Missing Week and Target Practice

Wow it has been two weeks already. Not sure where the last week went. Life continues to be crazy.  Short handed at work. Hubby is in and out of town. And I now have grand-babies living close by.  Which is totally great but wonderfully time consuming. So time just slipped away. 

I did get some things done though.  I mended the slit in the backing for the Christmas Lemonade quilt and it is now on the machine ready to quilt. I have the pattern loaded into QuiltPath and everything.  I just need to get QuiltPath to communicate with Millie.  I don't know what happened but I will be trying to figure that out this week. I would love to get this one finished and figure out who I am going to give it to.

The Nevada Grand-babies quilts are out of the planning stage. I have the fabric picked out to do two Ribbons Dance quilts. I have even started marking the 5 inch squares. Okay, that was only because the power was out and I couldn't sew on other projects. But I did work on a quilt for over 20 minutes even though there wasn't any power. that counts toward the goal. I will need to order some backing material though.  That can wait until the tops are done. 

I also worked on the Star quilt. I sewed the star points on the remaining sashing strips. I was going to put this quilt away but thought I would just lay out the blocks and maybe pre-sash them.  Then it happened. The quilt I was getting bored with became exciting again.  I love how the blocks are looking with the sashing on them. The dark batik sashing makes the colors really pop. I have the first row sewn together and have started the next row. I expect I will finish the top at least before putting the quilt away. I did order the backing fabric for this quilt.  I needed it to finish the quilt so I am still good with the no buying fabric except to finish a project goal.

Speaking of goals,Time for a goal review:

1. Three quilts for family - can be started, especially finish UFO (UnFinished Objects) or NSY (Not Started Yet) - one quilt done for Aliyah. Two more planned and started.
2. Complete three UFO or NSY - can be used for #1 - one down and two more nearing completion
3. Work on something 20-30 minutes each day. Can be sewing, Cutting, Prepping, Quilting or Studying -  a hold over from last year  -  not even close but I am doing more than I did last year so am improvement but I still need to be better about it.
4. Use what I have and only buy fabric to finish a project. - So far so good, but I see a possible break down here when the 3 of us girls do a Girls Day trip to the Suwanee quilt shop. If we can get the grand babies' daddy to watch them it might be 4 girls
5. Document Quilts I have made, this is a hold over from last year. - still haven't started this.
6. Read The Technical part of the Thread Waggle quilt blog. - haven't done much with this either.
7. Try Paper piecing - use the cake mixes you have. - still in the planning stage
8. Do an easy project now and then. Life isn't all about learning. - this will be coming up soon
9. Clean up after each project. it is easy to let things sit and then I don't get going on the next project. - doing much better with this than I had thought I would.

Okay, I am not doing as well as I had thought I would, but I am making progress. That is what counts. Goals are simply targets. In shooting when you don't hit a target, you look at  where you did hit, make adjustments, re-aim and shoot again.  Repeat the process until you hit the target. Then practice until you can hit the target consistently. That is what I am trying to do. Every little bit counts. Each mis-step or set back is an opportunity to re-aim and shoot again. Eventually I will be consistently achieving these goals and they will eventually become habits.

How is your quilting going? Where are you with your goals? Remember to keep trying, adjust where needed and try again.