NewFO and UFO Thursday - February Report

Lets do UFO's first -

My UFO Challenge for this month was to work on my Orca Bay Quilt.  As you may recall from earlier this month, I completed 30 blue string blocks. I had plans to do more last weekend or even last night before midnight but it didn't happen. My goal for the month was to make progress on the quilt and I did... I just never thought to take a picture.

One of my own goals for the year was to finish my "florabunda" quilt based on an antique that Bonnie Hunter encouraged us to all work on starting last year as leader-enders. I finished the top, now called Kangaroo Walkabout, this month and even bought the batting. I still need to piece the back and get it sandwiched.

Now, on to the NewFOs...

My designated project for the month was to work on my broderie perse project. I didn't get far but it is started! I cut the green batik for the sashings. I was too timid to cut into the koi fabric and that's as far as I got. I never took a photo of the cut parts, nor did I remember to grab the EQ file. Can you guess what I'll be working on in March?

This months doll quilt was based on broken dishes or half square triangles. Not having the book to get the pattern from, I doodled in EQ which also let me play with color placement. This is the design I settled on:

The original design had more random color placement and a little heart stitchery in the center block. I've picked out the following fabrics (still deciding on the borders: rightmost fabrics) and planned to make a heart shaped yoyo for the center.

My last new project for the month, started on a whim 4 days before the month ended, was another Bonnie inspired project. You may recall that I came across some half square triangles and a pattern almost simultaneously. I again doodled in EQ to come up with this layout based on Bonnie's original design and my lack of 16 more HST:

The colors are not correct at all since the HST are all batiks...it was just easier to doodle this way. The two purple borders could turn out to be anything and I'll be going to the LQS tomorrow to see what strikes my fancy. As you can see in the following photo, I do have a neutral stripe that would be fun as sashing, border or binding. There is also a chunk of the neutral used in each of the HST blocks available to use. I also have that wild orangey fabric that I got from a sale bin. I originally thought it would work for backing but what about outer border? I don't think there is enough for both places. Tell me what you think before I go to the store tomorrow. Please don't make me make my own decision!!

NewFOs and UFOs

Somehow I never started the NewFO I thought I would in January...not to worry tho as I did start 5 other projects! One is done, I hope another is done this weekend and one is probably long term altho a little addictive.

This is the NewFO I finished already. A mug rug that was donated to my local library for their V-Day fundraiser. I had planned to also make one with hexies instead of the hearts but forgot until I was typing this post. I haven't picked colors for the hexie version yet.

This is the NewFO that I hope is finished this weekend. I haven't specified what it is but several people have made some very close guesses.

This is my addictive NewFO. I had thought it would be long term but it's too easy to grab for a few minutes here and there. This could be a good thing so that I don't have parts sitting around forever. Maybe I should aim for the end of the year? I'll still collect selvages but I'm not sure what the next project will be and I need to see how many I have left when this quilt is done anyway.

This NewFO would probably be pretty easy to get finished and since I hope to keep up with the doll-quilt-a-month-a-long at http://sentimentalquilter.blogspot.com/2012/02/february-small-quilt-challenge.html (this is the link for the next doll quilt) I better get caught up and keep the quilting simple. I had thought about fans but we shall see when I get the red backing on what strikes me.

The last NewFO isn't done yet because I wasn't sure how I wanted to proceed. This is a cover for my Kindle and my original idea was to make the hexies go all the way around without any seams but I wasn't sure how to make that work along with the tutorial that I working from. I've now decided that the best way to proceed will be to make the hexies a little bit bigger, quilt this to the batting and then do the seams as on the tutorial. I think it will be safer for the Kindle. Now if I could just figure out what's wrong with my wifi connection all will be honky dorey.

My January UFO was my Blooming 9-Patch, probably started 4 or 5 years ago. I had hoped to finish the top (which turned out I just needed borders) and get her quilted this month. I purchased the border fabrics and got part of it on but had to stop when I was just a little short on the light purple fabric. I did buy another quarter yard but I still need to finish the borders. I bought batting (on sale!) and I should have enough scraps to piece the back. I would like to think this doesn't now go to the bottom of the UFO pile but who knows.

