New Monthly Challenge! Kinda like playing B-I-N-G-O!

 Ok, so I guess you could make or download a BINGO board if that would be more your style but I'm a rather free spirit when it comes to choosing my projects.  I've found I don't do well pulling numbers or slips of paper from a jar.   

Here's the scoop-  As I was walking about in my sewing room the other day I spied a fabric bundle I have had for a very long time,  I saw a tub of flannels waiting their turn and a tub of strings and a book I just got and a drawer of tiny blocks and an entire tub of pre-cuts! Oh my!! Do you get the picture?  So many ideas for quilts not yet made.  WHEN was I going to make them?  Then it occurred to me...I need a different kind of challenge.  I need to allow myself the time to make some of the projects I've dreamed about and bought the stuff for!  New sewalongs are always soooo enticing aren't they?  I enjoy them, I really do! But, every time I start one of those it makes a project I've bought for wait a bit longer.  

So, here's my plan.  Please join in if it sounds like it would be fun and work for you!  1.  Each month or so for the next 15 months (until December 2025)  I am going to pull something out a tub or a drawer or off the shelf and use it.  It may be big or small, started or not, but I will enjoy (finally) using that bit of stash.  2.  I can work on it for as long as I want.  If it's not done in a month I'll decide what I want to do at that point.  I usually have a couple of projects going on all the time anyway so it can go from first place to second or third place in my work flow.  3.  HERE'S THE IMPORTANT PART!  Here is my list to guide me as to what part of my stash I'll be using:  (in no particular order)

1. Make a project with Flannels

2. Make a Seasonal project with FALL fabrics-this all started because I wanted to make pumpkins and make them NOW, not in January or April. 

3. Make a Seasonal project with HALLOWEEN fabric-I've got my fabric pulled for that one.

4. Make a Seasonal project with CHRISTMAS fabrics-that's next!

5. Make a project with STRINGS-I have one in progress

6. Make a project with NOVELTY fabrics-I have a huge tub to work from

7. Make a project with TINY BLOCKS (yes, I have a tiny drawer with over a 100 tiny blocks in it) but you could choose ORPHAN BLOCKS if you have those.  

8. Make a project with SECOND SATURDAY kits-if you know you know

9. Make a project with a PANEL-there's a Christmas one and a snowman one...

10. Make a project with PRE-CUT (I was so happy to make a project on National Jelly Roll Day September 21!  Did you join in that day?) I'm just finishing the binding on a layer cake project!

11. Choose a KIT

12.  Make a project from a BOOK-I know which one I want to do at the moment-it's a table runner for Christmas.

13.  Make the PATTERN-gotta love those Villa Rosa patterns.  I can scoop them up by the handful, now I need to make one or more of them.

14. Use that big cut of YARDAGE

15. Use a COLLECTION i.e. from a designer or from an era or style.  I have a drawer of Asian style fabric I've never used

16.  Use the PRECIOUS fabric...because 10 years from now you've moved on and don't care anymore.  Use it now while you still love it!

17.  Use fabric or a pattern or a notion you bought ages ago and you still want to make it.

18.  Use the fabric or pattern or notion you bought less than a year ago and haven't gotten to it yet.  

19.  Make the quilt for the person or cause you've wanted to but haven't yet.

Okay!  That's my list!  What can you add to it?  I'm sure if you look around your sewing area there is something that's been waiting for you. It's not just me, right? I'm not the only buying faster than they can sew, right?  Notice that these are categories, not specific projects or UFO's or WIP's although they could be.  And, if you are a knitter or crocheter or cross-stitcher these categories may still apply so you can play along too. I know one project in each category won't make a dent in my stash but I think it will be satisfying anyway.  

Look at the list, we start October 1, 2024.  We have 3 months left this year to work on a project or two.  Make your own rules and share them because that will give us all more ideas to be creative with this challenge.  If you get on a roll we want to hear about your progress too!  

We need a name and a hashtag so what should it be?  

One of my current projects is called Jelly Roll Jumble.  It's getting loaded on the longarm this weekend! 

