Finishing

I have been working on finishing up some of my UFO's.  I recently took a trip to my sister's house in Arizona, and made some progress on my slowly, but surely, dwindling pile of unfinished projects. 

 My sister owns a Gammill, so that made quilting the completed tops a breeze! 

 This was made from blocks from a BPF swap.

This UFO, entitled "Red Tidings" was made using scraps.  It measures 80" x 80".

In all, 10 UFO's were quilted, bound, and crossed off the "To Do" list!  Hooray!

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!

Snowman Gift

Recently, two of my friends(Michelle and Peggy) have posted on their blogs, cute little snowmen quilts displayed on a wire frame. I just loved them! I became inspired to make one, too, but knew it would just turn into another UFO. Really, I'm trying very hard not to create more UFOs. To my surprise, a package came from my sister the other day. Can you guess what was inside?!! Yep!! My very own snowman quilt in a cute little wire frame!! My sister embroidered the snowman in red (my favorite color) and embellished him with some cute snowflake buttons. Woohoo!!

...And All Through The House...

...not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse! It is soooooo quiet here. My little Sweet Pea went home on Thursday, and now the house is practically empty! I miss her already.

I was finally able to get back into my sewing room. It's been a very long time, and much has been neglected. I was able to make a set of tea towels for a friend's birthday. Our birthdays are a day apart, and we were going to go to lunch today, but the icky Midwest weather decided to show itself, so we have put it off until next week (hopefully). The poor quality photo shows the towels. I hope she likes them!

Now, off to find another project to work on...the Good Lord knows I have way too many started!

I Love You Beary Much

Another UFO finished...well, almost...it's not quilted yet!! The bear blocks were some of the first blocks that I made when I started quilting. They are hand pieced 9" blocks, and have been sitting in a plastic bag for more than 13 years. I decide this week that it was time...time for these bears to be a quilt and bring joy to a child in need. There are 6 blocks, but only 4 made it into the top. The other 2 will be used on the back.

UFO Finale

I finished my final UFO, "Fallen Leaves", today! It is my 8th finished project of the 15 on my list. Not a bad finish...just over half of my listed UFO's are now complete, some have even been given away as gifts. The UFO Challenge ends on Tuesday, but none of the 7 remaining items will be done before then. In addition to these 8, I have also completed numerous other UFO projects. It feels good, and as Martha would say, "It's a good thing"!!! Hooray!

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.

Finished Objects

I've been working away at my UFO's for the challenge I entered into in January. So far, I have completed 7 of the 15 named UFO's. The first one is called "Jolene Star" by Laundry Basket Quilts. It was from a kit of Civil War reproduction fabrics I had purchased from Backdoor Quilts while at the AQS show in Des Moines, IA last fall.

The second finish is tablerunner. It, too, was a kit I had purchased from Prairie Star Quilts while at the AQS show. The kit was actually a one star wallhanging, but there was enough fabric in this kit to make 3 stars! So I put them together to make a tablerunner for my long dining room table! This also was made with Civil War reproduction fabrics.

The third UFO completed is a homespun snowball quilt. Most of the blocks were acquired through an online swap many years ago. I added a few extra blocks to make it a usable size, and then added a piano key border.

It is a good feeling to have completed 7 of my UFOs. I may be able to complete one more before the challenge ends on June 30th.

For the Love of ME

...Mary Engelbreit, that is! This is one of my UFO's (not on the challenge list), and it is now a quilt top! This is just a panel that I put several borders on, and paper pieced the little pinwheel corner stones. Quilting to come soon, as I hope to give this as a gift to a friend.

Yesterday, my local quilt shop hosted a "Quilter's Rumble" at a local community center. This was an all day event for those of us who are Super Bowl widows or non-football enthusiasts. It was a time to sew on any project you wanted and share in some good fellowship. So, I brought my ME fabrics that I purchased several years ago, and started on my top. I finished up the last border this morning.

Red Roses from the Garden

This morning, I have been working on a very old UFO. (And this one happens to be on my UFO Challenge list! Yay!) This is one of my early quilting projects, and I had originally planned on making this quilt for my bed. But, I was still new to quilting, and I did not buy enough fabric, and, as you may have guessed, the fabric was no longer available (it was a WalMart find). So, I put it away for many years, and came across it several years ago. I almost scrap piled it!! I'm glad I didn't! I like the little quilt (it's lap size), and I'll be even happier when it is quilted, bound, and on my quilt rack!

Thanks, Jacob, for the "EV Settings" suggestion on my camera. I have been playing with it, and it has helped! I will need to play more, but at least I know there is a solution! This picture was taken with the new setting, and although one side of the picture is still dark, it is mostly due to the fact that the top is not laying flat and creating its own shadow.

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!

2009 UFO Challenge

An online quilt group that I belong to has started their 2009 UFO Challenge! For this challenge, I was to pick 15 of my UFO's and complete them by June 30th! The hard part was choosing just 15! I'm sorry to admit I have many more than 15 unfinished projects. But I have been chipping away at my stack of UFO's over the past 2 years, and it is getting smaller (although hard to tell!!). In addition, I've been trying to use up lots of fabric in my stash...you know, to make room for all of the new pretties coming out! The blocks in the photo are from one of my UFO's. It is a scrappy pineapple block using up some of my blues, greens, and white "leftovers". I am always amazed at how many quilt tops I can make from a little drawer of scraps. Just doesn't seem to make much of a difference in the volume of scraps...I'm convinced they must be reproducing in the bin...or something! Do you have UFO's to complete?

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.

Pinwheels on Parade

I finished another UFO today!! Hooray!! The 10" red and white pinwheel blocks were from an online swap several years ago. I needed to make a few more to make this quilt the size I wanted. I picked up the pretty red border fabric on Friday at my new local quilt shop, Stitch-n-Tyme , and put it on this morning! The photo is dark, something I have trouble with when taking photos in the house, but the reds are so pretty! Did I mention that red is my favorite color? Can't wait to get this one quilted! I've been working on several other UFO's, so maybe I will get them completed, and photos posted here later!

Side Tracked!

Yep!!! Instead of finishing some of the projects I've already started, I just had to make something new!! This was a pattern that I bought at the AQS show last month in Des Moines. It's called "Jolene Star" by Laundry Basket Quilts. It was fun to do, although a little bit of a learning curve for me! This pattern came with a set of 3 acrylic templates, so cutting was a bit slow...and I had to cut off a gazillion little "bunny ears"! The table topper measures 24" x 28". Quilting it via the sewing machine is next.

Fall Is In The Air!

Finished up another UFO yesterday! This was a kit I received last fall in an online swap. The pattern is Little Bits: Fallen Leaves by Cindi Edgerton. It is a paper-pieced pattern, which I love to do!! It is now complete, sandwiched with batting and backing, and I hope to have it quilted this week. Just trying to decide if I should hand quilt or machine quilt. It is small enough (22" x 22") that hand quilting would be very doable for me.

Spring Cleaning

I've been cleaning my sewing room, thanks to a challenge put forth by one of the online swap groups that I belong to. I must admit, it was quite humbling posting a picture of my messy sewing room for all to see! But it was the truth! A big mess. I have spent the good part of the week cleaning it, putting things away, giving things away, throwing things out, dusting, and vacuuming. I even worked on 3 UFO's, finishing one of them!! The room feels quite a bit larger...amazing what de-cluttering your room can do!! Now to get busy and finish up my UFO pile! As you can see from the photo, it is overflowing! Also, I've included a photo of my finished quilt top basket. These gems are waiting to go to the quilter!