My February UFO is RollRollCottonBoll which was Bonnie's 2010 mystery project. I've actually listed RRCB for 2 months in this year's UFO Challenge so I don't have specific goals this month other than to make progress. I have 4 steps left: neutral string blocks (and y'all know how much I love them!), assembling the 600 HSTs from those 2 skinny bins into sashing and attaching them to the blocks which are under the red and neutral fabrics, assembling the center of the top and then the borders (parts are in that black dish to the left). OK - no real pressure this month and I like that!

UFO Thursday - 1/26/12

Remember how I had hoped to get both borders on my Blooming 9-Patch last weekend?

I was tootling right along, drawing out the borders in EQ to see if I liked the widths and finally decided yep, these are the measurements I'm gonna go with. I got the dark purple on. I got the four sides of the light purple and then realized I only had enough to get 2 corners on. That last piece of the yardage was 1/4" too narrow. Phooey. No worries, tomorrow I can go buy a little more. Purples are still on sale so it's all good :)

I'll have to measure much more closely before cutting the outer green border...it's so old I can't get any more.

You can also see I laid out one of the lime green binding strips.

My goal for the month was to complete the top, sandwhich and quilt it. Doesn't look like we'll get quite that far but I can at least finish the borders this weekend and piece the backing. Any extra fabric will be trimmed right into the strip bins. One of my LQS has their end of month sale on Monday - I'll go get some batting.

UFO Friday

After being up since 1:51am and not getting home until 9am for a rescue call (FYI-Water Rescue equipment is owned by my/Castile FD and Silver Springs FD also works with us, it's not a County-wide team), I decided to take advantage of all that accumulated sick time and called in sick so I could get some sleep. I figured I would never get to sleep after the adrenaline but I briefly woke to the noon whistle and finally got up at 1pm for another rescue call. Getting home just before 3pm I figured it was finally shower time instead of another nap or I would never sleep through the night. After that I thought I would have hours to sew!!! Except... I dragged my feet and barely got much done. Phooey. I am pretty sure it's because I woke up sick again today :(

I worked on my red strings another 20 minutes and they almost all have the strings on them. I just need to cut 2 more strips and I should be done with the sewing. Just need to trim them and remove the papers.

Then I worked on my January UFO (finally, I know, we are getting to the title of this post). I had to trim each side to straighten it before I added the first border, cut out the borders and sew them on. Good grief - it felt like it took 2 hours to get that much done. I am maintaining the angled corners which takes a little more effort but I think I am going to enjoy the look. Only 2 more borders to go! I am hoping to get 1 if not both borders done this weekend.

UFO Thursday - 1/5/12

For the month of January we are supposed to work on UFO #5 and for me that's my Blooming 9-Patch. You can see the rest of my UFO list on the tab at the top of this blog.

When writing UFO list I pulled some of the leftovers from my 2011 list and added in some "new" things I had run across recently, including the Blooming 9-patch found when I opened the drawer with the left over fabrics and pattern.

I finally unfolded the top this morning and discovered it's already done...didn't remember that! Anyways, I think it needs a border only because it's just not that big - I guess I would currently consider it a lap quilt. I prefer a couch quilt - meaning a quilt that will cover me from shoulders to feet while laying down on the couch with at least one cat and this won't cut it so far.

I do have some leftovers of the outermost fabric altho I have to measure it before I decide if there is enough for a border. I started with the purple/lime fabric that is the second row and now it reads as very reddish-orange so I'm not sure this is were I want to go with the quilt. There is also a pinky purple I had purchased in case I wanted to add that as the next row. Maybe that has enough for a border but again it's far from the colors I had envisioned. I will have to lay out all the possibles this weekend and see how they actually look. Hah! Maybe I can post that for next week's UFO Thursday and make y'all decide for me ;)

NewFOs and UFOs

I am afraid we are pictureless today...but I wanted to let you know that I have posted new "pages" on my blog with info on the 2012 NewFo and UFO Challenges that I am participating in. I hope you'll check out the pages at the top of my blog and maybe even join me in these challenges.

