The Truth

While at the retreat, I stayed mostly focuced on the tasks at hand.  I did sew something new.  I found the cutest print that was begging to become a baby quilt. 

I used the Quick Strippie pattern from Mary Quilts.  She has lots of great patterns for free if you haven't visited her site.  I am very pleased with how it turned out.

I am determined not to let projects left unfinished and compound my UFO problem.  I went ahead and pieced the backing.  The orange, blue, and brown are all flannel, yet, still no noticable change in the Flannel mountain.

 

Thank goodness it is Friday!  I am hoping for some quilting time this weekend.

 

 

scrappy swoon QAL

I was searching for a picture of the fabulous Swoon quilt pattern when I came across a great online quilt-a-long.  I thought maybe my excitement was because it was 11:00pm and I was sewing at a retreat.  Nope, I still felt the same way in the morning.  The best part is, I am not too late to the party.  There is still time to join in.

Check out this blog post if you are interested.  I plan to use a bin of 2 1/2" squares, so mine will be considerably smaller.  I would love to have some of my readers join in.

Yes, I know I have 80 some UFOs, but I have had 3 finished from the UFO list in January so far.  As one blogger commented, mine are MFOs (mostly finished objects).

January Retreat

I had so much fun sewing with my sister, niece, and friends at the library.  It was also a productive weekend for me.  I sewed the binding on 2 spicy spiral runners (from the January Goals list) and another quilt that isn't from the parade.  I also finished the log cabin blocks for this quilt (parade part 2).  I can't remember where I found the pattern, but I really like it.

 Sue worked really hard on a Kindle case most of the weekend.  Several people were finishing up the Bonnie Hunter Easy Street mystery.  The group project for this weekend was an X-block runner.  Several people finished it, but I didn't remember to take pictures.  Surprisingly there were no shopping adventures.  We talked about a road trip, but we all remained focused and sewed.

Eleanor worked all weekend on Easy Street.  She took the time to press all those seams open.











Check with Judy to see what others are working on.

Weekend Progress

I had a lot of fun in my studio this weekend.  I worked on my January goals and remained focused.  Maybe there is hope for me yet!  I added both the borders to my twister quilt.  I am very pleased with the red border I chose.  I decided to also piece the backing so it would be ready to quilt.  I haven't made a quilt this large in a long time.  I used up a large piece of black fabric and some of the fabric that didn't work for the border.


All I have left on my January goal list is 10 Farmer's Wife Tutorials.  I hope to get those done this weekend at the library quilt retreat.

Stop over and visit Judy and see what other people are working on.

No Show Quilt Binding

I did a little demonstration last night at quilt group on No show quilt binding.  This was new to me because I am not a garment sewer.  To those that do garment sewing, you probably call this facing.  I basically used this super fabulous tutorial with great photos.  I quilted this quilt last year and it has been waiting for me to figure out the binding.  It is all ready for hand stitching and a hanging sleeve.

I plan to hang it in my studio to add a little color.

Right is sometimes wrong

 When I started this quilt, I didn't think I had anything in my resource center for the border.













 I found this fabric and I thought it would be just perfect for the border. As I got ready to cut the borders for this quilt, I thought I would hang it on the design wall first.

This is what I saw when I hung it on the design wall.  Yuck!  I didn't like it.  I am not sure if it is because it is too busy or if there is too much white.  Either way, I knew right away it wasn't right so I didn't cut it.

Back to the drawing board I went.  Funny thing is, the first thing I did was go to the computer and look for another one of those perfect pieces of fabric.  I found a few that I thought would work, but I decided to go to my studio and look before I made the purchase.   I found this piece, and I am much happier with how it looks.  It is red with a subtle black pattern.   It is all pressed and ready to cut this weekend.

It looks like the white will become part of the backing or used in another project.  I love the fabric, but it just wasn't right for this project.

Addendum to the Parade

I guess these projects were late to the parade, but I found them so I wanted to add them to the list of unfinished.

 80. Postage stamp blocks.

 81.  Lodge Quilt - Debbie Mumm pattern

82.  Raggy bricks pattern

 83.  Raggy Squares pattern

84.  Twister wall hanging (just needs borders)

Still working my plan

I am working from my January tasks.  I knew I was a list person, but my list of goals seems to be helping me remain focused.

