Resolutions and announcements :)

Today I announce two events: Play with Me QAL (first block) and the WGACA project!

The first board was shared today to people subscribed to the Play with Me QAL over at alidatweloqdesigns.blogspot.com. If you are interested, check out the latest blog post and follow the instructions to get your free pattern!

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The WGACA project is my idea of organizing projects to get them from UFO to FO :)

The concept of "What Goes Around Comes Around" reminds me of "completing the circle" and this made me think that if I "connect" projects with each other, they may carry each other to completion. 

The idea took its final shape when I heard the latest podcast by Sandy from "Quilting for the rest of Us". 

In this episode she mentions that someone choose "Three" as her word of the year for 2015 because three is the maximum number of projects she could work at the same time. 

When I heard this, something clicked in my mind :)

I cannot work just on 3 projects at one time, because I need many more projects to keep my creative juice going, to be inspired and to be happy :)

However, 3 seems to be the perfect number for the WGACA idea and this is how it works:

• I lock 3 crafty projects to WGACA, which means that I can work on them only by following WGACA rules.
• I need to make some progress on each of them before going back to one that had already some progress done in the past week.
• the progress will be tracked in the planner below (copy printed and hanged in a prominent place in my house).
• the progress tracked need to be "concrete". Concrete means anything from "I picked the yarn out of the box and put it in my to-go bag", to "I completed 10 blocks", to "I designed the next block". However it needs to be done in a single session.
• I can work on all my other projects without rules, but those three are locked with these rules!
• once I am done with one page of the planner, I can decide to print another page, to lock different projects, to continue with these projects or to wait until next month to start a new planner

This is the planner I developed. I hanged this right across my mirror so every time I get ready I see it and I know what I should work on ;)

Download the PDF HERE!

If you want to participate, you can download the pdf above.
And this is a little visual reminder about the rules :)

The successful strategy in picking the projects, for me, is to have a project that I really really like to work on (that will be the driving force), one that I am less enthusiastic about but that I still like a lot and one that has been a UFO for to long and that I just want to get it done. In this way the happiness of working on the first project will drag the actual actions needed to make the other two.

So what about you? Do you have strategies to tackle your UFO? Is a simple list enough for you?
Let me know in the comments below!!

Allietare with Serenity (and a link party)

Finishes and good progress, great kick off of the year!!

The Ongoing Project List:

1. Play with Me QAL - worked on finishing Feb board
2. Jane T - 4 more blocks done (see below)
3. Block Swap Adventure -  no progress
4. Charity Quilts for DC General Homeless Shelter project - finished a new top (Allietare)
5. Americana QAL - no progress
6. Allietare QAL - finished the top!! (see below)
7. Pantone Color of the Year 2016 - finished and pattern ready for others to enjoy (see below)
8. The SK project - no progress

The EverythingElse List:

1. the 31000 Xs project - no progress
2. Spirit cross stitch project - no progress
3. Mirror Mirror Afghan - no progress
4. Alice in Wonderland quilt - no progress
5. As You Wish -  no progress
6. Crazy optical illusion - no progress
7. Memory quilt 2 - no progress

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Pantone's Color of the Year for 2016 are actually two colors.
Serenity (light blue) and Rose Quartz.
They wanted to make a statement about gender blur, balance, tranquil tones.
I heard/read all kind of "negative" comments about those colors (like they are too "baby", dated, etc...) and even if I don't particularly like them either, they spoke to me in some way and I was able to finish my traditional wall hanging before the year even started!

Let me introduce you "Serenity"

Serenity - 17'' x 17''

Pattern available in my shop

This is inspired by the Firefly ship (Serenity) and a quote in the movie "I am a leaf on the wind - watch how I soar." I appliqued the word Serenity as in the movie posters (I hope it's right, if it's not, please don't tell me ;) ) and I appliqued a leaf, surrounded by a echo of its shape done by quilting. It reminds me of ripples in the water, which is a good match with the color and the theme, I think!

I bound it with the same color as the background, with some pink accents. I never used the same color for the binding and while I think it worked here, I don't particularly like it. I think my eyes prefer to see a definite border around a quilt!

And, just for fun, here is the line up of all my past Color of the Year wall hangings!!

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The sixth and final clue of Bonnie Hunter's Mystery QAL is out. I decided to follow along, but I made 1/4 of the units because I don't need a big quilt and I was not sure if I liked the design :)

Now that I see the overall quilt, my thought is: I am happy I followed along! I like the design!!!

I decided to go with brighter colors: cyan/aqua/teal (instead of red) and bright yellow (instead of gold). I will donate this quilt to charity as a baby quilt, so I want it to be fun and colorful!

I was so worried about not following the instructions in term of scrappyness: I didn't have a constant grey, I didn't have sets, I went scrappy all the way. And I am super happy I did!!

If you check the layout, you may see "sets" because I had about 5/6 fabrics for all the units so repeats happened and I used them to make few blocks less scrappy. I really like how it turned out, bright and cheerful as hoped. The scrappyness of the greys and black adds interest when you look at the quilt close by, without distracting too much from the overall design from far away!
This is my first design on point, and it was quite confusing, but I pulled it off.
The most difficult thing was to try to convince my sewing helper not to run on the units as I was trying to figure out where each piece should go :)

Sixth clue of Bonnie's mystery QAL... 

Linking up at the Monday Link-up party!

ETA: I added a piano border!

Size: 46'' x 60''

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I said that once my Xmas presents were done, I could start working on my Jane T, and so I did!

I decided to draft all the pattern myself for two reasons: 1. I am sewing everything by machine, but I want to honor the "slowness" of the original Dear Jane... so by drafting myself all the patterns from pictures, I can add the slow attention to the blocks, while sewing them up fast on the machine. 2. while I found patterns online for the blocks, they use up a lot of paper as each pattern is separate. Drafting several block at once, I can optimize their placement in Inkscape and save paper!

