Month of May’s To Do’s

I’m like any quilter…I have so many UFOs, it’s probably not funny.  At least, it isn’t to my husband.  As I snicker in the corner! LOL.

I like to think of it as my creativity has been captured but can’t be released until the projects are completed and shared with…well, you!

Image by The Sewing Loft

I have so many projects!  Let’s count them out…

1. I currently have a client’s quilt in progress and I’m hopeful that after tomorrow’s time with the babysitter, I can get it pieced and ready to send to the long-arm quilter to finish. 
2. July is our local watermelon festival and small town quilt show.  I have purchased the fabrics to make a Walk-About Quilt for the show.  
3. My Sampler Quilt, which is also my BOM!  Each month I make a new block (or two) and build a sampler quilt top for myself.  This will be my first ever quilt that I will keep!  Everything else I have made have been for gifts for others.
4. Tana Mueller put out a Cotton themed fabric line and I bought a heavy dose of those fabrics.  I intend to make the cotton theme quilt as well.  Perhaps this one could be donated to charity?  
5. My new Christmas client is my 3 year old nephew who loves trash trucks!  So his new Christmas gift will be a big boy sized handmade quilt with a large trash truck!  I’ll attempt some applique techniques as well for him…hopefully, it doesn’t end up in the trash!  
6. My stepdaughter wants to make a quilt for another local quilt show nearby that’s in November.  I’ll be assisting her with the rotary cutter and the foot of my sewing machine while she guides the fabric through to make her one of a kind creation!  Hopefully she’ll bring home another first place ribbon!  She’s amazing.  
7. Baby Quilt.  I have a friend due at the beginning of July and I made her first son a quilt so I plan on making this one his own quilt too! 
8. Each month I also create one of my guild’s BOM project!  I find a design and write out the directions for them and cut the fabrics for them as well.  This is an ongoing project until I pass the baton to the next willing participant.  
9.  Ongoing scrap quilt – I have organized almost all of my scraps into sizes ready for sewing into a crazy scrappy quilt without any pattern.  I just sew them together where they fit, trim, and sew more on.  I’m doing this to help use up all of my scraps, however, it seems to be making more!  
10. Learn how to sew clothes following a pattern…. 
11. I have a small garden plot for my girls and I to tend to as well.  It has turned into a great project where we are learning how to can and preserve as much food as we can.  The girls seem to enjoy making jam and pickles the most.  I can’t say that I blame them.  In fact, I am testing a new pickle recipe right now!  I tried it at a friend’s house over the Mother’s Day weekend and it was freaking amazing!  I finally got it and had to test it out.  I’ll give the results tomorrow.  
12. Meal planning.  This is a constant trial and error for my household.  I am always on the lookout for new recipes and have been saving my favorites to one of the pages on this blog:Favorite Recipes Link.  I have also stashed quite a few meal plans on another page on this blog to help me when I need a quick meal idea: 2018 Meal Plans & 2019 Meal Plans .  You know you have those days that you can’t even think about what to make for dinner because you are so tired?  That’s me.  I can’t wait until I can sleep through the night again. I know you’re probably thinking who isn’t always looking for new recipes and such…well, I really take it as a challenge, much like my BOM where I’m learning my sewing skills.  I really want to improve and build my skills in the kitchen.  
13.  Did I mention I have a 2 year old toddler running around destroying everything she can possibly get her hands on?  I will be loading the dishwasher and she will literally run by and grab stuff out of it and take off yelling “Come back here!”, imitating me.  Yep….I’m in trouble.  
14.  I decided to volunteer for a local charity show, The Knights of Columbus Annual Charity Quilt Show.  Last year, they raised over $20,000 for people in the community in need.  After learning about the process and how the funds are handled, I had to jump on this offer to help and plan this year’s quilt show.  Check out the Facebook page for more info:  KC Charity Quilt Show.  Please like and share the page with your friends too, especially if you are local to the event in Hempstead, Texas.  It may be a small town quilt show, but this show has a HUGE impact.  I’m very proud to be apart of this quilt show.  
15. I also decided that I could help with the publicity aspect of another guild’s show…I’m excited to say that everything seems to be going as planned and I’m excited to see where this show goes!  I have so many ideas so I’m anxious to see if we, as the guild’s show board, decide to do them and what kind of an impact they will have for the 2020 Quilt Show.  
16.  I want to also get a serger sewing machine and learn how make clothing for my girls and myself this year.  I’m on a mission of still finding the right one and I’ve been reading product reviews as I find them for sale (second-hand).  Do you have any recommendations?  Do you have a serger?  Which features do you love about it?  Which do you hate?  
17. I’m also in a Singer Featherweight Sewing Bee and so I help the creator of the group maintain the Facebook page.  We love our featherweights!  If you would like to find a Featherweight group near you, be sure to look at The Featherweight Shop.  They keep a list online!  We had to create one because there wasn’t one near our area.  It has really been a joy!  Since our birth in March, we’ve grown to 40 members!  
18.  The list could go and on.  Am I right?  

How many projects do you have?  Need some ideas?  Check out this site for great tutorials that are FREE!  www.quilterscache.com

Image from Quilters Cache

It’s almost mid-year and I’m hopeful to get all of them done this year!  How ambitious is that for you?  It might be too much for reality now that I have said it out loud.  I didn’t even mention maintaining this blog on the regular with my exciting sewing adventures (some things just only happen to me so you might as well laugh with me).

I’ve come to a point in the blog where I need to evaluate how far we want to take it.  We’ve come to a turning point where a decision needs to be made: take it further and excel or maintain.

You may remember that I had a quilt recognized by AccuQuilt in one of their blog posts…well, I’ve also been invited to Quilt Market in Houston, Texas.  That’s a pretty big deal.  Not the Quilt Festival…Quilt Market!  I’m stoked.  Fellow quilters will understand how much of a big deal that is.

Image by The Seasoned Homemaker

The idea of seeing everything new before being released just gets me excited and ready for creativity to come shooting out of the top of my head!  All I need is a babysitter.  Know anyone?

I better get to sewing!

Happy Quilting!