Finally, A Completed UFO!

I am finally able to work on whittling away at my UFO list.  This Zigzag quilt was on the list (notice the past tense here!!)  It's now finished and donated to my local Project Linus chapter.  The fabric for this quilt came to me as a bag of scraps.  Putting it together was quick and fun.  I did the machine quilting myself, although it has been more than a year since I have quilted anything on my machine, and it shows!  Boy, was I out of practice.  I thought about taking the quilting out and starting over, but that's not going to happen.  So I officially declared it DONE!

Now on to another UFO, as well as getting projects ready for the upcoming retreat in May.  I'm way behind!

Using It Up

This past year, I've been trying to use up the vast stash of fabric that I have in my house. I've made a number of quilts from my scraps, but the pile just isn't going down! This quilt is one I made yesterday from a dozen fat quarters that I had on hand. Even the borders came from my stash. The pattern is one I have had for many-a-year...it's a "stack and slice" technique...and is extremely easy and fast to construct. It will be quilted and given to the child of one of our fallen troops through my local Project Linus Chapter.

Has anyone else been successful at using up their stash? I know there are lots of blogs out there that are dedicated to stash busting if you are needing ideas on how to sort, cut, and use up that ever-growing pile of fabric!

"And I Made My First Block on the Sewing Machine!"

My little Sweet Pea was here for the past month, and what a fun time we had! She got to use my sewing machine for the first time...and at age 4, that's a pretty big deal! My little travel machine, a Janome Jem 760, is just perfect for her...especially since I can slow the speed way down for her to learn to sew. Her first block was a simple strippy block, and she LOVED the process of picking her strips and sewing them on. The blocks are 12-1/2" and she was able to make 2 that day (we were at a Project Linus sewing day, so her blocks will be made into a quilt for another child who needs a blanket). Her enthusiasm spilled over into the following days and weeks, where she daily asked to sew! She also enjoyed her first Shop Hop, where she eagerly collected new fabrics for future projects. I am so excited to have another quilter in the family! She also made her Mom and her soon-to-be Auntie Rachel custom potholders! She drew her art work on squares of muslin, and then was able to sew simple borders on the squares. They are so cute, don't you think!

Oh...and while my little Sweet Pea was here, she learned to use her scissors...to cut her own hair!! Not suppose to happen at Grandma's!! Her Mom will be taking her to the hairdressers for her first haircut.

Progress

I finished another UFO today! Hooray!! It is not one from my UFO Challenge List, but one of the many that would not fit onto the list of 15. This one was made entirely from scraps, in patriotic colors (I know, the photo is so dark - I even went outside to take the picture but it was overcast, so still not the best!!). The patchwork sashing around the stars are 2.5" squares cut from various red, white blue, and cream/tan fabrics. The inner border is red, and the outer border is blue. This quilt will be donated to the child of one of our fallen soldiers through Project Linus.

No Longer An Alien!

I completed one of my UFO's this morning! Yay! It's not one of the "chosen 15" for the UFO Challenge, but a UFO none the less! And I'm so glad to have it finished! It is a charity quilt, and will be given to a little girl in need of some huggin' in about an hour. I should have taken a close-up picture of the main fabric...it's adorable. A little girl, wearing a big floppy hat, playing in the big ol' hat box, with 3 sweet bunnies looking on! The border fabrics are pink and blue mini dots, even though the pink looks red in the photo. I still haven't figured out how to get a better quality photo indoors!

Helping Others

In addition to finishing up on some of my UFO's, I've been working on a few other projects for some good causes! The 30's reproduction quilt is for a friend that was just diagnosed with cancer. Our Tuesday quilting group wanted to wrap her in a great big hug, so we each made a block or two and put them together into a comfy quilt. A friend will be quilting it, and it should be around her shoulders soon!

The second quilt was made for a friend's Dad, who was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. Again, our Tuesday quilting group decide to make a cozy quilt to comfort Dad while he lives out his last days, and to let our friend know that we were thinking about her and praying for her. The quilt is soooo much more prettier in person! It was made from fall colored flannels, and makes you just want to cuddle up with it! Another friend from the group quilted it and did an outstanding job...unfortunately, you cannot see it from the photo.

Lastly, the third photo is a quilt I made for our local chapter of Project Linus. The fabric came from an online ABC Swap. Each person picks a letter of the alphabet, chooses a fabric to represent that letter, and then cuts out 27 ten inch squares. In turn, each participant will receive 26 alphabetical squares, with the 27th set going to charity. The hostess picked Project Linus, and this is what I chose for the quilt top.

It's a cold, windy day here in Northern Missouri making Greggor House quite drafty! The add-on wood furnace has a hard time keeping up, or at least I have a hard time keeping wood on the fire! But I settled into my favorite chair this morning and sewed the binding on a quilt for my local Project Linus chapter. The quilt warmed me up to have it sit on my lap, and I'm praying it will provide equal warmth and comfort to an area child in need.

Now I need to move on to the next quilt project, but I'm feeling a little overwhelmed at where to start. I'm a list-maker, but sometimes I have too many "To Do" lists going, further compounding the decision-making! I think the old adage..."one step at a time"...would apply here. So, the next step is making some pinwheel blocks for an upcoming retreat. These will be made of 30's reproduction fabrics and will be so sweet when finished. The finished blocks will then be swapped out at the retreat!