A Lovely Year of Finishes

Shanna and I are so excited to present our September participant highlight post to you!  We have Kris from Sew Sunshine with us today.  If you haven’t visited Kris yet, you really should, she does some amazing quilts!

Blog name: Sew Sunshine
Blog address: https://www.sewsunshine.blogspot.com
Name you’re known by throughout quilting world: Kris@SewSunshine

What’s your ALYoF goal this month? Well I think I bit off more than I can chew  this month. I wanted to make a back and quilt my Mod Olive quilt from the Mod Olive qal earlier this summer, over at Sew Kind of Wonderful. It has lots of curved seams and secondary designs made by those curves that would be great for fun quilting. However, quilting like that is a real weakness for me. I want to have some fun with it but tend to stress out of what to do and how to do it.

How do you approach your sewing goals? I don’t really like to make much of a list or goal. I found that picking one item each month for A Lovely Year of Finishes motivates me to give my attention to that one thing if nothing else. Sometimes I can do it and many more things. Sometimes I get distracted by other quilts I want to make, or projects I want to do.  Items made for gifts can throw any plan out the window as well as family events and well, just life.

How do you organize/prioritize your projects? I like to keep that one thing in mind  for  each month but I sort of go with the flow. I don’t put away the fabric for a quilt that is not finished. If I start a new project before the others are finished, I have to work around that mess. Most of the time that keeps those projects to the forefront and I get them done.  Other times I am 3 deep on the design wall, one on the floor while I walk past and stew about how to finish it, and one on the cutting table waiting to get started. Not to mention drawings/sketches  and bags of fabric stashed for upcoming ideas. So to answer the question…not so organized at my house.

What is your current favorite project that you are working on?  Currently I am working on this sort of southwest looking block. I was going through some old magazines and I found this cool way to make this block.  It is one of those blocks that you sew together one way and then cut it apart and put it back together and you end up with something so cool.  The block is cool but what I find to be the best part about it is that I am using up stash fabric. I have fabric that I purchased in my stash dating back to the 80’s so it is so exciting to just use it up.  I have been trying to do the Purge over at Stitched in Color. I have several items I completed from my stash for this project.

What is your dream project to work on? I think my dream project would be to make a super king size quilt for my bed. I would make pillows and shams and matching curtains. I used to love working on big projects.  I am not quite ready to quilt a big quilt like that on my home machine so for  right now I am just dreaming about it.

What is your favorite time of day to sew? I really do my best when the sun is just coming up.  I like really early. The rest of the house does not, so it is not often  something I get to do.

What is your favorite quilting/sewing accessory? I think this year my favorite quilting accessory is spray starch. I never liked to iron/press but when you use spray starch you see just how smooth and flat something can get. It really has helped me out so many times. I use all kinds but really I am finding that expensive is not always the best.

What is your number one quilting/sewing goal for 2014? I really want to finish a quilt that I made my first year of blogging. It is a diamond pattern using Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I have the top done the backing pieced and the batting bought. Now I am waiting for my fmqing skills to improve so I can do a great job of quilting on it. I have been gaining some skills  in this area and making bigger and bigger quilts to quilt.  To date my DIY sampler is my largest  finish at 54” x 70” you can see HERE

What is one technique you really want to learn? I had this idea of doing a new technique at the beginning of the year. This year I chose to do the portrait of my mom in pixelated format. I really want to do this again but refine the colors and pattern and maybe use prints.  I think there are lots of opportunities for this technique to really become art.  I like the cross over into mixed media by dying my own fabrics and using other textiles too.

Thanks for joining us Kris!!

Gotta love winners..as so many of you are!

Let’s celebrate our sponsors and tell you about the winners from last month.

Shanna and I are excited to announce that the August winners are:

Jessica – Quilty Habit
and
Leanne – She Can Quilt

With my husband having deployed again, I pulled out a project I started during his last deployment. In fact I started it exactly two years ago, September 2012. The top is now sewn and it needs some borders. I want to do a solid border and then a scrappy border. My goal is to get the borders for this made. It is my design and most of the blocks were made by some pretty incredible friends, including the lovely Shanna.  This quilt will be for him when he gets home, though considering the time of year he will be getting home I’m not sure how much use he will get out of it at first.

What is your goal for September?

You have two requirements to be entered into the prizes this month.

1. Link-up {on this post} the first 7-days of the month

**Please note, the linky party is the same here and over at Shanna , so there is no need to enter twice **

Well August is just starting to wrap up and I have to say, this month was another failure. If you have been following my blog this past week you will already know that my husband deployed. This has thrown my life out of whack and shifted my priorities.  Some progress was made on my goal, I purchased the fabrics, but I didn’t do anything else. I worked on lots of other things, including an awesome Halloween project for Anne.  I am setting a personal goal to have this one done before Halloween but I’m not beating myself up for letting it slip this month.

What was your goal? I hope you were more successful than I was!

You have two requirements to be entered into the prizes this month.

1. Link-up {on this post} the first 7-days of the month

**Please note, the linky party is the same here and over at Shanna , so there is no need to enter twice **

July has come and gone and August is now in full swing. Time to celebrate the FIFTEEN winners from last month. But first! A huge thank you to our incredible sponsors!  Without our sponsors we would still have all our finishes but it wouldn’t be near as much fun.  Thank you for your support!

1. A fat quarter bundle from Riley Blake Designs

Patti – Retired to Quilt

2. Green Fairy Quilts – 3 pdf patterns

Sandra – Musings of a Menopausal Melon

3. $30.00 credit towards Long Arm Quilting Services
from by Orchid Owl Quilts

12. One PDF Pattern from Meadow Mist Designs

 

Cynthia – Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

13. Thimblepie’s Quilt Supplies – Custom fabric package, 4 yards (worth $20) plus free shipping

Julie – That’s Sew Julie

 

Carolyn – Sweet Boater Chick

Amy – Amy’s Crafty Shenanigans

Shanna and I would like to congratulate all of the winners and everyone who completed their goal in July! Good luck with August!