How dedicated are you to labelling your quilts? All of your quilts?!
Umm, in all honesty, unless there is an immediate need to do so, I often walk away at this step with a vague intention of “doing it later”. Unless the quilt is facing a show entry deadline, or is to be sold, or something similarly dire. Because there are soooooo many more fun tasks that need doing in my sewing room than adding quilt labels. Yet, I am the first to admit this is silly. I actually think it is rather important to label my quilts, so a lack of labels causes me a mild sense of guilt and regret when I see my otherwise finished quilts languishing in the labelling queue.
This is why I have made labelling the quilts in my queue my One Monthly Goal for February. Moving these quilts on will be a weight off my mind. Although my furry helper will not be so pleased…… unless I put them back on the stack when I am done.
My One Monthly Goal for February with Elm Street Quilts
The rest of February is looking super at Clever Chameleon. I have so many fun projects to work on that I might even manage not to go chasing too many quilted squirrels this month. Here’s some of the things that will be holding my focus:
OMG! OMG! OMG! My first One Monthly Goal for 2018 and my very exciting OMG moment!
Well, January 2018 has me looking forward to a lot of things.
But everything paled (briefly) in light of some great news I received this morning.
I got up to find an email waiting, saying that I have been accepted as an Island Batik Ambassador for 2018! To say that I’m excited about this is a huge understatement. I admire so many of last year’s ambassadors…. now I get to play along!
Once I have calmed down a little, this is what January’s plans look like for me:
I have some secret sewing to do to finish the Blue Bear for the Beary Colourful BOM by February. But I can’t share that, because it is, well….. secret…. It is cute though, tee hee.
And I am joining in the Regatta Quilt sew along at Home Sewn by Us. But I can’t nominate that for my OMG, because it is supposed to be NO pressure. You can join us though. I am going to use a jelly roll that my good friend Romana gave me a loooong time ago. I have never settled on what to do with this jelly roll – it comes out, and goes away again periodically. Bu it will be great for this quilt. And it matches the colours in an old favourite t-shirt of my daughter’s which is now too small to wear and too damaged to pass on. She is sentimental about this shirt after having worn it to death. So I am going to use the pandas and the jelly roll scraps to make a throw pillow. to go with the quilt.
Here is the jelly roll that I am going to use for the Regatta Quilt and an old t-shirt of my daughter’s that is going to be the centre of a co-ordinating throw pillow.
And I have a UFO that I need to finish…. do you remember when I said I have 13 UFOs….. well, I did a bit of sorting in the sewing room yesterday, and that number has blown out to 15. Two UFOs I had completely forgotten about! But no matter, one of those only needs the binding finished. So I am going to fix that and gift it. But that’s not really a month-worthy goal, is it?
So, My One Monthly Goal for January
I have decided that I need to get on with one of my yearly goals right from the get-go. Which is to continue with some charity quilting. Since I currently have a charity quilt in my possession, I am going to nominate it as my January OMG. To be quilted, and the binding sewn on, by the 31st Jan!
Apples and Roses and Autumn leaves charity quilt
That’s it! Short and Sweet. Tomorrow I will endeavour to get my recommendations to beginners regarding the Beary Colourful BOM posted. Then I am taking a well earned break. Til Tuesday I think. If you are new here – I normally only post here twice a week, three times if there is a lot going on….. but on the scale of “goings on”s, the Beary Colourful BOM has been huge! It will settle down soon.
What are you working on this month? Let us know at Elm Street Quilts by nominating a goal. You could win some fantastic prizes, and you will get some extra motivation to finish that project, or finish a step on a project. You can nominate as much or as little as you wish!
Just this once I am going to be Done. on. Time! Ha! Just to find out what it feels like! Welcome to My One Monthly Goal with Elm Street Quilts
Well, there is really only one thing to say about late November/early December if you have school age kids in Australia!!! But I suggest you plug your ears first! Here it comes…….. “Aaaaaggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!”
Thankfully, I believe the worst of the concerts and end of year break-up parties and special excursions and graduations and farewells and etc. etc are done with, and the end is in sight. School is out for the summer in a week’s time….. which will bring it’s own joys and challenges, but also hopefully, more sewing time. I really, really hope more sewing time. Because there are several projects I want/need to get on top of. Which leads me to…..
My One Monthly Goal for December
On the top of my list to finish for December is my Vanuatu Turtle Quilt. Here’s where we were at on the 24th of November.
Most of a quilt top
And this is where I need to get to by New Year. A completely finished version of this…..
Some background info in case you are new here….
This quilt is my project for the Splash of Color QAL at Busy Hands Quilts. A quilt along that encouraged everyone to choose their own project, as long as it fit the theme of black and white, with colour highlights. Then it was up to us to keep up with a set of deadlines for quilt construction milestones.
