Mid-Year Check-in

(Click here for One Monthly Goal July link-up)

Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl invites us to review our 2018 goals as we cross into July and the second half of the year.    I'll be joining her link-up here.

My specific goals for 2018 (from this post) are:

• Be bold in my choice of color and design.  Step outside my comfort zone (a bit!) in my color choices
• Sew a quilt by hand
• Improve my FMQ
• Submit quilt designs to magazines for publication
• Create a new quilt for submission to QuiltCon 2019 and other shows
• Collaborate with other quilters / bloggers on a project (interested, drop me an email)
• Grow participation in One Monthly Goal
• Practice my photography
• Finish the novel

So how am I doing?  For my first 3 goals (be bold in my choice of color and design, sew a quilt by hand, and improve my FMQ) have tangible proof of progress against my goals.

My quilt Encouragement gave me the opportunity to go bold with color with lots of bright saturated fabric plus practice my FMQ.  Hard to see in this photo, but there are 5 long rows of FMQing that go across the quilt mingled with those straight lines.

I'm using that same fabric to hand-piece my double wedding ring quilt and so happy I decided to try hand-piecing.

For the goals around quilt design and submitting to shows and publication  -submit quilt designs to magazines for publication, & create a new quilt for submission to QuiltCon 2019 and other shows - I've got some progress to report but work still to be done.  First, my quilt hung in a local quilt show.  This was the first time a quilt had been accepted into a show.  And I fully intend to work on a quilt specific for QuiltCon submission but so far, I've not started on it.  I've done nothing (yet?) on submitting quilt ideas to magazines. While I will have a design in the next issue of Make Modern magazine (so excited), the quilt was submitted last year so doesn't quite count against 2018 goals.

I've met so many people through my blog so my next two goals (collaborate with other quilters / bloggers on a project and grow participation in One Monthly Goal) are important ones.

New folks are finding One Monthly Goal each month(which makes me happy) and  I've got two things in the works around collaboration and feeling good about this goal.  (Not familiar with One Monthly Goal?  Check out the latest post and link up your goal for July.) 

Finally, when I retired 3 years ago, two of my key goals were to write a novel and improve my photography.  Let's just say I'm happy there are 6 more months left in this year for that novel.  Plenty of time to focus on this!

Bottom line, these goals are serving me well. I'm going to leave them just as they are and try to get myself a bit more focused on some of them!

Did you set goals for 2018?  How are you doing?

June Temperatures

(Click here for July One Monthly Goal link-up.)

June was a hot one here in central North Carolina!  See all that red?  Those are temps in the 90s!

The first column (of color) on the left is January 1 through 15, next column January 16 through 31 etc which means the last column on the right is June 16 - June 30.  I'm using a low volume fabric to fill in months that don't have 31 days plus surrounding the overall temperature quilt as you can see surrounding the quilt on left edge, top and bottom.

The quilt measures roughly 32'' x 19''.

Summer arrived in June - lots and lots of days in the 80's and the 90's - all which brought some changes to my plan.  First, there were so many more days that hit 85 which put me at real risk for not having enough of my 85-89 orange fabric.  I ordered some more.  

Then, we ended up with two days with temperatures over 95 so I had a chance to see my color in action.  I didn't like it. (You can see it in this post.)  Back to my stash I went and found a different red to use for the 95-99 range.   The arrow in the photo above points to the red for 9-99.  The 90-94 is more of a red orange, the 95-99 is a tomato red and the 100+ is a deep purple-red  

Here is the mapping of color to temperature range - 

I'll be linking up my wip with  Freemotion by the River,   WIP Wednesday's,  Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers.  Needle and Thread Thursdays, and Finished or Not Friday.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

One Monthly Goal - July Goal link-up

Welcome to July!  We had 110 projects linked up in June - let's see what this month brings!

New to One Monthly Goal?  Welcome!  To join, share a photo of your project, some words about what you want to accomplish in a blog post, an Instagram post (tutorial) or a post on Flickr and add that photo to the link-up.  Return at the end of the month and share your results.  You can read about the event and the rules on the main event page.

We have wonderful sponsors this month - three (3) winners will be randomly chosen from those that link up in both the goal and the finish event.  Plus anyone linking up will earn an entry for the bonus prize.  (Bonus prize to be awarded in October - you can earn up to 3 entries by joining the link-ups July through September.) 

Fat Quarter Shop offers a tremendous selection of fabric, notions, books and just about anything you will need for your project. Consider their Sew Sampler box to receive a monthly surprise delivery of fabric and fun.  Fat Quarter Shop is offering a $25 gift certificate to one lucky participant.

Make Modern is a digital magazine launched by a collaboration of quilters based in Australia. Their magazine is filled with modern quilt designs and a wonderful source of inspiration. Make Modern is offering a 6 month subscription to one lucky participant.

Aurifil is home to a beautiful rainbow of thread in all weights, perfect for any of your sewing and quilting needs.  My favorite product is the designer collection boxes which coordinate with various fabric lines.  Aurifil is offering a thread set for the third quarter bonus prize.

Image credit: Pat Sloan

I am very excited to introduce the designer sponsor for July - the one and only Pat Sloan.  Pat is a fabric designer, quilt designer, author, and lecturer plus she has a weekly radio show which is also available as a podcast.  Pat is passionate about making quilting fun for herself and everyone around her.    She creates a warm and welcoming environment for quilters of all abilities through her free QALs, link-ups and her Facebook group.  Together with her friend Jane Davidson, Pat collaborated with many industry designers to create the Splendid Sampler and - available later this year - the Splendid Sampler II.

If you aren't listening to Pat's weekly American Patchwork & Quilting podcast hosted by Pat Sloan, you are missing wonderful interviews with guests from the quilting world.  Pat's interview style is warm and welcoming.  I love learning about her guests each week and never miss an episode.

Pat travels  around the country teaching and showing her quilts to quilt guilds and quilt shops.  Pat has written over 30 quilt books (see them on Amazon) and has had her designs published in all the national magazines.

Image credit - Pat Sloan
Take the Round-About pattern, Splendid Sampler, Let's Go Camping QAL,
Pat's Aurifil Thread Collection, & Moda Sunday Drive fabric

Pat is offering a Aurifil thread box to one lucky winner!  Visit Pat on her website PatSloan.com and make sure to check out her free BOM Mystery QAL - Let's Go Camping.  You can also visit Pat on her blog, pattern store,  Quilt Along with Pat Sloan Facebook group, and Instagram.

My goal for July is finish my hand quilting and turn my hexie project into a pillow.

Now it is your turn to link up - what is your goal for July?  (A goal could be to finish a quilt but it could also be to attach a binding.  Whatever it takes to help you move forward and make progress on your projects!  And as long as the project involves a needle and/or fabric, you can link up!)

Make sure you visit the One Monthly Goal event page for the specific requirements for links and social tags.  Your blog post (or Flickr post) must contain a photo of your project, a clearly stated goal and a link back to Elm Street Quilts.  Your Instagram post must include a photo of your project, a clearly stated goal and the tag #onemonthlygoal.  (Entries which don't contain the required information may be disqualified.)

And remember, to be eligible for the prize(s) by random drawing you must linkup at both the goal setting and the accomplishment linkup in a given month.   (The One Monthly Goal accomplishment linkup will be available on July 26.)

Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can find the OMG link-up from your blog.  Let's make that easy -  just paste this into your post: 
 

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal July Linkup.

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for linking up!

Have a wonderful day! Patty