Welcome to Farm Quilter

Enjoy your stay under the variable skies of Eastern Washington and watch the seasons change, from planting to harvest here on the farm...be sure to wrap up in a quilt during the winter, it's cold!!

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Accountability, ALYOF and FAL



I don’t know about you, but I have a really hard time finishing my quilting projects.  Back when this journey began (7 years ago), after I got my longarm, I would piece a quilt, make the backing, quilt the quilt, bind it and put a label on before moving on to the next project.  I didn’t understand how anyone could have a UFO or an unquilted top…just not the way I worked.  I know I was blessed to have been able to buy a longarm 9 months after piecing my first quilt and that quilting with it came very easily for me.

Then I got to spend 8 months in 2011 house/pet sitting for my daughter while she was deployed to Afghanistan.  It was a wonderful, selfish time for me of doing whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted – seriously, how much time could I devote to a cat and a Chihuahua.  The biggest plus for warm-loving me was that I spent March through October in Riverview, Florida!!!  Of course, living in Washington, I had to leave my longarm behind, but I loaded my truck with my sewing machine and about ¼ of my stash, drove across the country to happily begin cutting and stitching away.  I was accepted with open arms by a lovely bee group, SewWhat, in Brandon, Florida, and I met weekly with them to sew, shop hop, go to quilt shows and eat lovely food.  I bought more fabric, rulers, and patterns, which I promptly made into more quilt tops.

Then I got a wild hair and decided that the cat needed his own little quilt to lie on while on the couch, so I quilted that little quilt using my sewing machine.  I just did an all-over loopy pattern and it totally sucked.  Railroad tracks on the back (cuz I haven’t a clue how to adjust the tension on my machine, still) but it was just for a cat so I just left it.  However, that meant that there was no way I was going to even attempt to quilt anything else on my lovely Janome.  So I just kept making quilt tops…over 50 of them!!!  

Now, I know that I have quilted about 10 of those quilts, but I just can’t get seem to get the pile down at all!  So, for 2016, I am going to need some help to make goals and actually achieve them!  In 2015, ALYOF provided me a monthly goal to achieve, with accountability in the form of the month-end link-up.  Well, ALYOF will not be happening in 2016 so I had to find another carrot to keep my nose to the grindstone!!  I found Leanne who blogs at she can quilt.

In 2016 she will be teaming up with seven other bloggers to host FAL (Finish Along) with quarterly link-ups and they are going to be my "carrot".  If you need a "carrot", why not come play with us and finish those UFOs and quilt tops!!





2 comments:

ladibug said...

I feel your pain , just this month I have quilted 5 of my own quilt tops!
And still have 5 to go , of my own , my customers quilts are waiting. And now calling my name. Be blesses DANI

Anonymous said...

I tried that this year, (or was it last year?) and I didn't stick to it. I'm going to give it another shot, along with my paper-and-pencil planner, and see if I do better this time. =)