I have the borders on the flannel top, AND I have the backing pieced.  For the last 2 years I have had on my goal  list to use up my flannel.  I failed miserably!  I have too much and I seldom pull it when putting fabrics together for a project.  This top was made from scraps, but the borders and backing came from the flannel mountain.  I can't notice a difference in the stack, but it is a start.  I have been looking through magazines for patterns that look to be flannel friendly.  If you know of any great patterns for this, drop me the link(s)


I think I will go ahead and quilt this even though it isn't on the goal list.  That will leave me with just 2 more tasks for January.

Tonight's task will be to measure the twister quilt that I pieced in 2012 at Shipshe and cut the border strips.

At one time I tried to work on my projects oldest to newest.  That really didn't work for me.  I am trying to pick projects for the month that I feel inspired to work on and go from there.  The flannel scraps are from at least 10 years ago, so they are properly aged.

My kids are always fighting over the flannel quilt that has the Thinsulate batting.  I plan on putting Thinsulate in this one too.  I love the loft and the warmth.  It is very similar to the Dream Puff from Quilter's Dream.

Somehow my helper managed to rest his head on my backing fabric as I was arranging the pieces.  You can see he is hard at work.

ISE X-mas Party 2012

With the kids back in school, I had a little time today to edit some pictures.  I wanted to post the ISE Christmas party photos.  I don't care how many pictures I take, there always seems to be one or 2 people who sneak out of my photos.  These are just a few of the stockings that were made for the nursing home.

 Several people were not able to attend the party, but that didn't stop the Christmas cheer. These three lovely ladies even posed for a picture.

 I just love the expression on Barb's face when she received her special grocery bag.  I think her expression tells it all.

This is such a great picture of Eleanor and Sharon












Everyone looks the best in this photo except me.  I just wanted to let you know that I took one for the team.

To complete the night, I had to dump all the scraps that were gifted to me.  It was more than one table full.  Thanks so much.  I have used several things from these piles.  It will be fun to see who claims their scraps when they see them in a project I have completed.

Design Wall Monday

I finally made it to the sewing studio and turned on the machine.  All that exposure with the UFO parade made me want to finish something.  If you missed the parade, there is a tab at the top to see all my unfinished projects.  I did find a few more yesterday that I forgot to photograph, so I will be adding them so my list is complete.

I saw on several blogs people picking a word of the year.  I thought this was a great idea, and my word for this year is "FINISH".  This applies to lots of things in my life, not just sewing.

On the January goal list was to quilt my Valentine Spicy Spiral.  It is now quilted on the design wall.  I have several other things on the goal list for January, but I am happy to check this one off.  I also found a home for one of my UFOs.

I quilted my second Spicy Spiral pattern with a pantogram.  This wasn't on the goal list, so this is a bonus completion.



















This is a customer quilt that I took in recently.
The quilt is made of all different ties that belonged to the customer's Grandfather.  It is a gift for her Grandmother.  I thought it might be troublesome, because none of the ties were stabilized, AND they were all made out of different fabrics - from tweed-polyester-silk.  To add to the assortment, the backing was some type of ultra suede.

I am happy to say I had no mishaps and I had perfect tension.  I did light custom on it with minimal SID

I also quilted a baby quilt.  It was quilted with an all over pattern.

I also wanted to post about a fabulous Christmas gift from my husband.  I had briefly talked to him about one of these long ago, and much to my surprise, he pursued finding one.  This is much fancier than the one I would have purchased, and I love it!!  Since you saw my dark side of UFOs, this is my organization tool for 2013.  I love how each project is easily reached.  The trays are large enough that I can keep all the pieces organized.  It was such a thoughtful gift.

Thanks for stopping by.  Stop over at Judy's to see what others are working on.

The Master Plan

The goal was set at 20 quilts FROM THE PARADE.  There are roughly 80 quilts in the parade, so finishing 20 is a quarter of them.  During baseball season and the fall, I can barely think keeping up with the family schedule, so my plan will be based on 10 months.  That is roughly 2 quilts from the list per month.

It's January and what have I accomplished - absolutely nothing.

January's Goals:

1. Finish Spicy Spiral in Valentine's colors
2. Add Borders to my Twister Quilt and Piece the backing
3. 10 FW blocks and post the tutorials online
4. Put the borders on the flannel quilt and piece the backing
5. Move one project to a new home.

I better quit blogging and get busy with my goals.

UFO Parade - Grand Finale

I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to get to the end of the UFO containers.  As crazy as it may seem, I do not feel overwhelmed.  You may wonder how my UFOs reached epic proportions.  Teaching classes has multiplied my unfinished projects.  Since my time is limited at this stage of my life, I often set class samples to the side to work on the next class samples.  I am very curious about new techniques, and I tend to have lots of new starts because of this.

