I have a few goals for this month:

• Make a tote bag for my sister’s birthday with two landscape quilt blocks my mom made
• Quilt another small top my mom made and send it to Jackie
• Quilt a double size top my mom made for my sis in law for Christmas (this one may be a Sept. or Oct. project)
• Start on a memorial quilt for a friend

Donna

I would like to finish three tops sitting in that dreaded pile of UFO 's. DH will be away for two weeks this month so there are some house jobs to be done while he is away. That will keep me away from the machine. But I will try!!

Theresa

I'm always the slow-poke in this group. As usual my only goal is to finish up this one project and hopefully decide on and maybe even start a new one. I can't deal with more than one iron in the fire. I'm just too set in stone on the subject of having UFO's. I'm pretty sure the first one will get done, I'm quilting the borders and then all I have left is the binding.

I have a finished top on "happy days" quilt. I'd like to get that one finished. I'm making my cat quilt next. I'm going to have to split the happy days quilt into sections to quilt it on my vintage singer 401. I have other machines that have larger harp space, but they are not set up to use.

I'm hosting an "I spy" charm swap in November with the theme of "boys", so I need to come up with some more "boy" fabrics. I found a couple yesterday at the outlet store.

As hot as it is, I probably won't much done this month that is not in the air conditioning.

bkay

Beside lots of gardening, I plan on finishing three quilts for Jackie. One needs binding and the other two are sandwiched, waiting to be quilted. I love the Lotto block this month, and I bought fabric to make my DD two pillow cases. And I need to put belt loops on two pairs of summer pants I bought in May and haven't worn yet. LOL

I normally don't set monthly goals, but it's time to start. I've been distracted during the last few months and in early July lost my friend of 30 years to ALS. Suffice it to say, it was difficult to focus on any one thing at times. It's so very sad, but setting goals for the month is a good thing to help me re-focus. So here's a short list for August:

- the Baby James baby quilt is sandwiched, now to quilt and mail in August

- bind a wall hanging for myself

- find the blocks I started last year for my sisters quilt and finish the top. ( I'm almost afraid the blocks were trashed during the new floor install - yikes!!)

August will be a good month!

V.

Valarie, I'm sorry for your loss! The memorial quilt I'm going to make is in memory of a friend who died from something similar to ALS. It's a very hard thing to see.

Donna

Y'all are sew ambitious! I almost feel like Lil' Miss Lazy Stitches. :)

I'm very sorry for your loss, Valarie. ALS is such a difficult way to watch the life loss a friend. ((HUGS)) and may their memory be eternal.

My only goal is to finish a starburst baby quilt for my niece's first child. The shower is next Saturday, so I'm spurred on to use all my spare time in the sewing room until then! If I can finish it by Tuesday or Wednesday, I may also sew up some coordinating burp cloths from the scraps.

After that, any sewing will have to occur spontaneously until the end of October or November. Full attention to my husband's surgery recovery and PT will fill my days. (Not a complaint, just info & reality of married life and helping one another when needed.)

I have only one UFO to quilt. It's sandwiched and ready to go. I have another top that I have to find a backing for and quilt, but I don't consider it a UFO, because it's the last one I finished (a very slight distinction). I promised myself that I wouldn't start another quilt top until all my UFOs were quilted, but I found myself pulling scraps to make Bonnie Hunter's Strip Twist. I have a beautiful batik that I bought for an outer border several years ago. I ended up using a different border, so that piece has been sitting there tempting me to find a pattern for it. Now I have, and I can hardly wait to get started.

Lois, that was my goal as well, nothing new until these are finished. But we can plan and get ready for the day.

Theresa

Valarie, I'm so sorry for what your friend had to go through. I lost an uncle due to ALS and another uncle to something similar......it's horrible! Hugs to you.......

You girls are right on!!! I think if we just write the projects down that is on our mind.....doesn't really have to be a goal, it helps to remember that's what we had in mind to work on. I need a reminder a few times during the week to keep me on track. Sometimes something will come up to make that's more important than what's on my list and I don't have a problem shoving things back.....obviously. lol

Wow, we are on the downhill side of August already! I'm already looking forward to the 3-day Labor Day weekend. :)

I've completed my first two projects - the tote bag for my sister and the baby quilt for Jackie. The binding is on the big quilt and I should finish hand-sewing the back this week. My project for next weekend is to get started on the memorial quilt.

How's everyone else doing on their August goals?

Donna

I finished the three baby quilts and the Lotto blocks. Decided the new pants didn't need belt loops after all. Instead of the pillow cases, I'm finished a lap quilt for a friend who has cancer. Top is pieced going up to cut the backing right now. I hope to have it finished by the weekend.

Since the baby shower quilt was finished, I've only had little projects: 2 zip bags & 1 mug rug. Today, I focused on cleaning up the sewing room & re-organizing, and conditioning my cutting mats. Feels good to have everything ready to go when I decide to start something new.

My "happy dayz" quilt is not going very well. I should have sent it out. It was too big for me to quilt, but didn't realize until I got it on the table. I'm not sure what went wrong, as I think I got the backing taped down well. But when I pulled all the tape off and turned it over, the backing looked loose, so I tried to smooth it out. It looked pretty good.

Although it wasn't going well, I decided just to keep going on with it, even though I was getting some "almost" puckers on the top. Bad decision....

So, I decided to change my quilting plan, as the top was really nicely pieced. I'm doing a lot of stop and start quilting with the walking foot. Unless I start spending more time working on it, it's not going to be finished this month. It's really tedious quilting. It will look really nice, even though it will be a bit "poufy" in areas. A non-quilter will never notice. The problem is that it was a planned gift for a quilter.

I decided if I was doing FMQ in the white areas only, it would go a lot faster. So, getting my vintage Singer 15-91 in working order will be my goal for September. It's supposed to be the best vintage machine for FMQ. The machine is done, but the cabinet is not. I have a nice cabinet with a 201 in it, so I might resort to using that cabinet for my 15-91.

bkay

My elephant quilt is almost completed. I would have had it completed over the week-end, but the machine/operator was have issues and weren't working well together. Plus, having the navy binding sewn on with navy thread wasn't fun. A seam ripper plus one blind eye and one fuzzy eye don't equal a very quick outcome. Hopefully, tomorrow.

Here's something y'all might be interested in doing to use bits and pieces or just to take up some time. There have been a lot of times lately when I wanted to sew, but I knew my brain wasn't in the right place to do anything specific. This would be perfect. Could also be used as a leader/ender project. I always feel guilty if I don't end with my needle in fabric. :-)

http://www.15minutesplay.com/2011/01/how-to-15-minute-fabric.html

I always am learning something new from you ladies! I didn't know I needed to condition my mat. Thanks for the tip!

Sorry you are struggling, bkay. Hope you work out the quilting and get it done.

I've done pretty well this month. All my UFO tops are quilted and I've started on Strip Twist.

Sharon, when I was in NYC last year, I visited Victoria Findlay Wolfe's studio/shop and bought her book, 15 Minutes of Play. Several years ago, I did "make" some fabric for a modern quilt I made. It was fun.

Thank you for the picture, Lois. I think I'm going to have to delve into this a bit more to see what it's all about as it's different from the crumbs that I'm used to.