Mid Month Goal check in

Only 10 days in the month left so that means I am 2/3 through the month and a great time to check how I am going with my goals. I really enjoy setting goals for myself and seeing how I am going with them. I set myself a huge list this month and quickly decided I was unlikely to get through all of them but was willing to give it a go.

Basically I listed all the things that I had on the go without really thinking through the logistics of it. Mind you I did have my 5 day quilt retreat (actually it was 3 full days and 2 half days) so think I expected to accomplish so much then... which I did but not perhaps as much as I had hoped.

My goals for this month were

• Assemble the Amy Gibson 2012 BOM quilt (from Craftsy) - top together unless I decide to add another border but think its done.
  
• Finish Diamond Dash quilt - done!

• Finish Twilter's Hashtag quilt - done! (No photo as my phone just went flat so can't upload the photos)
• Catch up on the Summer Reading QAL (run by The Stitch TV show) done
  
• Complete Birds of the Air blocks for Twilter swap - done
• Make hanging towels for HML Done
  

• Make Pencil pencil cases for HML stall - I have made 2 and have more cut out to work on but haven't touched them since I last reported. I didn't specify how many I would make so having made 2 I guess that qualifies as Done. .sort of
  

That's 7 completed as of today.

• Make three baby quilts - blocks made and one centre put together. 
  

So that is one goal started.

• Make 3 casserole carriers for HML stall - no progress
• Make backing for the Hexie quilt - no progress
• Make backing for My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes - no progress 
• Pin and quilt Onya Bike - not done yet (not enough pins when I went to do it last Wednesday and have now decided I will leave it till our club's Longarm quilting machine arrives and I'll do it on that which won't be till next month

And 3 with no progress made and one deferred.   My priority for the rest of this month is going to be the baby quilts. We were told yesterday that we have another great niece or nephew on the way so that is another quilt I will have to have done by the end of the year so better get these three completed.

Sunday Stash Report

Very excited to report that I have had a finish this week. I finished my second Diamond Dash quilt (made to the pattern on Missouri Star Quilt Company) which I am now calling "Dash to Japan" I blogged about this finish yesterday here. I added an little extra to the amount of fabric used in it after I put it on the spread sheet and it had done is "Thing" calculating usage (Pam from Hip to Be a Square worked out a formula to allow for piecing, the backing, and the binding) as the back of the quilt was heavily pieced. Anyway the quilt measured 235 cm x 190 cm which came to a total of 10.19m of fabric plus an extra metre so a total of 11.22m of fabric. I was very pleased to have it finished. I handed it over to the recipient yesterday afternoon and she was very pleased with it.

Since I finished it I have been quilting another one and it is soooo close to being done but not quite (just the binding to go)

That was it for fabric usage for the week and there was NO fabric in 

Fabric Tracking Week 25

Fabric Used                11.22m
Fabric added                0.00m
Weekly net                  11.22m

Year to date
Used                           50.60m
Added                         36.35m
YTD Net                      14.25m

Linking up with Patchwork Times

A Finish

Whoot I have a finish. 

My first finished quilt since March and only my 3rd large quilt for the year...  I finished the Harry Potter Bookshelf quilt in February and Dash That Cat in March. It is great to have something big under my belt again. 

I really wanted to work on Onya Bike this week but when I looked I realised I didn't have enough pins since I had 2 quilts already pinned out ready to go so had to finish them first. Now.... I have one done.

 It didn't have a name till today, I kept referring to it as Diamond Dash 2. Now I have called it Dash to Japan in honour of the Japanese fabric that it is made from - and also the friend it is destined for regularly visits Japan - usually planned well in advance but her next trip has come up very quickly.

The quilt is a gift for a friend who is our "other daughter". At one time she shared a house with our daughter (actually she has twice shared a house with Fangirl). We look after her dog every day when she's at work and whenever she goes away Digby stays here. She's a teacher of Maths and Japanese and regularly takes groups of school kids to Japan

The quilt came about because I had accidentally ordered 2 lots of the Obi fabric on Massdrop. It was a big bundle anyway but 2 lots... had so much Japanese fabric I needed to do something with it and a quilt made out of it for Bek was ideal. I had originally ordered it for the quilt I made as a wedding gift for my friend Suzy.... and it just so happens that Bek is the daughter of Suzy's new husband so it is all fitting.

I put the quilt top together about the same time as I made Dash That Cat. I had it pinned ready to quilt before we went on holidays but didn't get to the quilting. It got pushed to the top of the quilt on Wednesday when I realised I wasn't going to be able to pin Onya Bike as I didn't have enough pins with 2 quilts pinned and ready to be quilted.

I started quilting yesterday morning and got it done in a day. Its an all over stipple... nothing fancy. I actually love the rhythm of stippling. It might not be as intricate or individual as other forms of quilting but it does me.

It was all going pretty smoothly till I checked the back and found something had gone awry with the tension. 

Soon fixed though and I was on my way again. 

Anyway - the quilt - Dash to Japan. Made from the Diamond Dash pattern from Missouri Star Quilt Company. 

The fabric is Obi by Hyakka Ryoron. I had used creamy white on Suzy's quilt but for this one I used black for the sashings and diamonds. 

The black fabric actually came from Bek - she'd given us a piece to use as backdrop at Boyo's 21st back in January. I never gave it back to her and she has never asked for it... I'll give it back - just in a different format.

The back is also completely pieced using up left over scraps from both the Obi line and from the Neko line, by the same designer that I had used in Dash that Cat. Would you believe I STILL have left over fat quarters from the bundles !

Details:

Quilt name: Dash to Japan 

Size: 235cm x 190cm (92" x 75")

Recipient: Bek

Pattern: Diamond Dash by Missouri Star Quilt Company

Fabric: Obi by Hyakka Ryoran

This week I'm joining in the TGIFF which this week is to be found at Arabesque Scissors