Planners - do they work?

This past weekend did not go as I originally envisioned it (I thought I'd get D's Stars closer to the quilting stage). Excuses, excuses I know but I was on call at work last week. Upgrades late Friday night and pages at 4:30 am on Saturday morning I was functioning on less than 4 hours of sleep, after running downstairs and checking it out I was awake for the day. Quite a bit kid chauffeuring to work and back, Chris was working OT. I was  feeling ill all day and barely functional by 6pm. Sunday was running around with oldest daughter M.

One thing I was looking for was a planner. I'm feeling so disorganized and have little bits and pieces of my life scattered everwhere. I'm looking for a way to track my life in one spot. I don't update my blog regularly, I don't upload doodles or notes and don't use it for other parts of my life so it's a disjointed way of tracking and a very limited piece of my life.  I went to Staples and they didn't have what I was looking for in the size I wanted. There were a few bigger planners but they were hourly which was not the format I was looking for and were just shy of $100 - thats a lot of money for something that really isn't what I was looking for. I thought about making one, but that's a lot of work. I bought a cheap small weekly planner to use until I get/find what I'm looking for.

Taking my search online, I found The Happy Planner series (create 365) through Amazon and that got me thinking about Late Night Quilters - Quilters Plannner  I think Stephanie Palmer did a beautiful job on this, seeing that they are sold out (again) I'd say a lot of quilters agree. Each have their pros and cons, but I'm leaning towards the 365. The reason is - it's expandable. The way I envision my planner is almost scrapbook like, I want to capture pictures of projects or ideas, recipes, fitness tracking, etc and be able to insert it into the week. The 365 is also very reasonably priced (24.99). With our currency issues and shipping costs from US that it can be bought in Canada using CA Dollars through Michaels or Amazon is a major plus in its favour. It also has accessories such as extra pages, page protectors, (even a hole punch) so that you can insert any pages or extras easily. I did not see the price of the Quilt planner but I'm looking forward to see how it evolves.

One con I read in the reviews about the Happy Planner is that disc system is a bit flimsy when stuffing it in and out of the reviewers purse. I did take this into consideration and since I work from home and rarely travel it would be a fairly stationary item in my life and shouldn't be a big problem for me.

Current planner is 18 month July 2105-Dec 2016, while looking at their site I started scrolling through the blog saw they are launching their 2016-2017 planners (there are so many different options) Mar 1st.... I swear sometimes the timing of things I think the universe has a blinking Neon sign pointing the direction for me to go (or maybe just having a cosmic laugh at my expense with giving me hope I might actually get my *stuff* together) - I really hope its the former!

One of the Michaels stores in my area has the 2015-2016 planner and they are on sale right now. I will be making my way out this week to check it out.

No pictures this week but hopefully I will have some progress with pictures soon!

Derailed by Quick threading needles

Ok derailed is a bit extreme, more like had an obstacle thrown in my path...

D's stars is continuing to come together but a few weeks ago I noticed some of the sections threads were loose at edges and there were missed stitches. I figured out after lots of wasted time fiddling it was the new needle I put in when I started this quilt (actually Chris figured it out for me). Apparently at some point I had bought quick threading needles. In my troubleshooting I had replaced the needle but grabbed from the same pkg of needles. I was threading it normally and never noticed the slot just above the eye. Anyway my old Singer was not happy, it was unthreading and then rethreading as it sewed a stitch or two later but wasn't consitent and on quick glance I didn't notice it. Dug out a pkg of 'regular' needles and have been checking each section the last few weeks and it's all been good. I've reinforced seams that I thought looked even the slightest sketchy as I come across them but how many did I miss before I discovered the problem?? At the time I had fallen down the rabbit hole far enough in that starting over just wasn't happening. Quilting is going to be an overall stitch in the ditch. That wasn't my original plan but I really hope this will be enough to reinforce any missed areas so the quilt doesn't fall apart after a few washes.