UFO Thursday

It's a new month which means there is a new UFO challenge by Judy at http://www.patchworktimes.com/.

This month's is similar to last month's project... I just need to add the borders to Bonnie's Carolina Christmas and the top will be finished. And look...it seems the borders are (mostly? all?) put together and I just need to sew them on to the quilt center.

Why do we get so close and never cross the finish line?

May's UFO Challenge is done!

WooHoo!

I actually "finished" my May UFO project!!

All I had to do was finish adding 2 outer rows of borders to 2 sides of the quilt. The batiks were already sewn together, I just had to add the background material to fill out the rows (not enough batiks as these were from charm packs). What did that take? 30 Minutes?

I've kinda decided to call this "Headed North" or "Moving North" or "Moving Home" or something like that. What do you think? The batiks were purchased in NC as I was moving from Florida back to NY.

UFO Thursday

This was one of my first quilts (I've sewn for 30+ years but only quilted for 6 or 7). I had cut the orange and black fabrics into strips and was making the log cabins until I noticed how wonky they were. That was before I found wonkiness on the internet and knew it had it's place.

Then I found a mini paperpiecing template that I could use. I cut down each original strip into ~1" strips and "designed" this in Excel - Yup, I can find the file if you don't believe me! Can you see the flying geese?

I only have to pull the paper (vellum really - my absolute fav but hard to find lately) off 11 more blocks. I already have the backing fabric - It's black and orange and the inspiration for the whole project.

UFO Thursday

I was a naughtly little girl. I didn't finish my #1 UFO this month for the Challenge.

• I finished my quilted jacket that was started almost 3 years ago
• I worked on strips and blocks for my Omigosh quilt, a lonterm project
• I made half square triangles for my rollRollCottonBoll mystery quilt that was started last year
• I worked on cutting brown and gold strips towards my sweetPotatoPie that I started 3+ years ago
• I started and completed the top of a hexie doll quilt to use for National Quilting Day Weekend activities at the LQS
• I finally started the hexie project to replicate the bathroom tile floor at work. Have wanted to do this for almost 3 years
• I started another hexie project that will be considered longterm
• I started a fruit & veggie quilt
• I finished up a table runner and 2 quilt top samples for coming classes at the LQS
• I painted the office/library
• I attended 5 non-work related meetings, including dinner for 20 at my house
• I attended 2 birthday parties and other family events
• I answered I don't know how many rescue calls
• I've chased socks all over the house (yes, the saga continue)

BUT

I didn't finish my UFO for Judy's Challenge.

What do you think my punishment should be?
Do you want to stone me with new spools of King Tut thread? Do you want to bury me under fabric cut into 1", 2" or 2.5" strips? You choose and let me know. I'll be in the studio when you decide!

UFO Thursday

I've worked on UFOs this week but haven't made a lick of progress on my #1UFO for Judy's Challenge yet this month and there are only how many days left?! As close as I have gotten to working on it (remember, I only need to finish quilting and bind a table runner) is to look thru my new book for quilting designs. The last time I posted about this runner someone suggested I quilt a vine in the center of the runner. Good idea! You can see I marked several pages for possible border designs. Hopefully tonight I can narrow down the choices.

You can see the sun came back out. 4+ days of no sun were a real downer. On the up side, having the sun come into the office this morning, where I still needed to decide what wall to pain the accent color, made an easy decision for me this morning. The wall I chose is the only wall to get hit with the sun in the mornings (no walls get sun in the afternoon, wrong side of the house).

I neglected to take a photo but I have worked on my Omigosh quilt. I cut 2.5" squares on the diagonal and sewed them to the sides of 4-patches made of 1" strips. The 4-patches were already made and some of the triangles already sewn on so this didn't take too much time altho it had been sitting for quite a while. Now I need to trim them up. I think it will add up to considerable waste but with this many seams and such tiny pieces it will turn out better when everything is squared properly. Lots and lots more of these to make so I'll take a photo on another day.

