Batik tile progress - Building Blocks Tuesday

I finished up all my Batik tile blocks this week!



One good thing about the wet weather we have been having is that it has kept me inside, which has given me time to put the flimsy together.



I must admit that this is nothing like I pictured it when I chose these fabrics years ago.  I really don't know what I was thinking.  The original pattern had a lot of teal, and some copper in it.  But, at the time I couldn't find exact matches so I went with what I could find and it looks like I made some interesting choices.  For me, the yellow just doesn't belong, and worse it totally drowns out the navy with copper fabric that is my favorite of this group.  BUT....it is finished.  And finished is better than perfect!

Now to piece a backing together, and start quilting it.  It looks like I might have a chance of getting at least one of my 100 Day Challenge items done.  Speaking of....we are only about 10 days away from our first check in.  I hope you have all been working hard, and I can't wait to see your progress.

What blocks have you been working on this week?  I would love to see.  Link up your fabulous blocks.  You put a lot of hard work into them - show them off!  This free linky will stay open until the first Monday of next month, but I will repost it every Tuesday until a new month starts.

Rules:

1) Please link up only to the page on your blog showing your wonderful blocks, not just the blog homepage.  Flickr and Instagram pictures are also OK.
2) Make sure to put your blog name as the description so people know where they are going or the name of your block!
3) Please grab my button and post it in your blog post or sidebar.
4) Visit other linky participants!

Thanks for reading,

Jennie


***This post may contain affiliate links.  If you purchase something after clicking on one of my links, I may be compensated, but at no additional cost to you!

More Batik tile blocks - Building Blocks Tuesday

I made a few more of these Batik tile blocks this week, in between packing up my kitchen into boxes and squirreling away plates and glassware anywhere I could fit them.  We are remodeling our kitchen and the current one had to be cleared out for demo yesterday.  I thought I had eliminated most of the junk when we moved last year, but I found myself packing up plenty of items that I haven't used at all in the last year and a half.

This brings my blocks up to:



Man, is this not my style at all!  I've got one more color way to go, and I may need to repeat one of the color combos to finish up the corner.  At least it is farther along now than it was a couple of weeks ago.

I also need to start on those Sawtooth Star blocks this week, and I have a TON of gardening chores to do while the contractors are busy making a disaster of my house.  It will be raining dust for weeks, no doubt.  But, I am sure it will all be worth it in the end.

What blocks have you been working on this week?  I would love to see.  Link up your fabulous blocks.  You put a lot of hard work into them - show them off!  This free linky will stay open until the first Monday of next month, but I will repost it every Tuesday until a new month starts.

Rules:

1) Please link up only to the page on your blog showing your wonderful blocks, not just the blog homepage.  Flickr and Instagram pictures are also OK.
2) Make sure to put your blog name as the description so people know where they are going or the name of your block!
3) Please grab my button and post it in your blog post or sidebar.
4) Visit other linky participants!

Thanks for reading,

Jennie


***This post may contain affiliate links.  If you purchase something after clicking on one of my links, I may be compensated, but at no additional cost to you!

Batik tile blocks - Building Blocks Tuesday

Wow!  The 100 Day Challenge has really kicked off with a bang!  So many people have jumped right on their challenges.  It inspired me to get out my old Batik Tile UFO and try to assess where I was in regards to completion of the project....I've got to tell you, it wasn't easy!



(I am not sure why the block above looks so bright and colorful on the floor, must be the lighting on the floor compared to the lighting on the wall. It really is more drab.)

I pulled this project out of the closet a few months ago and put the blocks up on the wall for a few days, but I really didn't stop to see how many more blocks I needed to make, and if I had enough fabric.  To make things a little more complicated, I discovered that I must have chosen some different colors than the pattern called for because I got some weird stuff that looks nothing like the pattern.  Basically, I spent the morning asking myself, "What was I thinking?".

