2018 review and 2019 planning

2019 Planning Linky Party Quilting Jet Girl is having a planning linky party.

My 2018 list was:

1. Dragon Fly Baby Quilt (I'm still working on this one)

2. Miscellaneous Panels (did a couple, but still have more to go)

3. Patches for Randy's Quilt (Never even touched this one)

4. Pixie Garden (Never even touched this one)

5. Map of Texas (Never even touched this one)

6. Ann's Mystery Star(Never even touched this one)

7. Fall Panels(Never even touched this one)

8. Christmas Squares from Carol(Used these in a small quilt)

9. Tie Quilt (I made a small wall hanging and still have ties left)

10. Liberty Blocks (Finished this one)

11. Mira Red Hat Purse (Never even touched this one)

12. Fall Miscellaneous Blocks (I'm still working on this one)

I look at the lists of quilts I've done for others, 36 (2 more than last year) of them.
It sometimes amazes me to think that I've used my long arm that much.

QOV #18

QOV #19

Texas A&M T-shirt quilt

Lana cardinal quilt

Sandy baby quilt

Marilyn's Quilt

QOV #20

Tammy Cross quilt

Tammy baby quilt

CIL #9

Lisa T-shirt quilt

Clemens T-shirt quilt

Lana patriotic

CIL #10

Lana Envelope Quilt

Lana Rose Quilt

Lana Star

QOV #21

QOV #22

QOV #23

QOV #24

Tammy Quilt

Tammy Quilt

CIL #11

CIL #12

Lana horse quilt

Lana quillow

Lana charity quilt

Bobbi Cherry Blossom quilt

CIL #13

Guild #1

Guild #2

Guild #3

Guild #4

CIL #14

Tammy's Owl Quilt

I do not have a business, so it is really just for friends and charity.
I'm glad I can use the long arm to help others.
I know I'll quilt for Quilts of Valor, Covered In Love and the New Braunfels Area Quilt Guild charities in 2019.


I've quilted my own quilts too, to the order of 23 (8 less than last year) of them.

Winter Solstice

Fall Table Runner

Imperfect Squares

Happiness is Quilting

Alphabet Quilt

Irish Stars - green

Irish Stars - purple

Irish Stars - blue

Fiesta

Irish Stars - small

Fall Quilt

State Quilt

Bread and Butter Flag

Bulls Eye Quilt

Squirrel quilt

Fall Border quilt

APFOM

Hummingbird

Pillow Shams

Sparkling Sampler

TQPM Tangerine Kiss

Windowsill Wonder

Gray Cancer Quilt

I love the long arm because it allows me to finish more than on my little machine.
I feel very blessed to continue to work on my own stuff.
I enjoy testing for The Quilt Pattern Magazine.
Many of these are gifts or UFOs.
Seems like I have quilted more for others than myself.
I think in 2019 I need to fix that. :)

I joined in with Judy at Patchwork Times on her Get It Done to work on UFOs.
the premise was to move a UFO forward.
I didn't count it if I had not finished it, because I focus on the finish.
I only finished 4 on my list this year

Jan #10. Winter Solstice

Dec 2. Borachio

June 6. Embroidery blocks

October 9. Miscellaneous Fall Blocks

I didn't finish these

February 1. Ann’s 2009 NYE Mystery

March 8. Jo’s club retreat teal and brown

April 5. Copper and teal quilt

May 12. Tie One On

July 11. Under the Sea Quilt

August 3. Chicken makings

September 4. Color guard pillows

November - 7. Home in the Middle

I'm not sure why I was not finishing them this year, but will still work on some in 2019
As long as I don't stress over not finishing everything, I'll be fine.

My 2019 list is:

1. #36 Fall Miscellaneous Blocks 

2. #71 Miscellaneous Patriotic blocks 

3. #83 Patriotic pieces

4. #110 Tie One On quilt

5. #24 Courthouse Step panel

6. #52 Hawaiian applique Pillow

7. #33 Equessence T-shirt quilt

8. #66 Mini Scrap Basket

9. #13 Christmas embroidery

10. #78 Orphan Blocks

11. #68 Miscellaneous block pieces

12. #88 Pink Horse Quilt

Some of these will be easy ones to accomplish. Others will take lots of time. I picked them randomly with a random number generator.

I keep track of how many blocks I make each month, and it is a fun project.
350 Block Challenge

January................... 54

February.................. 53

March.................... 147

April........................ 59

May......................... 37

June.......................... 5

July.......................... 18

August.................... 143

September................. 82

October.................... 236

November ............... 103

December .....................