Here's my Pumpkin Hollow table runner just finished last week.  It was so fun to make.  It started my thinking about this challenge and how I don't do this often enough-work "in season".  

It's almost the end of September so I should be back soon with a wrap up of the month.  

Take a look around and see what's calling out to you!  Post in the comments.  

Keeping promises to yourself

 Hi there! Welcome to my little corner of the world!  It's Monday!  Did you know there are 19 more weeks left in 2024?  What could you accomplish in 19 weeks???  That's a lot of time but it will feel like no time at all if you don't start somewhere.  You could lose 19 pounds, you could go for a 134 walks, you could declutter 134 things or make 134 quilt blocks (my personal favorite!)  I've been ever so slowly making changes and improving my health and fitness over the past two years.  

Let's do a brief catch-up on things since it has been over two years since I wrote my last post.  When last I wrote, I had just retired from my quilting business and owning a small quilt shop.  It turns out owning a shop was not my favorite thing to do so I gave it up before I was further down that path.  Two years later I can confirm it was the right decision.  I loved my studio but I'm completely happy in my basement sewing room.  What I still love doing is quilting pantographs on my longarm.  In 2022, I finished a bunch of my projects (32)  I had not had time to work on while owning a business.  You can see all the projects I finished over on Instagram @stbrokaw or on Facebook @Stephanie Thiel Brokaw.   I've continued that for most of 2023 and 2024 but not at the same pace.  The purpose for me in restarting my blog is to document my finished quilts in more detail than I can do on social media. And, I think I have some tips for you from things I've learned completing them.  I also want to talk a little bit about changes, transitions, motivation, etc. that aren't exactly quilt related, but I suppose they could be.  

Change #1 was retiring!  Besides finishing quilts I've worked on decluttering the house.   It's come a long way!  At first there were boxes of stuff from every room in the house.  Now, I bring a box to donate about once a month.  There's some bigger pieces I will probably donate as well as I get around to it.  I've also been regularly donating finished quilts.  It was time to rehome many of them and I've found a couple of people to help with their efforts.  I have more at the ready and of course I'm making more every month.  More on that in another post.  

Change #2: Losing weight!  I started trail running during covid but really didn't see the improvements I was hoping for so in April 2024 I tried again and I'm down 18 pounds!  Still a bit more to go but I feel like it's going really well.  I'm counting calories using an app called Lose It!  I weigh all my food and log it in the app.  It tells me how many calories I'm allowed based on my weight and activity level.  I'm still trail running and improving there as well.  Today, I completed a 7 mile run!  Who knew I would be capable of such a thing?!

Goals! 

1. Better fitness!  There are a couple of things I need to add to my routine.  I can almost squat down repeatedly again!  Next goal is getting up and down from the floor a little more easily. 

2.  Use up more and more of my fabric!  Make lots of quilts and give them away!  I just finished watching Conquer Your Fabric Scraps Summit hosted by Nicki @theruffledpurse.  All the teachers were amazing.  It gave me new inspiration and ideas not only for projects but also how to improve the way I approach things.  I'm going to try a Kawandi style project! 

3. Blog again!  I've been successful at some other small things, like decluttering and losing weight so I think I can add blogging back into the mix.  Writing is such a good activity.  

4. Public speaking.  This is a big one for me to attempt but I hope to add videos to my YouTube account.   My adult kids have been such an inspiration to me.  One has lost weight. LOTS of weight! Like over 100 pounds.  He's amazing.  The other has a YouTube channel and talks so easily to the camera.  I need to give it a try.  It will probably be terrible 😂😂😂 but that means I can improve!  Don't hold me to it.  It will come in its own time.  

I said I have been successful at a few things lately.  I want to encourage you to make good use of the next 19 weeks and do a few things for yourself.   You've made promises to yourself that you haven't kept.  That's me again and again.  I'm working on doing those things for myself. What a wonder it is to actually follow through on a promise you make to yourself!  Maybe you don't struggle with something like that.  Maybe you do all the things but I haven't, not hardly.  And that is changing.  