I got as far as figuring out where I was in the completion process and how many blocks I needed to make to finish the rows I was working on.  So today, I went from this:



to this:



I still have quite a few more blocks to make.  In making the block up at the top today, I realized it isn't the blocks that I don't like about this project.  They actually come together rather easily.  It is the fabric - gasp!  I think of Batiks like I think about the color, Orange.  I don't particularly like it.  I can appreciate it, and find beauty in select oranges, but in general I don't like working with it.  Just the way I am!

So there they are, the first blocks of the New Year and part of my 100 Day Challenge.

What blocks have you been working on this week?  I would love to see.  Link up your fabulous blocks.  You put a lot of hard work into them - show them off!  This free linky will stay open until the first Monday of next month, but I will repost it every Tuesday until a new month starts.

Rules:

1) Please link up only to the page on your blog showing your wonderful blocks, not just the blog homepage.  Flickr and Instagram pictures are also OK.
2) Make sure to put your blog name as the description so people know where they are going or the name of your block!
3) Please grab my button and post it in your blog post or sidebar.
4) Visit other linky participants!

Thanks for reading,

Jennie


***This post may contain affiliate links.  If you purchase something after clicking on one of my links, I may be compensated, but at no additional cost to you!

100 Day Challenge 2017 - Kicking it off

Welcome to the kick off of the 100 Day Challenge!  I am excited that you are here and ready to get some stuff DONE!  Do you have your 3 things you are going to complete in the next 100 days?

Just stumbled upon this today?  To recap, we are shortening up the timetable for those New Year's Resolutions so we don't conveniently forget about them over the course of the year.  100 days is just long enough to accomplish something BIG and short enough that keeping the momentum/motivation going should be easier.

1) Pick 3 specific Quilty/Craft goals - finish some UFO's?  try something new?  make that baby quilt?  declutter/destash?  easy/hard?  Doesn't matter, just be specific.  Specificity helps so we don't justify changing our goals or rationalizing that we generally completed them when we only tried.
2) Today, leave your 3 goals in a comment below, or write your own blog post with your intentions and link them up to the linky below.  Writing them down and posting them on the interwebs will give you a feeling of accountability to the universe.
3) Cheer each other on!  I've even created a hashtag for those of you on Twitter and Instagram: #100daychallenge2017 AND a new blog button!  Go ahead and grab it if you like.  It's in the right hand border of this post.
4) Get to work - this part is all up to you!  Did I mention that I hope we will all cheer each other on?!?!!!  Support is so nice.
5) Check in linky's will be posted at Day 30, Day 60, and Day 85.  (You can also tell us your progress in the comments section of the post that day if you don't want to link up).
6) Finale will be April 15th (easy to remember as it is tax day in the US), when you will tell us how you did on your goals.
7) Celebrate!!  Perhaps pick 3 more things to do next??

Kick off Link up:



Don't forget, you may also just leave your 3 things in a comment on this post.

My 3 things:

1) Update the blog - some things are long overdue!
2) Aviatrix Medallion Quilt - this quilt is crazy beautiful
3) Finish Batik Tile Quilt - I just want this one out of my house!


Thanks for reading,

Jen

Blocks of 2016 - Building Blocks Tuesday

Behold! The Blocks 0f 2016!



1. Foxes for Fancy Forest quilt, 2. Geese in the Forest for Lizzie, 3. Rose trellis blocks for Nita, 4. Gi's Star, 5. Bunny blocks multiplied!, 6. economy blocks for Pam, 7. Gi's Star 2, 8. May's Geese in the Forest, 9. For Celine, 10. Alpine Block for Gretchen, 11. Delectable Mountain blocks for Margaret, 12. Broken Herringbone 1, for Shelly, 13. Guild Challenge block, 14. Sawtooth Star, 15. For Celine, 16. owl block, 17. Broken Herringbone 3, for Shelly, 18. blocks for Carrigan comfort quilts, 19. Autumn Leaves for Nita, 20. Garden Fence 2, 21. Prairie Queen block for Pam, 22. Fireflies, 23. Autumn Leaves for Nita, 24. Geese in the Forest blocks for Laurie, 25. The hedgehogs, 26. Prairie Queen block for Pam, 27. Thistle blocks, 28. Bunny block, 29. Garden Fence 1, 30. Broken Herringbone 2, for Shelly, 31. Garden Fence 3, 32. Hedgehog 1, 33. Sawtooth Star, 34. Garden Fence block, 35. More Broken Herringbones, 1, 36. Prairie Queen block for Pam

Wow! Quite a variety.  Some of those blocks were so fun to make, others....meh.  I bet you will see some more of those Fancy Forest creatures in the upcoming year.  My eldest daughter wants me to make her a replica, and I have most of the fabric already cut, so why not?