I've also made a little progress on my mystery quilt from Bonnie. I'll sew a few more tris, press them open and then count them to see how many more I need. I know I also need a lot more but no use counting too soon and getting depressed about it!

UFO Thursday

For this month's UFO Project, Judy chose #1. For me, this means I need to finish quilting and bind Michele's table runner. I really like this runner and it was super easy to make - I'd even like to make another. But when Michele said she wanted to buy it when I only had part of the quilting done, I kinda froze. What if I chose a free motion design and then she didn't like it any more? There are lots of designs I would like to do but I was having trouble narrowing down the options. (Please don't ask me to make descisions, EVER, on anything.) Then I found Leah's 365 days of free motion designs. Loved it but PURE overload.



You can see that I did tiny pebbles in the pink border. That outside border really is more green - I wanted to quilt that and the center, leaving the neutral blocks without any quilting.  I think I even already made the binding for this. Just need to decide on the quilting pattern. That is 9/10ths of the problem, actually quilting and binding will be a breeze.

I've got a busy weekend ahead so I don't know when I'll get to this. Will let you know ASAP...

February UFO Challenge Completed

It was relatively painless to get this UFO finished. The math that I had been avoiding turned out fine and it fits relatively well together. I'm not super fond of quilts that start with borders and make the center fit but I'm more comfortable with it for now and would probably tackle it again if the right pattern comes along.

Just before I attached the braids I took another look at the pattern in the book. Turns out the beginning triangles (striped) should have been on the outside edges of the quilt. I rearranged the braids but, after looking at it with the ending/leaf triangles on the outside edges for so long, quickly changed them back to what you see above. The outside edges will be trimmed when it's time to add binding - didn't want to deal with bias edges any earlier than I had to.

The basket there in the back left side was my great-grandmother's laundry basket. I really need to find a better place to keep it.

This last photo shows the colors a little more realistically.

UFO Challenge update

I’d really like to blame this on Erin (my friend and local librarian) but I can’t, can I? Oh yes I can! Hello, my name is Sarah and I’m a Deadliest Catch-aholic. AND ERIN ENABLES ME! Basically, all I have done this week is watch season one on DVD. Not a lick of stitching or even worrying about not doing a lick of stitchin. Season two has already been placed on hold for me.

Anyways… a long long time ago in a state far far away….I should have been packing all my worldly possessions to move from Miami back to my hometown in NY. Instead, I was still taking classes at my LQS since I loved my friends and teachers there and feared the quilting here in NY would be different. That’s why this months UFO was never finished although it was sew close. And do you know what the biggest obstacle was to finish it?? Math!

Rusty, AKA Jane Hardy Miller, was a teacher at our store and the person who forced me to learn "color." She had already published the very popular French Braid Quilts and was working on her second book: French Braid Obsession. We were testing a pattern for the book and had we finished our quilts we might have had the opportunity to have it included in the book. Guess mine won't be in the book, huh?!

WWHHAATT?? – in looking up links for Rusty’s book, I see she has a new one coming out in June this year. Better start saving my pennies!

When I pulled this UFO out of it's drawer I found I had all four braids done with their purple spacer strip attached and some notes on the math to get the panel to fit into the center. I would have done things a little different now, such as cutting the panel slightly narrower and the extra spacers I still need to add bigger, so I could save the selvage dots for my collection and I would have purchased more of that great stripe for the binding. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20 and when you stall you can’t make changes. Either way, I have checked the math three more times and it still appears to come out ok so I finally cut the panel this morning and tonight or tomorrow (before season 2 arrives) I can get the spacer strips attached.

I didn’t lay out the extra spacers in this picture but that same purple will be used to add a 1.5” finished border around the center panel. Then I add the braids, trim the edges and it’s done. What will that take? A couple hours? And then another drawer is emptied!

I have always referred to this quilt as my wine french braid because of the grape/leaf fabrics and the colors. Maybe I should get some of that wine cork fabric for the back. It would really complement the top. Not that I have the money or time to actually finish the whole thing super soon.