Currently the milestone on the table is to have a finished quilt top (flimsy). The whole way along I have been running down to the wire to get each milestone done before Myra’s linky closes. And of course, my current status is no different….. the opportunity to link up a finished quilt top will expire on Monday.
But I am getting there….. yesterday I added the first layer of the turtle appliqué. I was going to sew the appliqué down today but I like to machine appliqué with the batting under it. And the batting I rinsed out last night is not dry this morning…. of course after a record-hot Spring we had showers early this morning………
Anyway, I should be able to get the aqua appliqué layer sewn down tomorrow, and then once the red pieces are ironed on I am calling this flimsy done.
So that just leaves the finish line…… a completed quilt. The linky for finished quilts opens on the 2nd of Jan 2018. Technically I have until until the 15th Jan to be linked up. But, I hereby declare that I intend to have my quilt done by the 31st of December, thereby being ready BEFORE the last linky opens, rather than throwing my URL under the descending roller door of a rapidly expiring linkup, again! Can I do it? With OMG at my back, anything is possible! 🙂
Why such enthusiasm to get the Vanuatu Turtle Quilt done?!
Good question! Well, I need to put this quilt to bed (so to speak) so I can get on with some new exciting projects for 2018. Otherwise I fear it will end up on my UFO pile.
There are two things that I am currently planning for Clever Chameleon next year that are making me really happy just thinking about them. Both are BOM style projects that will be available for you to follow along with if you wish or to go back to over time. I hope at least one might appeal to you.
Exciting Project 1
The first project is a joint BOM quilt with Joy of “Days Filled with Joy”. We are going to be doing a skill-builder quilt. One that focusses heavily on techniques that you can use to texturise or embellish a quilt. We are still finalising the details, but I can tell you it will be a house block quilt and will start a little way into 2018 after all the New Year dust has settled. This one will be very informal and lots of fun. I’ll keep you posted as we get closer to launching.
Exciting Project 2
I am thrilled about my second big project for 2018 because it will complement my weekly colour board posts very nicely! It is the brainchild of Jen from Patterns by Jen, and involves a monthly Color challenge. This one kicks off on the 1st of January 2018, so not long to go now!
Jen is doing a colour challenge BOM quilt project, with free patterns and instructions available to you from her website. She has asked for a small group of quilt bloggers to support her by either making her blocks or something else in her colour of the month. I have opted for the second option and will be doing a Beary Colourful quilt. Twelve appliqué bears in Jen’s 12 colour challenge themes. Oh happy day! This one is making me wriggle with anticipation already!
I will be giving away the instructions for each bear each month on the same schedule as Jen. My aim is to get some of those scraps moving from my sewing room…… want to join in?! I’ll keep you posted on this project as it develops too.
If you would like to keep in touch with Clever Chameleon and the fun quilty ideas I find all over the internet, you can follow directly for email updates, or through Bloglovin’, Pinterest or FB. All your follow options can be found here. Thanks for your support!
Gonna Finish This Sucker! One Monthly Goal with Elm Street Quilts
To be honest, this month I already have a couple of quilt and crafty deadlines. Firstly, I have to make some reasonable progress on my Vanuatu turtle quilt so I can link up with the Splash of Color quilt along. By now the schedule says I should have about half my blocks sewn. Hahahahahaha! Okay……..
And secondly, I have a Christmas ornament tutorial to get prepared for you by the 16th. Thankfully, this project is progressing more or less on time to date. I will be sharing it in the 2017 Ornament Exchange. If you like making your own Christmas ornaments, you most certainly do not want to miss this blog hop! 47 projects are lined up this year. It’s gonna be huge!
So what to nominate for November?
My November OMG quilt
But I feel it would be cheating to nominate either of these projects for the Elm Street One Monthly Goal, because they have to be finished anyway. So, for my November OMG I am nominating a charity quilt currently in my possession. It is not large, so it really should only take me a coupe of sessions to quilt. I didn’t piece it, I have just been entrusted to quilt it. This little quilt is very pretty in pinks and greens, and I want to try my allover strawberry vines FMQ design on it. It would be great for the charity to have it back by the end of the month.
So, thank you Elm Street OMG and you, dear readers, for keeping me accountable and motivated. With any luck, someone in need will have this quilt before Christmas.
Do you have a quilt goal for November? If you do, share it with us here in the comments below. And consider joining us at Elm Street Quilts for some accountability (and be in the running for a prize as well!).
That’s it! Short and Sweet. Tomorrow I will endeavour to get my recommendations to beginners regarding the 
I will be giving away the instructions for each bear each month on the same schedule as Jen. My aim is to get some of those scraps moving from my sewing room…… want to join in?! I’ll keep you posted on this project as it develops too.
To be honest, this month I already have a couple of quilt and crafty deadlines. Firstly, I have to make some reasonable progress on my 