Goals for 2015

So I've descided that I will join in with Leasa this year on her goal of #SewMyStash2015. The basic goal is to pull fabrics from our stashes when starting new projects and try to have the stash cover at least half the fabric for the overall project. Now there isn't any restrictions on buying fabrics, so I hope that this goes better for me than the fabric fast last year (hahaha). I'm glad to be joining in as I was thinking about my goals for the upcoming year and this fits in nicely with several of them. 
           -- Decrease fabric stash
           -- Set a budget and stick with that budget 
           -- save up to buy fabrics coming out in 2015 
There is still plenty of time to join in so why not take the challenge? 

So one of the first fun tasks put forward was showing off these stashes, and let me tell you there are some awesome stashes out there -- so I thought I would link mine up here as well as the mosaic I put on Instagram. 

My folded fabrics (on comic boards) takes up 2 small bookcases in my room -- anything smaller than a half yard is folded and in a drawer (4 small drawers worth, but I forgot those pictures). 

TULA Stash 

Strings ready to make more string blocks 

Processed scraps -- 10, 5, 4, 3 and 2.5 inch squares. 

My shelf of obsession -- precuts. Lots of charm packs, a few layer cakes and a few mini charm packs.

Our guild is planning on doing a yard sale in February, so I may be doing another fabric purge in preparation. which would really jump start this effort. 

So along with the goal to use stash and save money I have a few other sewing related goals for 2015. 

• practice and use more straight line quilting 
• try circular quilting 
• learn to make piping for pillows
• make more bags
•  make at least 10 things from my Pinterest boards 
• become better at using my embroidery machine 
• I will also be attending my first non-guild sewing retreat 
• keep an ongoing track of fabric coming in and going out

In non sewing goals I hope to also 

• Purge out remaining scrapbooking supplies
• Lose 30-60 pounds -- considering Weight Watchers
• Eat healthier and decrease my sugar intake 
• Find a physical activity that I can do at least 2 times per week
• I hope that 2015 is also the year that I get to move

Looks like 2015 is going to be a big year for goals for me and I hope that linking up with Leasa will keep me motivated, at least where sewing is concerned. 

For The last week of the year

So, I mentioned about a week ago that I had a dozen projects on the UFO list and I wanted to knock as many out as I could before 2015. In the last week I am happy to report that 3 things have been moved over to the completed pile. I will be doing complete posts on these items soon -- once it stops raining.

Disney Mini is now awaiting mailing on 1/5

Amber's baby Quilt is awaiting delivery 1/5

Rainbow Ends is ready for guild meeting 1/27

As for the other things on my list -- there has been some progress and I hope that I will be able to move a few more along during this holiday week (only 2 days of work this week).

Bible Studies Quilt -- I got it basted and it's waiting to be quilted (hopefully tomorrow night or Wednesday)

Milky Way Medallion -- waiting to be quilted

Rush Hour -- waiting to be quilted

The Snowflake -- waiting to be basted

Grand Illusion -- still on step 1 but I have all the parts of those blocks ready to stitch together 

Schnitzel and Boo -- my ideas are coming together and I ever pulled some fabrics and need to look for a few more. 

Bitches Get Stitches Swap -- I have a solid idea now I just have to figure out what fabrics / colors I want to use for Union Jack -- my partner loves British Humor, so along with some paper piecing I will be using embroidery for profanity embellishments. 

Rainbow Mini -- I was meaning to pull fabrics for schnitzel and boo but ended up with a lively assortment of scraps for this project as well and I'm liking the direction that this one is heading. 

String Blocks and trip along blocks -- nothing to report at this time. 

Thanks to all my cheerleaders from my last post -- lets see if I can keep the momentum up and finish out the year on a high note. 

linking up @ 

A Dozen or so things in only a Dozen (plus 4) days

SO we all have UFO's right? I think it's a part of being creative, having options about what to work on -- (yeah that's one of the lies I tell my self about the UFO's).

I've decided to challenge myself and see how many of the pending projects I can push towards completion in these last 16 days of 2014. This is a good time for me to set this goal for myself, since hubby's job hours have changed a bit and now I will have a few extra hours in the evenings to get in some quilting. 

As the pile / list stands now I have a dozen projects in the works or with upcoming deadlines, some have a little left to do and others well they are still in the theory / planning stages. 