It doesn't look like much progress since last post but it's coming together. I'm more organized in the back end for the stars which is the biggest time consumer but I admit it's been slow going

The past few days I've been watching The Splendid Sampler blocks pop up in my Fb feed and there are so many creative people out there. A lot of quilters are making tiny tweaks to the blocks or fussy cutting with fabric I'd never think to use. It's really incredible how people can take the same pattern as 15000 + others and mark it with their own special flare! I'm loving this group. I didn't jump right on the 2nd or 3rd blocks, with work and D's birthday less than 3 weeks away that has been my priority. I'm hoping to take some time and catch up (4th block will be released tomorrow)

This weekend marks a 3 year & a 17 year journey

This long weekend (Monday is Family Day in Ontario) marks my quilting journey and blog's anniversary weekend. Pictured is the first block I made. Valentines weekend also marks 17 years since Chris and my first date. I probably should have led with that....

First picture of us March ' 99

Chris & my lives crisscrossed so many times before we actually met its bizarre. I won't get into it here or this post would be a short novel but it's surprising that we hadn't met years before. Long story short - we met through mutual friends. Although we were both divorced at this point, we weren't introduced as potential dates for each other. He was doing me a favor by taking a look at my broken computer. Once he got it running with a new hard drive, I asked what I owed him and his reply was 'Dinner?' Not sure if you can see his blue eyes and dimples in the picture but how could I turn those down with such a smooth request? We had beer & take out pizza and watched Blade on VHS.

9 years later we married (8 years in May). We've had bumps and baggage (some mine, some his) to overcome along the way and still stumble on occasion but it's our road and one I'd take with him over & over again.

Picture is about a month after our first date.

Now back to quilting. I still remember the nervousness that first Saturday making the log cabin block with my very small Ebay/Walmart stash (a handful of fq's) using the kitchen table as my work-space. I was so worried that it was going to be a disaster. Other than not loving the fabric I was so proud of that block. Wanting to make more from the Sewn by Leila skill-builder-sampler I rushed to the LQS that afternoon and bought my first jellyroll of Batiks. I worked all weekend completing 5 more blocks by Monday night. I was hooked and Chris was looking for a place to move my sewing mess work-space LOL. And here ends my trips down memory lane ...

Saturday I concentrated on D's stars. I'll be honest as much as I love this pattern and how it's turning out, its slow going & I was beginning to panic. Part of the issue is watching Netflix while quilting, if I'm not interested in the show it goes OK, but if it's something I like, more watching then sewing/cutting/ironing is happening. This weekend I tried something different. I turned YouTube on the tv and picked a favorite band, cranked the volume loud enough so I could hear over the sewing machine and let it loop through the upbeat familiar songs. Wow! I think I found my quilting groove!   It looks like a mess in the picture but there is actually a method to my madness. I will be working on this tomorrow (Monday)

Today, I was away from the sewing room most of the day (family time) but I was able to squeeze in first block of The Splendid Sampler which was released this morning. My youngest R helped me pick which fabric to use. She loved all the 1930's reproduction fabrics and after some wrangling on her part, this quilt will be hers with the understanding that it will be a year in the making. That being the case, Farmers Wife revival quilt which I'm still itching to get started on will probably be M's. This doesn't mean I'm off the hook for their other quilts, I just get to make them lap size instead (and with the added bonus R offered to help me finish making hers - unsolicited quality time with my 18 yr old daughter outside of a mall... I feel like I fell into a pot of gold!!!). Maybe once M see's her sister helping she'll offer to work on hers with me as well - one can dream right!?! ;) . I will have to come up with some boys quilts as well... though I'm not so unrealistic to think they will be offering to work on it with me unless there was a way to put working electronics/car parts in it. LOL

Back to D's stars tomorrow. Hope everyone had a lovely weekend (or continues to for those with a long weekend)

Figuring it out

After my last post I couldn't get the idea that the Splendid Sampler needs patterned fabric out of my head and wondered if I could find a bundle that mached what I was envisioning.

See what I found!! 1930's Reproductions in 10 FQ bundle pack. I'm really hoping that the fabric choices are comparable with what is currently in stock in 1930's selection on the website. I know it's a crap shoot but this whole sampler is a complete mystery so maybe this is the right way to go... or maybe not. Time will tell. I also picked up a few mini bolts. I didn't go Black instead went for Charcoal & picked up another White and Snow (these have become staples in my sewing room). Orders rarely take more than a few days from this store so my pkg should arrive just in time for the first block. So here is the plan until I change my mind again, white as background, charcoal as my dark and a mix of patterned and solids for the medium. A few hours later basking in my purchase I realized I messed up on the previous calculations ...we need a total of 30-35 FQ's total for Splendid Sampler so if I bought all 35 FQ's that would have been $175 + tax. I'm still happy with my purchase and can't wait for next Sunday!