That's 2002 blocks for the year, through November.
Not bad, but in reality many were done before, but counted when the project is complete.
I will probably continue on with this just because it is interesting to see how it changes month to month.

I joined in on the 6 & 6 challenge and did OK, but it is not one I'll be doing in 2019.

I didn't finish 4 of them

February 3. Hawaiian Applique

September 5. Harry Potter - A

November 6. Harry Potter - J

December - Dragon fly quilt

I did complete 4 if them.

I doubled up on some months because of not completing them.

January - new start - door hangers for DD dorm

April, March 1. Clemens T-shirt Quilt

May - Keyboard cover

August 2. Hummingbirds

June. 4. Sparkling Sampler

Scrap Attack was not all that successful. I found that I do better at organizing a bin when I am actually using from it.

I did not touch these

March 7. Green

May 5. Christmas

June 4. Yellow

July 2. Novelty

September #11 Black

October - catch up

November - white

1. Make String blocks to reduce overflow of bin

I finished organizing these bins of scraps

January 9.blue

February 12.purple

April 3. Brown

August 6. Orange

2018 Monthly Color Challenge Schedule was a bust. I didn't really work on the right colors during the month. Sometimes I made post cards from those colors and others not.

Jan 1st - Red

Feb 1st - Blue

March 1st - Yellow

April 1st - Orange

May 1st - Green

June 1st - Purple

July 1st - Yellow 

Aug 1st - Orange

Sept 1 - Red Violet

Oct 1 - Violet Blue

Nov 1 - Blue Green

Dec 1 - Black and White

I started an Organizational Challenge to help me focus on a certain area each week. I've only been doing it for about 3 months now, but it is making a difference.

1. Get 2017 files put away

2. Thread drawers

3. Flat surfaces around desk

4. Cutting and Pressing Table

5. Corner Cabinet

6. Take care of piles on floor and vacuum

7. Dust

8. Clean up the floors

9. Clean off Flat Surfaces

10. Look Up

11. Pick up piles on the floor

12. Vacuum and dust

I'm going to try Judy L of Patchwork Times 12 things in 2019 challenge.

It doesn't have to be only quilting.

So, my list is

1. Let Me Surprise you quilt

2. Scan Photos

3. Work on Baby clothing quilts

4. Harry Potter quilts

5. Digitize more items

6. Vacation quilt

7. Make Seasonal Wreaths for DD

8. Make some zippered pouches

9. Make coasters for seasons

10. applique Home in the Middle

11. Finish Hawaiian Applique

12. Crochet something

I think this might be fun and I get to pick what I'm working on.

I can work on more than one in a month if I want and just finish them in 2019.

When I look at my goals for 2018, this is the result

1. I will improve my health

I lost 20 pounds and really worked on my eating and water habits.

I still need to work on this, but am making progress.

2. I will become more organized.

I did get Mom and Dad's stuff organized.

I found out my ex passed away and I need to still get his stuff organized for my son.

I have gone through much of the stuff in the house, but still need to do it again. I really need to downsize more.

3. I will downsize.

I gave at least a box a month away to charity, sometime many more than that. I donated surplus girl scout items to other troops and i used 300 yards of fabric in the year.

This is an on-going process.

4. I will improve on a number of things. I did not use my featherweight, and still need to.

I have tried new patterns on the Long Arm. I have a new embroidery machine and have been learning all that it does. I have been digitizing and have a Wacom pad to work on this coming year. I have been working on not being in a hurry, so I can be accurate. I quilted as many Quilts of Valor they sent to me. I quilted for Covered in Love at about 2 a month. I am quilting 4 baby quilts a month for the guild. I did not work on my hand quilting because I had a thumb injury and I might never get good at hand quilting because of my thumb.

I decreased my stash by 300 yards. Some of that was donation and most of it I used. I did buy some, but the net usage was over 300 yards.  I used about 220 yards of fabric in quilted, I gave away more than 100 yards, I bought a little over 50 yards. The amount of perimeter I went from the quilts I made was over 23,000 inches. I quilt 85% of the days and 93% were spent organizing. I only did 29% on my special project, which was the baby clothing quilts. They are not easy for me to work on, but I want to get them done sooner than later.

I used over 154 yards of fabric in UFOs, which is about 70% of the fabric I used. I completed 44 UFOs and used 206 bobbins and 47 spools of thread. I don't even notice a dent in my threads, so I'm not sure how that could be. LOL

Overall, 2018 was a good year. I'm thankful I can do all that I'm doing to get my UFOs done and give to charity. i am going to continue with the UFOs and make the quilts the sizes needed for the charities. I'll be able to donate more that way.