeance! The task was to make something and I made three somethings - a 1 Hour Basket, a zipper pouch, and a lanyard. You can read more about them here.

Goal 3 - Woodland themed Polaroids for Lara from BuzzinBumble (Due September 30th)  
I didn't have quite as many camping/woodland themed prints in my stash as I thought I did... shocking for a Girl Guide! I might have stretched the definition of woodland a little bit, so I included some extras for Lara. These little lovelies are going in the mail this week!

I'm linking up with the September Finishes Party over at Fiber of All Sorts. Big shout out to Bittersweet Designs and Fibre of All Sorts for this very motivating link-up. I hope they keep it rolling in 2016!

J