Finished! Car trash bag

I finished my mom's car trash bag.  The pattern is from the book One Yard Wonders.  I'd made 2 in the past, one for my car and one for A's.  I didn't do the pocket on those, but I did on this one.  I used covered wagon fabric that my mom gave a while ago for the bag--her request.  I had some scraps of red bandanna print that I thought coordinated well that I used for the binding.

This was my December goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes; I was goal setter #63.  Please note that I changed my blog name, so that original link won't be there any more, but it has changed over to the new name and can be found here.

This was also on my Q4 list for the Finish Along hosted by Adrianne.  My goal list is here.   (Please note that my blog changed names, so my post in the goal setting linky will no longer be active.)

I had 2 secondary goals for December.  One of those I gave up on and am happy I did.  The other was to catch up on the Midnight Mystery.  I've completed a few months of instructions but am not completely caught up yet, though I'm closer than I was at the beginning of the month!

Quilty Bucket List

Pre-Munchkin, I watched Fons & Porter For the Love of Quilting on PBS occasionally.  At one point, Mary Fons mentioned having a quilting bucket list.  I hadn't thought of it that way before, but I had one too.  Problem is, it was only in my head.  So I thought about patterns or techniques I wanted to try, I wrote down a list, and I posted it in my sewing space where I could see it all the time.This is my original list, written some time in 2014.

And here is my list today, at the end of 2015:

I've added a few things, but more importantly, several things have been checked off!

Two projects were completed before I put them on the list, but I included them because they were "bucket" patterns when I chose them.  Those are the Wedding Ring quilt, a wedding gift to my brother and his wife, and the Trip Around the World, which hangs on my living room wall.

The projects/techniques I completed in 2015:
Mystery Quilt

I Spy--I've done several of these!  My first and favorite, though, was actually finished in 2014.  It has 192 I Spy fabrics and is now on the the twin bed in Munchkin's room, though he is still in a crib.    We have fun naming the stuff when we sit on the bed.

Project Linus--I went one better on this one, and attended the meeting of the Charlotte chapter in 2015.  I forgot to keep track of how many quilts I donated, but I should get that number from our coordinator soon for tax records, and I will remember to keep track this year.

String Quilt

Paper Piecing--I ended up liking this technique more than I thought I would.  I ended up with 2 projects--here and here.

Ticker Tape Quilt--this technique I did not enjoy, and I will likely not do it again.  But I love how the elephant turned out!

I'm slowly working through the rest.  To me, a bucket list is a long term kind of thing, and not the same as my to-do list or list of current projects.  Rather, it's techniques or classic patterns that I want to try or make.

I found this link-up about a year and a half too late, but I really like the graphic, so I will end with it.

Name Change

I changed the name of my blog.

I started the blog solely to have a place for people to sign up for an I Spy swap.  I've used "Library Lil" as my online identity for years--it comes from a picture book I like.  But I've been feeling down on the name for a while.  I'm no longer a children's librarian; my name isn't Lil; the address also had NC it; and mostly it just wasn't what I wanted to be known as anymore.  So with a new year coming, I decided it was time to change.

I love dogwoods.  Mainly because they are beautiful trees. The dogwood is also the state flower of both the state where I was born (Virginia) and the state where I live (North Carolina).  (It's the state tree of Virginia as well, but not North Carolina.)  I've done at 3 quilts that feature dogwoods in some way, and there may be more. 

The Darling part comes from a family thing.  When I was a kid, I was upset that there was Mother's Day, and Father's Day, and at school we celebrated Grandparents' Day, but there was no kid day.  My mom solved this problem by creating my own holiday.  My favorite baseball player was Ron Darling, pitcher for the New York Mets.  (This would have been mid-1980s.) We chose his birthday, August 19th, as my holiday, and called it Darling Daughter's Day.  As I recall, the proper way to celebrate Darling Daughter's Day was to get a Frosty at Wendy's. My mom still occasionally sends me stuff or calls me on August 19th.  (Incidentally, as far as I know, my brother never had the same complaint, and never got his own holiday.)

And so, welcome to The Darling Dogwood!

On Giving Up

Today is my birthday.  My husband and I both took the day off.  My plans were to spend some time sewing and to spend some time with my husband.  I figured it was okay for it to be shlfish sewing today, so I was going to work on my mini for this month, which I decided would be a Trip Around the World from a kit I was given.

Several jobs ago, my workplace did a Secret Santa.  My first Christmas here, 2006, my Secret Santa gave me a mini quilt kit.  It was an incredibly thoughtful gift, and the thought of it has always made me smile.  Some of my coworkers took the "secret" part of Secret Santa very, very seriously, so I still don't know who gave me the kit.  (I got a particularly awesome pair of socks the next year and don't know who gave me those, either!)

Since I'm on a mini kick, I decided now was the time to finally do it.  I looked at the instructions last night, trimmed down the included fabric strips, picked an order for the strips, and made sure I had a general idea of what I would start today.  Except.  My machine didn't like the fabric, and I got lots of puckers.  I'm not in love with the combination of colors in the kit. The pieces are smaller than I really like to work with.  I wasn't enjoying myself.  So after about 1 1/2 really long seams, I decided to quit.  The idea of the kit was great, and much appreciated.  But I decided that my sewing time is precious and that project was not really what I wanted to do with my time.

So I threw out the pieces that I had sewed that were puckered.  I put the salvageable fabric in the bag I'm going to give a friend of mine who is starting a maker space at the library/media center in the elementary school where she works.  I saved the thread and the batting square, as I can use them for other projects. I recycled the packaging from the kit.  I'm not sure what to do with the book, since there are seeral patterns in it but they all use pieces smaller than what I like to work with, so for now it's still around.  And I moved on to a quilt top for Project Linus that was about 1/3 finished and is now a completed top, and since my husband was home to help me layer, it is ready to be quilted.

I'm pleased with how today went. I have a lot of unfinished projects, and more that I want to start, so working on something that I wasn't really enjoying wasn't a good use of my time.  I stopped before I got really frustrated, and I am really pleased with the top I finished today.

December Goal

I actually have 3 goals for December.  And barring illness, I should have a lot of sewing time at the end of the month, so I might actually make all three.

For my ALYOF goal, I'm picking mom's car trash bag.  My mom visited in May, and she really liked the car trash bag I had and asked for one.  The pattern came from the book One Yard Wonders.  I asked what fabric she wanted, and she immediately replied "covered wagons!"  She gave me several yards of this covered wagon fabric when I got into I Spys and swaps--she bought it several years ago and never used it.  I've got a fair amount left, so a covered wagon car trash bag it is!

Goal #2: Midnight Mystery catch up.  I am super behind in the Midnight Mystery Quilt Along hosted by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs.  I'm loving the design and the process, so I'm hoping to be caught up by the end of the month.

Goal #3: December's Mini.  I've got the day off on Wednesday and am planning to do some selfish Birthday Sewing, so I'll start on my mini for December.  Specific project undecided, but likely the Quilt Kit I got as a Secret Santa present many years ago.

Linking up with Fiber of All Sorts and Sew Bittersweet Designs for A Lovely Year of Finishes.