Isn't this blue sashing on this panel obnoxious?  I have yards and yards of it.

I bought this to practice outline quilting, but I never go the top together.

I think it is rather amazing how it looks when you eliminate the electric blue.  I have changed the colors in my bedroom since I started this, but I still intend to finish it.

Since I am on the topic of bed quilts, The quilt at the left was also started for my bed.  I posted about it on my blog here.  It just needs borders.





















I recently put the rows together on this quilt
It took a lot of work to get it together!  I had to do a lot of re-work.  I have learned a lot from teaching classes.  There is a lot of crookedness with this quilt and lots of lumpy seams.  I didn't stress too much when I joined the rows about things lining up perfectly.  It is old and I have improved my cutting and piecing since I started it.






I did learn with the these 2 quilts that I can accomplish quite a bit by pinning at night or in the car.  This put a little fire in my desire to get things finished.





I dug this project out before Christmas to get it put together.  I ran into a little problem with my pressing direction, so I began taking things apart.  I have reached the put back together stage!  Hurray!  I have tons and tons of these 4 patches.  I am not even going to count them.  I think I might have had a little math problem when I was calculating how many I needed.

This makes 4 quilts that I started for my bed and none of them were finished.  I am hesitant to start a new quilt for my bedroom with my new color scheme.  I have the pattern picked and the fabrics purchased, but I haven't cut into them yet.











This flannel quilt was in pieces last month, so I am pleased that I won't be boxing the pieces up again.  I decided to add a few borders to it so it would be a little larger.  The borders are cut, so I think I can get this accomplished in the next few months.

I debated about this project at the end of last year also.  I had the blocks all completed, but I wasn't crazy about them.  I am not real crazy about the pattern, but I decided to go ahead and finish it.  I like it better now that I have the blocks together.  I am down to the borders on this one.

I lost count how many times I put this quilt away.  I decided to piece my border differently.  I put it away when I was unsuccessful.  When I pulled it out the second time, I was successful with my piecing, but the instructions were incorrect.  This is not at the top of my list to finish this year.  I may just decide to move this one to a new home.





Fon's and Porter Americana Sampler.  This quilt is almost in one piece.  It is a mystery why I didn't go ahead and put it together.  The applique and paper piecing are already done, so I am out of excuses on this one.

This was colorway number one of the Sampler class I taught.  It is properly aged, so I need to at least get blocks together this year.






Colorway number 2.  I don't  have as many blocks of this one.  It too is properly aged, so I really need to do something with it.












Another set of sampler blocks in reproduction colors from a quilt class.  There are plenty of blocks here to make a quilt.














Just 4 blocks in these colors.  I used these to demonstrate so I didn't get so many blocks in the Christmas colorways.

Any ideas on what to do with these?  They finish at 12".  Table runner?












This is Roll, Roll Cotton bowl from Bonnie Hunter.  I kept up with all the piecing when the mystery was going on, but I haven't had time to put the pieces together.







This is another Bonnie Hunter pattern.  I didn't do this one as a mystery.  This one came about when I found a whole container of 2" finished half squares.  Her pattern takes 1 1/2" finished half squares, so I enlarged all the pieces.  This UFO isn't very old.



This was a Bonnie mystery from long ago.  It was the first mystery that she did online.  I was crazy and started 2 of them.  I finished one, but this one has been in the box for a number of years.  Everything is done except the setting triangles.

These blocks were put together as leader/enders a few years ago.

This container was gifted to me from a friend.  She was ready to be done with her spare pieces.  I need to make a few more, and I will have enough for a nice size quilt.

This is my current class project and I am enjoying it.  It is from the book Farmer's wife.  I have lots of tutorials on my blog if you are interested in joining in.  I have another one started in softer colors.  I am still motivated to work on both of these this year.  

This is the end of the parade.  I hope you have enjoyed the big reveal.  I am hoping this will give me the motivation to finish some of the projects that have been sitting too long.  Perhaps my massive amount will make you feel better about the few projects you have that aren't completed.  It may just scare you into completing them so you don't end up like me.

Just to Recap the parade:

Part 1 = 12 Projects
Part 2 = 14 Projects
Part 3 = 35 Projects
Part 4 = 18 Projects

If my math is correct, that is a whopping 79 projects!  I did not hit triple digits.  

Now comes the hard part - developing a plan to reduce.  I plan to update my spreadsheet based on my photo journal.