Quilting goals for 2018

Quilting Jetgirl is once again holding her:

click on the image to join the party

for which I am very grateful as it gives me the opportunity to step back and look around my sewing room.

Seeing posts on goals for 2018 reminded me that I made such a list last year too; 😔 what was on it?

1. Tidy my sewing room
2. Make a planner.
3. Continue trying my hand at improv.
4. Decide which of my WIPs are really UFOs, and make, or join in, a system for resurrecting  UFOs.
5. Linked to no. 4 above: try harder to resist the temptation to start something new!!
6. Try to find other, preferably "modern", quilters locally (area of The Hague, Netherlands) who would like to sew together with me on a regular basis. At the moment the world wide web is my quilting community, and much as I love you all, some face-to-face contact would be welcome.

Unfortunately only 3. and 6. have borne any result. The improv "Floating Squares" is a completed top. and I'm mulling over ideas for the backing which I wrote about here. There is now a Dutch branch of the MQG and that has provided some interesting online contacts over the last eight months, but I have only actually met two of the other members.

So what is my list for 2018? 

It's exactly the same as for 2017! 

with the addition of: 

1. doing some of the Craftsy classes I've already paid for! and 
2. pulling myself together and getting these quilted:

RSC 2015: (no completed photo!)

RSC 16

     

 

 

Quiltville mystery 2016

along with my Quilty 365 circles quilt which is now almost being hand quilted, and "Floating Squares", now waiting for backing! 

They are really all too pretty to stay packed in plastic boxes.

Is it realistic?

Yes! I'm due to finally retire on 30 April (I retired once before and was promptly asked to come back) but this time it's for real, so I should have more time to spend on hobbies.

OK, and now to put my best foot forward and achieve some of my goals starting with a mega clean-up!

I'm linking to

 Click on the button to see the other guests!

Happy sewing

Marly.

On Ringo Lake part 4

"On Ringo Lake" is Bonnie Hunter's 2017 Mystery Quilt, now in its fourth week. Clue 4 was posted on Friday, but it was Saturday before I got started. So far I have 56 units made, and a few half made:

I stopped when I ran out of the right-hand wing triangles.

In the past I have found this a very difficult unit, but it's going more easily this time. Vireya has pointed out that Lorna McMahon at https://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com has a tutorial for making this block .  Anyone having difficulty in finishing with a straight line hypotenuse might find using Lorna's pattern a good idea. You don't need the complete Happy-go-Lucky block obviously, just these triangles. It's best to read both these posts as Vireya gives some hints on using Lorna's pattern in this context.

It's tempting to try to guess the final layout, but that is still a mystery.

I shall be linking up later today to:

 

so click on the button to see more winged triangles, 

and not all aqua and brown!

Happy sewing

Marly.

Marly: On Ringo Lake part 3

Part 3 of Bonnie Hunter's 2017 Mystery was posted on Friday and I spent most of Friday evening trying to work out how to cut the diamonds without loosing triangles. Unsuccessfully! On Saturday I worked out how to cut with the Easy Angle Ruler; the diamonds are good but I couldn't avoid making a large number of (waste) cut of triangles. I haven't thrown them out though; I already have plans for them, small as they are.

Work in progress

already completed: 50 rectangles

I'm only making half the number of blocks at the moment, so I should manage to complete part 3 by the end of this week.

Later this afternoon I'll be linking up to 

so hop over there to see more part 3 progress.

Happy sewing

Marly.

On Ringo Lake part 2

This Year's Quiltville mystery is "On Ringo Lake" ; click on the link to read all about this project.

On Friday Bonnie Hunter posted the second clue setting off a cutting and sewing frenzy round the world. My weekend was quite busy so once again Monday is here and I haven't nearly enough pieces, even for the half size I'm aiming for.

a fraction of the number of geese I need

These look like orange geese in the photo; in fact they are an orangey-pink. I tried adjusting the brightness, but none too successfully! I'm afraid the colour distortion caused by a warm glow light bulb is irrepairable. I couldn't take photos outside yesterday; it was too wet.
Now back to the sewing machine to conjure up more geese!

I'm linking to the Quiltville linky party.

If you'd like to look in on the gaggle of geese just click on this photo:

 

Happy sewing

Marly.