• The project with the least to do is my Disney Mini Quilt -- this has to be mailed out by early January -- it only needs binding. My LQS had our holiday party last night and I was able to pick up some cute red and white fabric to complete this one -- now I have no excuse. (aprox time to complete 1 hour) 

• My Milky Way Medallion is ready to be quilted -- honestly it has been for some time now (aprox time to complete 8+ hours)

• Rush Hour is ready for quilting (aprox time to complete 5 hours)

• I have 4 projects ready to be basted -- Rainbow ends, Bible Studies Quilt, Amber's baby Quilt (due 1/5) and The Snowflake. I now have backing for all of these projects thanks to the clearance sale at the LQS. (aprox 4 hours to make backing and baste them all). Amber's quilt is the one that I will probably quilt first and it should only take a few hours. 

I really want to get the Bible Studies project out of my UFO pile as well -- 2 years is long enough in my mind.

• I am currently dragging behind on making my Bonnie Hunter Grand Illusion blocks -- seriously I have 10 blocks of the first step made. I have decided that my GI will be half size so I only will be making half the blocks on each step.

• Now January is also where 2 other swap deadlines are calling out at me but those are both later in the month so no real rush yet -- Schnitzel and Boo is due 1/23 and the Bitches Get Stitches Swap is due 1/30. I've had some thoughts about both of these but no fabric has been selected. (I've signed up for the Rainbow Swap as well but that's due in April.) 

• My Scrappy Trip Along blocks and String blocks are in no hurry so I'm not really worried about those at this time -- I may hold on to the trip along blocks till the retreat in April, something easy to put together and still chat with everyone. 

I feel that if I could knock at least 5 of these projects out in the next 16 days that would be a great start to 2015. As for tonight I will be decorating my Christmas tree ... finally. 

Super Sparkly Magical Mail

MORE exciting mail this week -- my Hogwarts Swap items arrived today and OMG, it was exactly the teaser photos that I loved so much in the feed. @projectleasa knocked it out of the park -- she blogs over at Project Leasa, be sure to check her out she's awesome. 

Cute packaging -- with little notes on them.

The front and back of an AWESOME tote -- there are so many cute fabrics on this bag that I spent at least half an hour just examining it and checking out all the cute critters. Then I looked inside and found this sparkly goodness and adorable little skulls in the pockets. 

Here's a shot of the extra goodies and treats that she included -- she really knows the way to this gal's heart, it's with chocolate, white chocolate and caramel. LOVE those Ravenclaw socks, I know how hard finding Ravenclaw stuff. Look how cute that Owlie is, love him. 

Here's another beauty shot of my awesome new bag -- I can't wait to take it out and show it off cause I know so many of my quilty friends are going to love it as much as I do. Even my hubby was a little jealous about this one -- but I told him I would share the treats and he could look at my bag. 

Another HUGE thank you goes out to Leasa for really making this an awesome package just for me. 

IG Mini Quilt Swap sent

I, Katie Yoakum am addicted to swaps. As I tell you this I am currently signed up for another 3 swaps that are starting in 2015. 

This time it's the awesome IG Mini Swap that was planned by @curly_boy1 and had the aid of many wonderful swap mamas -- there was something like 500 people in this swap so I know it was an insane amount of work to pull off. A huge Thank You goes out to @curly_boy and my swap mama @clariepoppins

So I got my partner @jkimr and was instantly freaked out because she's pretty awesome and knows some other awesome people that I know. I struggled with this swap cause I had no clear definition on which way to go, her likes, dislikes or general color pallet. I pulled several fabric groupings and thought about several different pattern options but noting felt right. 

So I decided to cheat my way into an awesome mini that I knew she'd more than likely love. I took a pattern I knew she loves -- Shirts by Carolyn Friedlander and blew it up mini size (300%). I then took some Nordika by Jeni Baker that some one had given me (not in the color way I preferred from this line) but knew she liked them because they are in most of the pictures that she likes and created this .... Super-UBER Adorable Shirt. 

Did you see that this shirt has buttons and a pocket? 

Everything just lined up so well on this project -- and I only threw a tantrum once when putting it together. I went for paisleys and a few chrysanthemums the quilting because I couldn't make up my mind which I wanted but the real star here is the shirt and the fabric. 

I threw in some goodies and shipped her off. 

Some cool stuff happened to me during this swap -- lots of celebrity name dropping (and nerding out) so brace yourself. Carolyn Friedlander likes it and left a comment. My swap mama tried to convince me to send it to her instead. 

Carolyn Friedlander, Jeni Baker and John Q Adams left comments. (my partner gives it 3 heart faces) 

Just another look 

My partner's feedback was -- super positive. 