What blocks have you been working on this week?  I would love to see.  Link up your fabulous blocks.  You put a lot of hard work into them - show them off!  This free linky will stay open until the first Monday of next month, but I will repost it every Tuesday until a new month starts.

Rules:

1) Please link up only to the page on your blog showing your wonderful blocks, not just the blog homepage.  Flickr and Instagram pictures are also OK.
2) Make sure to put your blog name as the description so people know where they are going or the name of your block!
3) Please grab my button and post it in your blog post or sidebar.
4) Visit other linky participants!

Thanks for reading,

Jennie


***This post may contain affiliate links.  If you purchase something after clicking on one of my links, I may be compensated, but at no additional cost to you!

100 Day Challenge - 2017

Last year, while trying to come up with my New Year's Resolutions, I realized that I do much better with a shorter deadline.  There is something about having the WHOLE year to get something done that is practically a green light for procrastination.  So instead of year-long resolutions, I challenged myself to do 3 things in 100 days, and many of you joined me.  We had all kinds of projects completed - quilts, knitted socks, needlepoint, even new blogs started.  I've been getting lots of questions about hosting it again, so here it is!

How does the 100 Day Challenge work?

1) Pick 3 specific Quilty/Craft goals - finish something old?  try something new?  declutter/destash?  easy/hard?  Doesn't matter, just be SPECIFIC.
2) On Friday, January 6th, either leave your 3 goals in a comment in that day's Kick Off post, or write your own blog post with your intentions and link them up to the linky posted that day.
3) Get to work
4) Check in linky's will be posted at Day 30, Day 60, and Day 85.  (You can also tell us your progress in the comments section of the post that day if you don't want to link up).
5) Finale will be April 15th (easy to remember as it is tax day in the US), when you will tell us how you did on your goals.

What to you think?  Want to join in?

I am picking three specific things to accomplish in 100 days.  Why so specific?  That's another thing I've learned about myself: if I let myself generalize too much, I often can rationalize that I accomplished something when I have not.

Last year, I accomplished 2 of my 3 goals, and I made some progress on that 3rd one.

This year, my specific goals are:

1) update my blog pages.  I knew I had been neglecting my Craftsy reviews, but I didn't realize that when I didn't renew my inlinkz account that all my tutorials were hidden away.  You can still get to them, but it involves multiple clicking.  Time to get that fixed up.  While this goal seems easy enough, I have really been working at not spending as much time at the computer this past year.  I find that if I sit down to even write a few emails, I get sucked into the vortex and hours go by.  I will really have to focus and will likely have to set a timer to keep my time on the computer limited.

2) My guild has a new challenge for 2017, and I think the Aviatrix Medallion Quilt by Elizabeth Hartman would be perfect.  The pattern has a lot of things that I like: bright colors, varied blocks - some easy, some more challenging (they must be since there is a specific help page for the pattern).  I think it will keep me interested.  The real challenge will be when it comes time to quilt it.  I love how Jess at the Elven Garden quilted hers.  That style of heavy quilting is right up my alley, but......it is time-consuming.

3) Batik Tile quilt - why oh why am I choosing this one?  Quite simply, I don't like it and it needs to be gone.  I despise the fabric, don't even like the pattern much, and am tired of seeing it whenever I look through my UFO's.  That said, all the blocks are nearly done and it is just the sort of quilt that my quilt would love as either an auction quilt or a charity quilt.  Plus, I still need practice on my longarm, and I might as well practice on quilts that will be donated for a cause.



So?  Who's In?  Great!  See you Friday!

Jen