Quilts and Books

I actually finished this while on the way to California last month. It was a wedding gift for my niece and her new husband. This piano was made from a kit my late mother-in-law left behind when she passed away 3 years ago. I thought my niece might like to have something her grandmother had intended to make. The pre-printed piano keys and music-themed fabric made this a very easy quilt to put together. The curved seams are easier than they look and this was a very fun quilt to make.

So, one more UFO down. Gee. Only 23 more to go.

Oh. Just have to say--I'm never buying that cheap batting from JoAnn's again. It shed worse than a pet.

Our retreat this year featured an opportunity to make a mystery quilt (instructions are passed out in phases--you bring the required fabric, but have no idea what you'll end up with). I had cheated by finding the pattern online. I decided the project would be a great way to use up some of my green fabric and make my first monochromatic quilt. Here's the quilt top that I finished the other day:
As I selected the fabrics for this I first aimed for some true green in the 3 required values of light, medium, and dark. To add interest, I chose greens that were on the yellow side of the color wheel and on the blue side of the color wheel.

Now that I study the completed top, I see that I should have worked harder to incorporate the blue/green. Only one blue/green fabric stands out, but you can see quite a bit of yellow/green. When I picked these fabrics, I really liked how they looked together. Indeed, I still do. But after making Springing Up Fun and my Flower Pots, this quilt seems k…

When I signed up for my guild UFO challenge last November, I listed 28 projects that I would attempt to finish within the year. It is now 6 months later.
I have finished 5.
Five.
I have a lot of work to do.
In fairness to me I spent quite a bit of time on Springing Up Fun.
Hey! Go bid on it!
Meanwhile, here's the latest I've finished. This is my Flower Pot wall hanging that was a challenge with two friends. We each made 2 sets of 3 identical blocks and swapped them. It came from a pattern I found in the June 2008 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting magazine. We did start with coordinated pink & orange batiks to use for the flowers. I'm giving serious thought to entering mine into the state fair.

One of my UFOs is a 9-patch flower sampler. Below is block number 5. This block was, to put it crudely, a bitch. I swear the pattern instructions were wrong in more than one place. I did more unsewing to get this finished...

OK, yes, the whole idea of a UFO focus is to NOT star…

Yes, it's finally done. And here are the pictures to prove it:
















And check this out: here's the listing for this quilt at Brenda Novak's auction to benefit diabetes research. Bidding commences May 1.

I finished with the grass section tonight. There are a lot of open areas and it took awhile.





Clouds are next. I get nervous everytime I start a new section and have to work myself up to it. I know how I want to do the clouds but I'll need to practice first by doodling on some paper and then on some scraps.



Here's a look at the 3/4 of it that is quilted. Boy is it dense. And heavy. For the grass alone I used most of a 500-yard spool of thread. That's a lot of thread!


















I've also made a little more progress on that baby quilt. Fortunately, it doesn't get borders. I should get it sandwiched soon.

I am way behind on some posts. Here's how the work on my UFOs went during February:
First, I finished a quilt! This is a gift for a family friend. This was a "quick" 9-patch. It's about 5' x 5'.













One of my UFOs is a floral sampler. I finished another block and now have 4 of 9 blocks done.














This is identical to the finished quilt above. This one is for my son, just made from fabric he picked out. I took it to the retreat and got the borders on. 














This is another quilt for my son. Again, I just got the borders added while at the retreat. It's made from Boy Scout fabrics.












Now here are a series of pictures of "Springing Up Fun". I got started on the quilting. I quilted rocks.














I quilted water.





























I quilted grass.













I got about 2/3 of the quilting done. All of this was done on the retreat.

I'm packed and ready to go. It's annual retreat time! 48 hours of sewing, friends, as little food as possible (yeah, right!), and not much sleep. This should mean lots of progress on my UFOs!
There's a computer in the lobby of the lodge, but I don't plan to use it.This is one of my favorite weekends of the year! Many thanks to the family who cheerfully see me off each time.

While I didn't actually finish anything from my UFO list in January, I made significant progress on three projects. I should easily finish them by the end of the month and maybe one or two others besides. Meanwhile, here is where I stand:

First up, here is the one that's closest to being done. It's a simple 9-patch throw for my son's friend. All that's left to do is to whip stitch the binding to the back of the quilt. You can see the binding clips around the edges. It will be a perfect hand sewing project to work on during tomorrow's Super Bowl. I'm not sure how far I'll get though if I have to keep looking up to watch the commercials, LOL!

This one is the result of a block exchange with two friends. The pattern originally appeared in the July 2007 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting. Thanks to a timely winter storm, I had two snow days at home this week and finally took time to assemble the top. I pinned it into a sandwich tonight and it's re…

To a quilter, a UFO is not an Unidentified Flying Object, but an UnFinished Object. Many of us suffer from an excess of enthusiasm for the next project. Actually, it's probably really ADD, but no one wants to admit it. I know I am not the only quilter who flits from project to project, eventually finishing some of them, but not always all of them. And my guild is proving it.

We're having a guild challenge this year to finish our UFOs. We had to list them and turn the list in during our November meeting. We have until November of this year to finish as many projects on the list as we can. Each time we finish a project from our lists we are entered to win cool prizes. Frankly, what a great idea. I am very motivated to work on what I already have rather than go and spend money for yet another project to start. My goal is also to post my progress here. A monthly UFO Day, just like TBR Day.
But first, you have to know just how bad it is. I knew it was bad, but I had no idea it was th…