Farmers wife quilt revival 1st pattern ordered and received. I really am itching to work on this but D's Stars needed some TLC first.

Saturday I was in the sewing room by noon. Turned on home reno shows and got moving. Sunday, I was able to put some time before the Superbowlers arrived but its slow going. Now that I've got a bunch of the squares for the stars cut it should move a bit faster right? I really like the way this is turning out! There is one seam that slightly puckered and am probably going to rip it before I join to the next section..

I think this will be rows of 5×5. Other than MT's quilt this is the first time I've made a quilt larger than the 45 x 60 batting size allowed.  Up until last summer I thought pre packaged batting only came in craft, baby, queen and king sized only. I'd buy my batting at Fabricland when they had 50% off sales and thats the size Warm & Natural comes in. Fast forward to last summer when the LQS had a sale on batting. What do I see lap sized batting 60 x 60. After much discussion I bought bamboo batting. So it leaves the question are all the quilts I've made actually considered baby quilts? What makes a lap quilt?

On the to do list this week, buy two binders, clear binder sheet protctors to keep the patterns organized and get farmers wife book spiral bound.

Over thinking and over extending

I stalled all last week in the sewing room. Instead of working on anything I was second guessing and over thinking everything.

For the Splendid Sampler I haven't gotten anywhere regarding choosing fabric yet and just a little over a week until the first block is released. I don't do choose as go well but that's where this one is headed. I've been collecting Kona solid fat quarters (112 FQ's in piccture above) for quite awhile through Sew Sisters fabric block of the month club. I've been thinking maybe pull some brights and use white and black as contrast. Or what about picking out a fat quarter from my stash in light or medium and buy a coordinating patterned fat quarter the opposite value using black as the dark to keep it consitent. This last idea has been playing over in my head the past week and is what I was leaning towards. Then I added up the cost. $5 per FQ at my LQS, average of 8 FQ's needed per month is $40. Not so bad thinking about it that way but added up over the course of the entire quilt along 100 ×$5 .... 500!?! I could buy 3 full price collection bundles and a mini bolt for that. That puts a whole different spin on things. More thinking needed.
******EDITED my numbers were off - we need 30-35 FQ's in total not 1 FQ per block that's 5×35 175 Huge difference!!******

On to D's stars who's birthday is a month almost to the day away. I didn't give her mom a sneak peak when we were at dinner last weekend because there was very little to show. Here are the questions I'm going over and over - The patches are they too similar? Should I use a solid cream or the light fabrics from the line for background? Is this going to turn out the way I want it to?? I've wasted enough time, I need to get off the pot and just do it. I'm going with solid kona - decision made!

This week I also joined the farmers wife quilt revival challenge on Fb (check out http://chezstitches.blogspot.com if you are interested).  Karen M Walker has taken all the blocks and transferred them from templates to rotary cutting instructions. 10 blocks for $8.50 USD (total of 12 lessons/patterns) but you need to own the book which I have. I'm all over this!! I've wanted to start over on my farmers wife for awhile  - I loved how the blocks looked individually, but there wasn't any cohesiveness to tie the blocks together (refer to my earlier comment... I don't do choose as you go well). I've learned some lessons along the way about what I don't like so hopefully I can make better choices. I'm considering using Sandy Gervais Rambling Rose FQ bundle pictured above with Kona white or snow as the background.

I've really added a lot of personal sewing commitments to myself in the past few weeks on top of my 8-5 workdays. Was this the smartest move.. possibly not but I'm eternally hopeful I'll get myself into routine and figure out a better method of stress  time managment.

Earlier this week my son announced he needs a place by April 1st. One of his coworkers is moving back to Netherlands at the end of March and isn't taking his furnishings with him and offered them to my son. I wish I could say we have enough space to store them here but we don't. Without that extra cost of buying new essential furniture MT's move out budget just eased up considerably.  I'm excited for him but also dreading the day he flies the coop - he's ready but I don't think I am!!! His quilt needs to be quilted and bound (pictured - I love this quilt) as soon as D's Stars is done.

Lastly, did I mention we are having a superbowl thing on Sunday. Saturday will be cleaning day and Sunday cooking then entertaining .... hmm if start cleaning first thing tomorrow morning I should be done by noon which will leave the rest of the day for some much needed sewing time.

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!