ALYoF: March Progress Report and Goal Setting

Despite February's being a short month, I managed to get most of my goals checked off. Here's what I had on my to-do list for February:

1. For my February commitment to ALYoF, I want to quilt and bind this Strawberry

Tablerunner. Complete!

2. For a while now, I've been trying to quilt and bind one quilt and finish one quilt top each month....I call this quilt "Intel Underneath". Complete!

It ended up very large, and so it was hard to find a good place to spread it out and take a good picture. I was going to try to quilt this myself, but I've decided to let my long arm quilter have her way with it. I should see it again in April.

3. Complete section two of the Wind in the Whiskers quilt. Complete!

4. Complete this wall-hanging from a new technique I learned in a workshop in January. I call this "A Rose is a Rose is a Rose". No Progress.

5. Make the next door for my Doors of Ireland quilt. Complete!

6. Complete the next block for the Folk Art Cats quilt. No progress.

7. Piece the next section for the Gardener's Journal quilt. Complete!

Also, I want to start my newest project in the NewFO Challenge, which is this little quilt called Duluth Trees. Complete!

Also, I have a project picked out for "Let's Book It"...this Christmas tree scrappy wall hanging. In Progress.

Lastly, I want to make a block for this month's Block Lotto, and the next block for my project in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. No Progress on Either.

Not a bad showing in a short month. The little Christmas Tree quilt took much more of my time than expected, but I was having fun doing it.

* * * * * 

So now, It's time to turn my attention toward March. With an extra three days, it feels extravagantly long.

I've been trying to quilt and bind one quilt and finish one quilt top each month. Usually, I set the quilting and binding as my goal for ALYoF, but this month I'm going to switch things around a little.

1. For March, I want to finish up a quilt top that is my oldest UFO. I haven't been thrilled with the looks of this quilt. It's the Blogger's BOM that some of you may remember. It's been so long now, that it seems like a quilting lifetime ago.

I wasn't happy with the suggested layout, and I chose from scraps from my stash (this being a scrap quilt) and had some ideas about how to finish it up, but then I put it away and over time, I've liked the ideas I had for it less and less.

Look. It's been so long since I worked on this quilt that my little quilting buddy is still a kitten in this image!

Yes, he was being his helpful self as usual.

So anyway...all of that to say that finishing up this quilt top (not including quilting and binding) is my March goal for ALYoF.

As for the rest of my March to-do's, here's what I have on my wish list of goals (in no particular order).

I've been limiting my new projects for 2014 to small quilts, table runners, and wall hangings. They've started piling up, and so I'm going to focus on getting some of them off my quilts-to-be-quilted list.

2. Quilt and bind "We're on a Roll".

3. Quilt and bind "Shine On".

4. Quilt and bind the "Outback Sunset" table runner. This one will be nice for summer.

As for my current WIPs, I'd like to make progress on these quilts:

4. Finish the top for "A Rose, is a Rose, is a Rose" table runner from last month's list of goals (pictured above).

5. Complete the next block for the Folk Art Cats quilt (also pictured above).

6. Make the next blocks for the "Mumm's the Word" quilt:

7. Make the next blocks for the Pony Express quilt:

8. Make the next blocks for the Hobo quilt.

And then there are my monthly projects to work on:

9. I'm a month behind on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge already. Last month's block was pink. I want to make the pink block and whatever color is selected for March.

 10. I have a partner in the March Doll Quilt Swap. This month's theme is "Keen on Green". I know what I'm going to make, but I can't show it to you yet. It's a surprise for my partner, Sher. By the way, the doll quilt swap is always accepting new members. Quilters of all levels are welcome. Click on the image below to find out more.

11. There's my March NewFO project to get started on. My official project for March is this table runner called "Chili Rounder".

I found this pattern while we were traveling in New Mexico. It seems like something a little different, and it will give me a chance to use some of my scraps.

12. I've been participating in Sharon V.'s "Let's Book It" Challenge, and it is so much fun! We're making projects from some of those books we couldn't resist buying, and then put them on the bookshelf never to be seen again. I have LOTS of those. You can click on the link in my right side bar to learn more. For March, and in honor of the daffodils, I'm going to make a project from this book:

and in honor of the daffodils that will probably be blooming during the month of March, I'm going to make this project:

And since this is a new technique for me, it will also qualify as my Something Old, Something New project.

13. Finally, I have two blocks of the month to make. One is for the Block Lotto, although at this writing I don't know what this month's block will be.

blocklotto.com

14. And, now that I'm a reserved member of the Westside Quilters' Guild, I'll be making their block of the month. In March, we're making the "Rocky Road to Dublin" block from Quilter's Cache.

I know. It's a crazy long list, but you'd be disappointed if I attempted anything less, wouldn't you? As I said at the top of this post, March, with its 31 days, seems extravagantly long. Let's just see how many of these I can knock off my list before the month is over.

What's on your list of projects for March?