So this is my progress 

The purple one is a Farmer's Wife block. I don't know the name of the block and I won't call it with its name, because I read super-weird stories about copyright battles from the author of that book with people sharing information for QALs and such. IMHO this is very discouraging since they are all pretty simple designs and I think if people sharing QALs where linking to her book, she could have been happy for the endorsement and free advertisement. Apparently that's not the case... 

I am drafting my own patterns I don't want to get in troubles :)

I am not sharing neither the patterns nor cutting directions, 

but from now on I will call them the WoaF blocks :)

Progress on the entire quilt. 9 blocks!

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And last, but not least, I want to remind you that I am working on charity quilts,
and I would love your help!! 

Quilts are for a quilt drive to help the kids in the DC General Homeless Shelter. 

And you can help me by donating orphan blocks, partial blocks, or fabric (scraps, strips, leftover, uglies, whatever). 

If you are willing to mail them to me, I could use them to make more quilts for these kids!!! 

If you are up for a loving donation, please send me an email at tweloq[_at_]gmail[dot_com] or leave a comment here with your email address so I could give you my mailing address. I promise that your donation will be used to make some kids happy and feel more loved!! 

This week, I will count the Allietare quilt as progress. I will probably add a top/bottom border to make it a toddler size,  but for now I count it as a great progress for the week!!! :)

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How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up

The LIST

Several people are rolling out link parties and challenges with resolutions for the new year, so I thought it was a great opportunity for me to look back at my 2015 list and see what I did there!

So this is the 2015 list, with the current status of each project.

1. Xmas tree decoration for 2014 - done one for 2014 and one for 2015!
2. Pumpkin's play mat - done!
3. the SK project - some progress here, not as much as I hoped
4. Tea Towel challenge and PPV BOM - done and has been decorating my living room for most of the year
5. Reversible sewing machine cover - done and has been keeping my sewing machine for many many months!
6. College Days Blog Hop blocks for tote/grocery bag - done and it's holding my xstitch projects
7. Alice in Wonderland quilt - no progress here
8. As You Wish - no progress here
9. Happy Halloween wall hanging - done and hanged in the living room in Oct/Nov
10. Crazy optical illusion - no progress
11. Bonnie's Hunter Grand Illusion - dropped, didn't like the design, but I am up to speed with Allietare!
12. Color of the Year mini - done, preparing the 2016 one!
13. D wall hanging - done and gifted
14. B quilt - dropped for now, maybe forever :)

So basically I had 14 items on the list, 8 of them are done, 2 were dropped probably forever and the rest... I think I may carry them over because I don't want to give up on them just yet!

On another note, there are a ton of projects that I didn't have on that list at the beginning of 2015 but they started and got done in 2015. I will feature all of them in a post at the end of January for my blogoversary! I think I accomplished a lot, but I need some time to collect them all in one post :)

And now... what about 2016?
Let's make another list!!! Let's make it longer so I will accomplish more!! :)

1. Play with Me QAL - this is a QAL I am hosting, so I don't just plan to finish it, but I plan to cheer everybody along, offer giveaways, inspire and get inspired!
   Today I had a post discussing fabric, so if you are interested, just click and check it out!!
   
   
2. "Jane Tiger, the Nearly Insane Wife of a Farmer" - I want to complete my version of the Dear Jane, Nearly Insane and Farmer's Wife quilt. I already started it and it looks fun!!
3. Block Swap Adventure quilt - I have been swapping blocks for about 2 years now, so I should have enough to put together a quilt! 
4. Charity quilts for Fran and the Quilts for DC General Homeless Shelter project - I plan to have 12 quilts done for her... let's see if I can make (or pass) that goal!!
5. Americana QAL - finish my version of this quilt and gift it to my dad probably for Xmas
6. Play with Me 2016 QAL (secret) - all January posts are ready!!
7. Allietare QAL - I plan to complete this quilt, and probably donate it for charity
8. Pantone Color of the Year 2016 - my traditional wall hanging has already been designed!
9. The SK project - here I need real progress as I wanted to have it done by 2017... it's a big quilt done in very small blocks so I need to get this rolling!!
10. the 31000 Xs project - a cross stitch project that I started and I would love to get done... eventually :)
11. Spirit cross stitch project - this is supposed to be a Valentine present... well... not sure if I will be able to pull it off, but I will try!
12. Mirror Mirror Afghan - a tapestry crochet afghan, I was very passionate about... and then I was not :) crochet is like that for me, ups and downs! :)
13. Alice in Wonderland quilt - I have several blocks done, just need to find some motivation to finish up some more
14. As You Wish -  same comment as 13.
15. Crazy optical illusion - same comment as 13. :)
16. Memory quilt 2 - same comment as 13. :)
    

This list is shared in for the following link parties and challenges:

• Yvonne (quiltingjetgirl.com) - 2016 Planning Linky Party
• Sandy (quiltingfortherestofus.com) - 2016 Quilty Resolutions Challenge (not formally announced yet), but she talked about it in her podcast.
  These are the 3 projects I want to put as my "Cleaning House" items:
• Block Swap Adventure quilt (3. above), because those blocks have been there waiting to be used for about two years
• Mirror Mirror Afghan (12. above), because I have a sitting box full of yarn and I want to be able to use the space and enjoy the afghan before the end of 2016
• the SK project (9. above), I highly doubt that this King size project (all the opening lines and book cover of Stephen King's books) is going to be done by 2016, but I want to have it done for Sept 2017 to honor his 70th birthday so I will put this here to get some momentum. I have about 30 blocks done already (see here) but I have many more to go!