UFO's

First Published 2/2/10

Updated 1/23/11

I've decided that 2010 will be the year for finishing projects. The only new projects I will start are smaller ones for birthday presents etc.


and I reserve the right to end the year with one UFO. I know what it will be already. Its a king size quilt that I started in a class in 2004 or 2005. The top is finished, the back is finished it just needs to be quilted. despite my my new, larger pretty machine I am not comfortable quilting it myself.


So my list of UFO's includes:

Coffee quilt for my mom. Needs a border and I need to find backing fabric. I've been on the hunt for newspaper fabric.Completed 1/8/11

Christmas quilt: Top is finished, backing is cut? I need to piece it together. I think I have enough batting for this as well

Thanksgiving quilt: Top finished, back pieced and I have batting. probably the next project to tackle


unnamed purple and green: started it at a quilt retreat I went to in January of last year. I think i may have 10 blocks finished our of a gazillion.(well maybe not that many but since its been well over a year since I worked on it, I cant remember anything other than its colors)

Housewarming runner: table runner and napkins for some friends that bought their first house last summer. I started it then. completed 2/1/2010


Love Notes wall hanging: its about 11X14 and looks something like this:

I have the foundation for the applique and embroidery finished but have been daunted by the hand work because I don't know how to do anything but a running stitch by hand

by the numbers

1 Brown bag retreat

1 quilt completed and given to my mom (1 UFO off my list)

1 scrappy friendship block completed for block swap adventures

3 delicious peanut butter cookies eaten (2 more than I should of had, but so worth it)

3 days spent at this fabric shop

3 log cabin blocks started for a table runner

5 note cards finished for a friend (a very very late holiday gift)

5 family members hastily seen on my way out off town ,but i got hugs and my moms yummy food soooo worth it

18 yards of fabric bought (its alot, but there's a story)

25 women, some new and some old acquaintances

240 inches of binding sewn (oh boy was that a project)

572+ miles driven

lots of projects shared and memories made. I'll write a full post sometime this week with the full rundown. I even have recipes to share! Happy Monday

Holiday season

The holidays are upon us. My busyness got worse with the start of Choir practice, but I love this time of year. Busyness and all.

I did get a little R and R before the full swings of things starts with Thanksgiving next week (next week!). I had chance to go on a Women's retreat with my church. It was at this mansion turned hotel in San Jose and it was amazing(here's a link to the website). Relaxing and the speakers were great.

We had a free afternoon Friday and what did I do with it? nap? sit by the pool or swim? read a book? Nah! Like the good fabric addict I am I went to a quilt shop that only happened to be 15 minutes away. Prairie Queens quilt shop

I had first heard about it at PIQF, they were a vendor there. Oh my goodness though it was amazing. Such a huge variety of fabrics and designers. I went there on a mission and with a new quilter. She's part of the quilt class at church and wanted to get fabric for it. She found some beautiful batiks.

I also hit the jackpot for my mission. I needed to find border fabric and backing fabric for my moms coffee quilt I started two years ago at a quilt retreat. I found just what I needed. I'm wanting to finish it for Christmas and now I'm that much closer. Best part was they were having a sale and everything was 25% off. Oh how I wish that shop wasn't an hour away.

part of the quilt top I have done

The fabric. the red is flannel for the back, the wheat kinda fabric is for the inner border and the coffee fabric is for the outer boarder

All in all it was a great weekend and I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving. I just need to get my act together on that front and get my apartment ready for a house guest that will be staying with us for a week and you know actual Thanksgiving.

Confuzled

So I thought I had the backs pieced for both of my ottoman quilts as they'll now be referred to. Fortunately the one I'm wanting to work on now is ready to go. The problem is the Christmas quilt.

I have pieces cut, and somewhere I vaguely remember having a piece of scratch paper with measurements. I went to a quilt retreat with my mother and sister in-law January of last year. My mother-in-law was kind enough, as always to help me figure out measurements and how I wanted to do it. she jotted it all on a piece of paper. Now I have no idea what the plan was. I need to remeasure everything and try to figure out the puzzle. Also I need to look for that paper.

I need a better system for my UFO's and WIP's, this jotting down on whatever piece of paper I happened to have on hand obviously isn't working. There's just got to be a better system.

Inspiration

I had a spurt of inspiration while I was trying to sleep the other night. I have 2 ufo's (well more, but for what I'm thinking) that are pretty similar in size. one is a fall quilt and another is a Christmas quilt. Both have their backs pieced and are ready to be basted and I've stopped there. Well while trying to sleep I was thinking the size would be just perfect to cover my ottoman.

My ottoman came from craigslist. it's a great size, I actually use it as a coffee table. but it has some pretty major spots, so I always have a quilt folded on it to cover them. I think these two quilts will be just the right size to just drape over.

here's the culprit. great size for curling up, but not so pretty to look at. Eventually I would like to find a brown and pink plaid fabric to sew a cover for it, maybe some sort of tweed type of fabric.

Since fall is here, I think I may break out the fall quilt and finish it up. I got the fabric and pattern at PIQF last year. If I could actually get it done before this years PIQF it would be quite the accomplishment for me

Here's the back. I try to back all my quilts in flannel. I found this particular squirrel fabric at Joann's. I also like what some quilters do for the back. Piecing some of the fabric from the front on the back in case there's ever a damaged spot you can use some from the back to fix the front. So I combined the two.

This guy is my favorite,mmm pumpkin pie

And here's the front. Success, it fits quite nicely on the ottoman

I forgot

Its almost September and I forgot about this post. I had such good intentions, and I guess I still have 3 months left. but the holidays will be here before I know it, and I need to start making things for that. I'm already starting to think about planning for Thanksgiving. That fact adding more fuel for my husband thinking i'm crazy.

I'm a planner, what can I say?

But back to the UFO's, other than the table runners and napkins I haven't finished a thing. But boy have I started projects. Last week I got all the fabric cut for a cute little kitschy table topper for everyday use. I got a gift certificate to Britex and found this fabric and I was filled with inspiration. I knew exactly what I was going to make. I tried to sketch it and I got mostly there, I just couldn't quite figure out how to do one part. I'm hoping by the time I get to that part it will just become clear.

oh well, I wasn't as productive as I had hoped but I'm ok with that. they'll get done eventually,right? right.

UFO's

First Published 2/2/10

Updated 1/23/11

I've decided that 2010 will be the year for finishing projects. The only new projects I will start are smaller ones for birthday presents etc.


and I reserve the right to end the year with one UFO. I know what it will be already. Its a king size quilt that I started in a class in 2004 or 2005. The top is finished, the back is finished it just needs to be quilted. despite my my new, larger pretty machine I am not comfortable quilting it myself.


So my list of UFO's includes:

Coffee quilt for my mom. Needs a border and I need to find backing fabric. I've been on the hunt for newspaper fabric.Completed 1/8/11

Christmas quilt: Top is finished, backing is cut? I need to piece it together. I think I have enough batting for this as well

Thanksgiving quilt: Top finished, back pieced and I have batting. probably the next project to tackle


unnamed purple and green: started it at a quilt retreat I went to in January of last year. I think i may have 10 blocks finished our of a gazillion.(well maybe not that many but since its been well over a year since I worked on it, I cant remember anything other than its colors)


Housewarming runner: table runner and napkins for some friends that bought their first house last summer. I started it then. completed 2/1/2010


Love Notes wall hanging: its about 11X14 and looks something like this:

I have the foundation for the applique and embroidery finished but have been daunted by the hand work because I don't know how to do anything but a running stitch by hand