Mainly because I did buy this flannel backing for the t-shirt quilt finished last month for the UFO Challenge. Think 9 patch: there will be 40” squares of the green in the 4 corners, the inner side rectangles will be about 12” of the teal and the center 12x12 square will be the green again. I thought it would be the best use of yardage and would make it as interesting as the front.

January UFO Challenge Completed

January's UFO Challenge was #6, my t-shirt quilt. My goal had been to complete the top. I started this quilt in 2007 or 2008 and after I moved back to NY, I didn't work on it again until this month. I'm thrilled to say that I got the top completed and I've even picked out the greet polka dot flannel to use on the back! It should be nice and snuggly!

I had a great picture of the quilt...however...as soon as I put the camera card into the laptop I discovered that there is a "card error" and all my pictures are lost. Thankfully this was only a 512 MB card but since I also have a problem with my other card it appears that I have to go buy a new one tonight. Wahhhhh...all my pictures are gone - cat pictures including Cali when she was new to me, my birthday with videos of the boys singing to me...wahhhhh :(

Will post a pic of the quilt tomorrow, if I can get a new card tonight. There is a "historical" snow storm approaching and I have no idea how soon/quickly the weather will get bad.

February's UFO is #10, my french braid with wine fabrics. I "think" I have all the fabrics I'll need but I have little idea of where I stand on the project so I'll neecd to spend some time to figure it out.

UPDATE - I got a new camera card last night. Yikes 4GB - that's a LOT of photos. This was a quickie shot this morning so it's not laid out perfectly flat. Poppie posed as today's Quality Control Officer.

UFO progress

Hah! This is as far as I could get this morning on the t-shirt quilt because it was the point of jumping into the shower at that very second or being really late for work. You'll need to trust me that I have the green border on all 4 sides and this is the second side of the black/final border that I'm about to finish. Thankfully I can pull out that top drawer and/or slider tray to support the body of the quilt while I wrestle with the borders. Saturday I am pinch-teaching a class at the LQS so I can scope out the flannel for backing this.

And here are the centers of my RRCB blocks. When making the twosies, I used 30 different greens and 30 different neutrals. Wish I had done the pinks that way, of course, I don't like pink, so I don't have 30 pinks, so I couldn't use 30 pinks, so why am I fussing about it? I still need to complete 580 more red/neutral half square tri's to finish these but at least we are making progress.

UFO Challenge Update - 1/20/11

As you may recall from last week, I had the middle of the top into two sections on the LR floor. When I came home from work Friday it was remarkably untouched given that there are 3 cats in the house who like to run the length of the house, ie thru the middle of the LR. Of course, as soon as I came back downstairs from feeding the cheeky monkeys and changing clothes I found that they had indeed been having fun. I walked past the scene of the crime into the quilt room and out ran the perps. You can barely make out their outlines as Pepper and Cali fled the scene.

Well, I had stopped at the LQS on the way home but "we" decided to just use the fabric I already had to do a skinny lime green inner border and black outer border. I went to bed early Friday and got up to a perfectly positioned quilt on the floor. But as soon as I walked to the kitchen I saw Cali make a run for the LR where she jumped, dived and twisted onto the quilt to end up like this. Doesn't she look proud of herself?!

Any way, I did get the two halves together and then realized there was no way I had enough of the green fabric to even do a 1" unfinished border. Harumph. The snow was blowing for the traditional birthday storm so I resigned myself to getting the needed fabric this coming weekend and made binding. I just love how the zig zag comes thru on the binding and how it will pop off the black border.

Design Wall Monday - 1/17/2011

Bronchitis knocks the wind out of you…really, it feels like you can’t breath and the hacking to get the crap out of your lungs is no fun either so once I got home Friday night and got into my comfy pjs – that’s how I stayed until dinner time on Sunday. I can’t remember the last 2-full-day-weekend that I just did what I want when I wanted: sewing and reading and sleeping in and staying up late. Be sure to check out my other post today to see why I really wanted to do “nothing” all weekend!