Happy Monday, folks.  Make it magical!

Stephanie

And, because you made it the end, here is some quilty eye candy! I'll always post a photo of what's on my design wall, my most recent finish and a photo from 2023 archives (which are the ones I missed posting about), and occasionally I'll post a photo of the vegetation in the park where I run.  

Current projects on my design wall.  The blue and white one is a pattern and fabric by Janet Clare called Abracadabra.  I love it!  The blocks on the right are County Clare blocks in a 9" size, pattern by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville.  It's her Leader/Ender challenge for July 2024-June 2025. 

 

Close up of the tiny houses on the design wall.  Pattern by Jitka Designs.  FPP.  

Most recent finish! A lap size quilt from a tutorial by Jordan Fabric called Scrappy Lattice.

From the Archives:  Finish #6 in 2023.  This an x block, which is an old block pattern, made using my stash of Kaffe Fassett fabrics.   

Summer running at Fort Harrison State Park!  The trails get very narrow in places, the flowers are so tall!

Bye for now!  

Happy Sewing, 

Stephanie

I'm toying with the idea of restarting my blog.  It has been dormant for several years however, I am newly retired and it might be a way to document this new phase.  I closed my shop and my longarm business earlier this month (February 2022) and I will head over to the studio later today to turn in my keys.  That makes it really official doesn't it.  I have spent the past three weeks moving everything from the studio back into our home.  The basement is/has been my space for many years so I set it up pretty much the way it was before.  Hubby set the table/longarm up for me the other day! He's a keeper! (No, he isn't for hire. 🤣)

 

To start this new phase off right I took inventory of some works-in-progress and projects-in-waiting and have an initial list of 69 projects worthy of inclusion 😉 at this time.  

I finished the first project on the list last week!  I had to make sure the machine made the move and was set up properly so I popped this cute quilt on it to test things out.  I made a backing up quickly from Tula Pink's Daydreamer line.  It's her Sundaze print in Guava by Free Spirit Fabrics.  The quilt pattern is Cascade by Villa Rosa Designs made with a charm pack from Moda ( I don't have the name of it).  The sunny yellow background fabric is Jot Dot in color 44 by Blank Quilting Co.  The quilting design is Frisky Feathers sized at 6" and stitched out on my Handiquilter Fusion with Pro-Stitcher.  I think it's really cute and will make a nice donation quilt with a finished size of 40 x 54". 

I often get queries about how the machine does all the work and how I must be able to walk away and do whatever I want while it's stitching.  Not true!  I always stay in the same room.  If you want to understand the process more I highly recommend taking a class to rent time on a machine.  Many shops offer this service and it will give you insight on the skill required to be a longarmer.  You might even find out you enjoy it too and want to finish your own quilts!  

One of things I'm working on while the machine hums along is sorting and pressing my scraps.  They take up way too much space the way I currently store them which is in these rolling carts with drawers.  I think they will take up much less space and will be easier to use if I press them and store them flat.  I had been contemplating throwing all of them out but instead I'll try this first.  Step One:  Sort and press them flat.  Step Two:  Cut them into strips and basic sizes with my Accuquilt cutter.  (It's one of the reasons I bought it!).  I have thrown out a pile of the smallest pieces- anything less than 1.5" is going in the trash.  Also, I've given myself permission to throw out small pieces I never want to use in my quilts or don't like.  The first drawer went from full to less than a quarter full.  On to the next one...I need to use a timer for this task, 30 mins at a time (or a row or two of watching the longarm) is enough.  

The second quilt came off of the longarm today and I'll post a picture of it next time.  So that's one last week and one this week.  I'm thinking, maybe, could I get one project off the list each week??? At that rate I have 68 weeks to go to get them all done.  Would that be possible??? I can't imagine having them all done in just 15 months.  All I know now is that I'm two for two.  

The sun is shining and it's time to go for a walk.  Until next time, 

Happy Sewing,

Stephanie