I’m actually on top of things this month!  Yippee!  The goal setting has really helped keep me focused this month.  Here’s how I did on my August goals:

1.  Finish the damn Innocent Crush quilt.  Iââ?¬â?¢m so nervous about not doing a good job, that this thing is just sitting there.  I need to get over myself and  get to it. Done, done, done and done!  I free-motion quilted this bad boy and I did a pretty good job.  I still need more practice, but I’m am so proud of having done the entire thing, from start to finish.  It’s a confidence builder.  I actually feel like the quilt is easier to manage with free motion because I’m focusing on sections at a time, as opposed to feeding the length of it through my machine in one pass.  I started the project in March, and finished in August.

2.  Finish Juliaââ?¬â?¢s quilt.  I told a friend I would finish a quilt for her and Iââ?¬â?¢m excited to work on it, but also nervous because she did such a beautiful job piecing it together.  I need to get some confidence. In progress!  I’m doing straightline quilting and it’s taking me a little longer than I though, but so far it looks pretty good.  The fabric and pattern is more traditional so I think the straightline is better suited to this project.  I hope she likes it!  I’m about halfway done.

3.  Finish piecing and baste by mystery quilt. I have been working on this project and it is coming together nicely.  Half done!  I finished the piecing as blogged here, but I haven’t had a chance to baste it yet.

4.  Make a baby gift for a friend whoââ?¬â?¢s pregnant! Check!  No photos yet, because I haven’t gifted it yet.  It is super cute!

5.  Finish two small quilts I recently discovered.  There isnââ?¬â?¢t much to do with them. Done!!  I did some quilting on them (even though one was already bound, and did the binding on the second one.  The crazy thing is that Bill and I made these together in October of 1998.  I think we knew someone who was having a baby and I decided we would make a quilt as a gift, but then I couldn’t give them up since we made them.  Selfish, maybe, but I’m glad I kept them.

6.  Make a tablet pouch.  One of Billâ��s coworkers asked for one a gajillion months ago and I have got to make this for him. DONE!  Finally!  And I finished it with 3.5 hours to spare.

7.  Finish a needlepoint I recently started.  I did make progress, but it’s not done.  I thought this would be a tough one to accomplish.

8.  Crochet at least 20 more granny squares for a total of 44. I’d say I accomplished this one.  I actually finished all the flowers, and have done the border crocheting on 24 squares even though I haven’t seamed them together yet.

9.  Read 4 books this month. Done and then some!  6 books this month, although three were young adult novels.  I read Borderline by Nevada Barr (very good), Among the Mad by Jacqueline Winspear (excellent, I highly recommend the Maisie Dobbs series), The Cat Dancers by P.T. Deutermann (police mystery, entertaining), and three Trixie Belden books – The Marshland Mystery, The Happy Valley Mystery, and the Mystery at Bob-White Cave).  So far I’ve read 32 books this year.

In summary, I finished 6 of 9 goals, am at the halfway point on 2 other goals, and about a third of the way through the last goal.  I’d say that was a pretty successful month!  I touched everything on my list and didn’t start anything new.