I think she likes it -- at least a little anyway. Now let's hope I do as well with those 3 swaps pending in January. Happy Quilting everyone!!  

All things Magical -- Hogwarts Swap

For the Hogwarts Swap I was really luck to get a partner that loves Harry Potter as much as I do and we have several things in common when it comes to the magical world. My partner is @creativecatie on Instagram and she was super helpful in liking all the things that I posted and providing lots of information on her details sheet for the swap.

I had a difficult time at first narrowing down what I wanted to make for her but in the end I decided that my large project would be a throw pillow -- I enlarged a paper piece block that I found @ Fandom in Stitches and then added some boarders and embroidery.

I'm very happy with the quilting on this one -- simple swirly paisly in the lion and stonework in the black background part. 

A part of the Hogwarts Swap was sending bought items as well and you all know how I love to buy extra goodies for my partners. I got her a few things from Hot Topic (and a few other places).

And then a few more goodies here and there that I know she's going to love when she gets them (mostly because we've already talked about them on Instagram -- she just didn't know it at the time).

I'm starting to get better about my packaging and wrapping things when I send them but on this swap I just went for it and here's a picture of her cauldron of goodies.

I packaged everything up and set the cauldron a blaze 

Well, I'm sure you are all eagerly wanting to know her response right????

I think she's pretty happy about things.

Now I get to wait and see what kind of lovliness will be heading my way -- I've got my eye on a few things that I have seen teasers about. 

IG mini received

Swap addict check in time -- This time it's the #IGMiniQuiltSwap.

I'm taking a vaca week this week and met the postman at the box yesterday as I had a package going out, but the real surprise for me was the 4 packages that he handed me in return. Now some of it was gifts that I had ordered as part of hubby's Christmas but there was a very exciting looking international post. 

Now I'm thinking that it is the #HogwartsSwap item but once I read the lovely card I realized it was the IG Mini -- mine is shipping later this week. So here she is the newest lovely made by the awesome Isabelle from Dizzy Quilts. 

The Quilting on this is so awesome and I love that she used so many fabrics that I love. She also threw in some lovely goodies that hit on so many of the things that I am kind of obsessed with -- thread, notebooks, pink and precut squares. (again look at the awesome quilting)

She's joined the wall of AWE and fits in very nicely with all the other lovelies. 

Isn't this a happy wall!! Another big thank you goes out to Isabelle for making something so lovely to come and live with me. 

This picture is a reminder to me that I have another 3 swaps and a commission coming up in January that I need to get a move on. Part of those are in that pile on the table, well at least I have the rest of the week off and a few of those days are devoted to quilting. YAY!!

Grandma's Clothes

I was contacted back in the summer about making a custom quilt for a lady that had lost her grandmother recently. She was very close to her grandmother and that made this project extra special for me to work on for her. In the course of talking about this project she decided that she wanted 2 quilts made so that she could give one to her mother as well. Other deadlines kept pushing these quilts back but now they are ready to go to the new homes where they have extra special meaning and will be cherished for many years to come.

Sorry for the indoor pictures -- these were headed for the mail this morning. I did get another shot of them that I really like. It really shows the colors better. 

A Quick update to keeping on track

I don't know what happened to last week but It's definitely the holiday season and I think maybe time flows differently around this time of year -- So here's a quick update on what I've been up too.

I got the grandma's clothes quilts all basted and even started the quilting -- until I sewed into my finger --- OOPS.

My holiday item for the guild is an assembled top -- not sure how I'm going to get this one finished by tomorrow night (note the finger). I may have to regroup and do something else for the swap. 

Something very exciting happened last weekend, I got the bible studies quilt put into a quilt top. The blocks aren't great and most of my points are gone from all the trimming that had to be done to get he blocks the right size, however I still like it very much and think that the quilting will go quickly on it (you know once i get it basted). 

I have 3 swaps that are due in January, one will probably need to be finished by Christmas because it's going international. I've pulled my fabrics and even planned what I'm going to do for The Disney swap mini. I've modified the pull a little since this picture but I can't wait to use my accuquilt and cut a big pile of hexis. 

I'm also participating in the profanity swap and have some ideas coming together -- I'm thinking about going British on this one but we'll have to see. (inspiration photo) 

My 3rd swap is round 3 of the Schnitzel and Boo swap -- on this one I am still trying to form a plan since my partner didn't give me a lot to go on. 

I can't wait for my vacation coming up starting on Thursday and going till December 7th . I'm also going to take part in Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt that launches on Friday. Lots to do and hopefully this finger heals fast. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving if I forget to post again this week.