Friday night I hit the LQS after work and came home to dinner and time in front of the boob tube. Saturday morning the sewing marathon began. I won’t show pictures of everything so I have some fodder to talk about later this week but this is what I accomplished over the weekend:

1. Remember the pink alert? I finished 6 little treat bags for my tea party that got postponed until next weekend.

2. The center of my t-shirt quilt (UFO #6) is finished but I didn’t have enough border fabric so I’ll have to go back to the LQS. Will post more on Thursday…

3. Remember DWM last week with the experimental windmill runner? I finished the top but I think it leans towards failure. I just don’t care for it although I am sure someone else will. It was a good study to see how a row of all of the same fabric charms works - maybe that is the problem: one row might have worked but not the black and cream rows. It will be a good sample for class but I won’t do another with rows. I like 2 fabrics, but not rows. I am not sure if I will bind it in the brown or the cream color...leaning towards the cream to pull it in more (it does match the wheat fabric).

4. I finished the last 2 green and cream Turning 4-T blocks. This was supposed to be for my b-day so I’ll work on it some more tonight. I am designing this quilt myself and it’s turning into a design as you go kinda thing so I have to decide how I want to proceed. I’ve only changed it 3 or 4 times so far.

5. I also worked on 2 sections of my Roll Roll Cotton Boll blocks…will post more another day….

UFO Challenge Update - 1/14/2011

Turns out that hacking cough was bronchitis thanks to recent alleries and asthma. Doc sent me home Wednesday with lotsa good meds to rest and relax but what's a (quilter) girl to do? Sitting in an upright position is the best option when breathing is important so...I sat at my sewing machine.

All blocks are now done and squared up to 18" using a neat gadget I got for Christmas.


The Quilt Ruler Connector holds any two rulers together. Small drop down tabs and a ledge at the one end help line up the rulers and the 4 suction cups hold them in place. Works like a charm! My only improvement would be an additional pair of suction cups at the last third of a pair of long rulers that may not be the same length. When I picked up the 24" and 18" rulers I had used, the far end was a little floppy.

Back to the quilt...the rows are almost together...just need to get the two halves together. Then it's on to the borders which means I kinda need to decide what I want to use it for. It's already 74" square or bigger than my fav couch quilt. This morning I thought I wanted a small inner border of that central green marble to tie it in and then I could surround it with that zig zag fabric. I'm just not sure if there is enough zigzag to go around. I could make the quilt rectangular with zig zag on top and bottom but it will be hard to match the pattern and I'm still not sure there is enough. I could also use the green and black for borders and use the zig zag for binding. I think this might be the best because there is soooo much purple background, the black and green might ground it. I still need to decide how much bigger I want it...might be time to go measure the bed again. Maybe I should even write it down this time.

I'm also thinking that a t-shirt quilt is heavy enough, I could skip the batting and just back it with flannel. Anyone quilted a t-shirt quilt or something with flannel. Any suggestions?

UFO Challenge update - 1/6/11

In the month of January we are working on UFO #6...which is my t-shirt quilt started in a class about 3 or 4 years ago that then snuggled in this drawer ever since.

This is a big drawer but when I actually started digging, I discovered it's mostly full of extra shirts and shirt parts to fill out this quilt (like breast pocket logos) or to make another quilt. The 13 t-shirts I need for this design (yeh, I even found a diagram of my design with color layout) were already ironed to the woven interfacing and 2 of the blocks had the corner triangles sewn on. I had even cut out the rest of the triangles I would need for the corners and setting triangles. I already have the zipzag stripe for borders and binding.

What I discovered is that, unlike the original pattern which called for a different fabric on each t-shirt, I had planned to square up each shirt with the same fabric. Boring! I'll be at a few LQSs this weekend so I am going to look for a black TOT and maybe something else to go around the middle block. The black should tie in the purple fabrics that have a black stripe and a lot of the t-shirts also have black. If I don't find anything for the middle block I can either use the purple flower fabric or some of the stripe.

I've now got 8 blocks done and I don't think it will take more than a couple hours to finsh the remaining 4 when I get more fabric. And then it's on to borders.