One Monthly Goal Done...

...done, just under the wire. The top of the Heat Wave quilt is done! It turned out that it wasn't that refreshing of a change, lol. This was one of the more challenging projects I've done because of all the points. There was a lot of sewing, ripping and re-sewing to get points where I wanted them, and it is still far from perfect. But it won't get better, so it was time to stop fiddling with it and get done.

No idea how or when it will get quilted; but after 25 years, it's a good feeling to have the top done.

Ready or not, fall has arrived in Maine, a bit early this year it seems. The temperatures are already dipping, and the leaves are changing color and falling. Even this tiny tree, barely an inch and a half tall, is starting to turn red. Summer is my least favorite season, but we had such a beautiful summer this year that I hate to see it come to an end.

Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back

Star Crazy was my One Monthly Goal for August; and it is disheartening that, for a second month, I couldn't get this project finished. I sewed on the next two rounds of borders, and you can see how badly rippled the outer white border is. I should have measured the quilt top before I added the last green border, but I took it on faith that my quilt dimensions matched the directions for cutting that border. Wrong! And I know better!! 

There was no way that was going to quilt out, so I rrrrripped them back off. Put it in the corner and haven't touched it since. I'll continue to work on it, but my One Monthly Goal for the month of September will be a refreshing change. It's a pattern called Heat Wave by Karen Stone, copyright 1995, so it's an oldie but goodie.

I hand dyed a gradation of colors plus the background for this quilt, a long, loooong time ago. I spent much of my time at camp this summer working on paper piecing the blocks, and I finally finished all of the component parts. I did run out of the hand dyed yellow right at the very end, found another piece of it, and will finish up the last couple blocks. Then it's time to put it all together.

Paper plates work very well to organize all the parts. I took a class with Michelle Renee Hiatt last summer at the Maine Quilts show, and that was a suggestion from her. It works great, and I've been organizing my sewing that way ever since. You can stack 'em up and keep everything separate. Sometimes I write cutting instructions right on the plate. 

My One Monthly Goal for the month of September is to finish the top for the Heat Wave quilt.  It's doable.You can see what others are doing this month here.