Picture Of The Last UFO For 2013

Finally, a picture of my last UFO for Connie's Game.  :-)

The day is sunny and not too cold, so perfect time to take a picture outside.  This is my husband with his Christmas gift from me, an Iowa quilt.  The pattern is BQ from Maple Island Quilts.  I love this pattern as it's fast and easy to do.  The top is cotton and it has batting with a backing of fleece.  A nice warm quilt for the weather ahead.  Snow tomorrow and colder temps by the weekend.  Good thing I got out today to get this picture.

Busy Week

It's been a busy week.  Finished the borders on "Easy Street" and pieced a backing.  I've never pieced a backing this big before, a learning experience, let me tell you!  But in a good way, I love learning new things.  Plus, any way to use more fabric in my stash is good.

***I started this Post last weekend and here it is, a week later!***

Quilted "Easy Street" and have it all done, even the binding!  We had snow this week and I haven't been able to get a picture of "Easy Street" taken outside.  I have an indoor picture though....

This picture was taken at Quilt Guild on Tuesday by my friend Jeanine. Thank you, Jeanine!  I love how this quilt looks. Only one more quilt left for Connie's Game.  I have it to the binding, which is good,. With Thanksgiving and Christmas, I won't have much time to sew.  Today I have to get busy and clean my sewing room so guests can use it next week.  Wish me luck, sometimes I get sidetracked by all the fun fabric yelling at me to sit down and sew.

Easy Street

My first border for Easy Street is sewn together.  Tonight I plan on measuring how long the side edges are.  Just curious, do you measure your borders or do you just sew them on and wack off the extra?  I use to use that method until I found out that it gives you wavy borders.  Now I measure the quilt through the middle.

I started this post last weekend and never finished it.  UGH!

Sooooo, I do have the first border sewn on and am now cutting out the second border.  I'm not really sold on the fabric, but it's what I have in my stash that was enough yardage.  And this quilt is all stash fabric.

I'm hoping it will help tie in the colors and not fight with the quilt.  I did audition it and it did look OK.  But I really think the problem is that I didn't have enough fabric of my first choice.

Beautiful Day

It's a beautiful day!  So I took this opportunity to take a picture of the "Four Patch Plaid" quilt.  I used whatever 5 inch fabric squares I had.  The pattern ended with the picket fence border but I wanted it bigger, so I added the border of four patches.  I love how scrap quilts look!

Things are really changing.  The weather is getting cooler and the leaves are changing and falling.  I love this time of year!

Confession

OK, I have a confession.  I told you that I was done with this quilt top here.  But it really wasn't done.   I spread it out on our king-size bed and discovered if I add one more piece border and one more plain border, it would fit my bed!  Yeah!! But I haven't finished the quilt.  SO I didn't make it for Connie's Game with Country Threads. :-(

That's OK, because I have finished this months project which was Number 3, a tote bag I started 6 years ago at the first Quilts From The Bluffs Quilt Retreat.  The Piecemaker's Quilt Guild of Southwest Iowa had a mini retreat yesterday and guess what I worked on?  That's right, my tote bag.

My October UFO is done!!!  Now to get back to the September UFO.

Four Patch Plaid

The Four Patch Plaid top is done!

It was a little breezy outside today, so this was the best I could get.  The wind kept blowing it high in the air or would be so strong that it pull it off the clothes pins.  Will take another picture when the quilting is completed.  All the fabrics I used in this quilt were from my stash.  I did buy fabric for a backing, but I'm really thinking a backing from my stash fabric would be in order.  I did sign up for a free class on Craftsy for making Creative Quilt Backs.  Think I'm going to go to "school" now and check it out.

Number 12

On Sunday, Country Threads pulled the next number for Connie's Game.  And that number is 12, which is my four-patch plaid quilt from "Nickel Quilts" by Pat Speth and Charlene Thode.

 I've been working on this quilt all year long as a "Leader and Ender".  I was ready to put the picket fence border on.  I started these in April and you can check it out here.   I love how much I have gotten done on this quilt without even "working" on it.  

So the picket fence border is on the quilt and I have one last border to add and the top will be done.  I'll show you the top when that step is done.

I hope you enjoyed your weekend, I know I did.  Had more produce from the garden.  Froze 2 quarts of beans and we did up 5 quarts of tomatoes.  It has been a wonderful garden this year.  I guess it makes up for last year when we were going through the drought.  That was the worst year ever!

Tree Skirt

I finished my tree skirt for Connie's Game.  My August UFO was my Christmas tree skirt.  The base pattern was an old Simplicity holiday pattern.  I added the scallops by using a luncheon plate from my everyday dishes.

The holly leaves and berries came from a pattern designed by Julie Larsen when she had her quilt shop, Prairie Star Quilts.  I'm thinking I will need to take another picture of this when the light is better outside.  Right now the sun is setting and is causing all kinds of shadows.  But it's done!

Back To Work

Friday I went back to work.  So sad to leave my quilting room and all the sewing I still want to do.  But I did have a great day on Thursday.  I canned or freeze all the produce I had shown you and I cleaned some in my sewing room.  Still have a ways to go, but at least I made progress.  (I figure it works for making quilts, it should be good for cleaning my sewing room.)

The only projects I want to have stay in the room are the PhDs (projects half done) and the last of the UFOs (UnFinished Objects) that are on my lists for the Guild Challenge and for Connie's Game through Country Threads.

I do have a pile of scrap that I want to cut up and clear off the cutting table.  I cleaned up all of my 5 inch squares and put them in a plastic bin.  Put the 5 inch strips in the drawer where the squares had been.  Now to figure out how to store the overflow of 2.5 inch and 2 inch strips.....

Number One

The UFO for this month is Number One, which is my tree skirt. 

Summer produce is really starting to come on.  I've been freezing green beans and picking cherry tomatoes like crazy.  Going to love the produce this winter, the flavor of summer.

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting.

I'm waiting, waiting, waiting.  I'm so anxious to know what number will be pulled for Connie's Game.

Sigh

Connie's Game - UFO Number Two

I have UFO number 2 done for Connie's Game.  Yea!! 

Close up of a kitty face.

Their little faces don't show up well, I'm thinking that's why this one never got finished.  I would do 2 at a time of the same fabrics, just different size shirts.  Since I wasn't fond of the way the first one came out, I didn't hurry to finish the second one.  I used a Pigma pen to do the faces.  But, at least it's done and off to Goodwill and out of my sewing room.  YES!

More Piecing

I've been doing some more piecing on my "Four Patch Plaid" quilt.  There are 22 blocks in a row as I'm working on a queen size quilt.  And trying to keep the rows and the blocks in the row straight has been tricky.  I did figure out this for tracking the rows.

I have a packet of self sticking note sheets and I cut up one of the sheets and set it on either side of the row I'm working on.  It has really helped me out.  I'm on row 7 or 8 and there are 22 rows.  I have one little project left on my list for Connie's Game.  I'm hoping next month is one of the big ones, (this one) so it's out of the way before I go back to work the end of August. 

Connie's Game

On July 1st Country Threads picked the next UFO in Connie's Game,  Number 2.  On my list is a sweatshirt from days gone by.  I had the fabric cats bonded to the sweatshirt but not sewn.  (A sample here of one I already donated.)  It was on my cutting table as I had pulled it out of the closet.

So yesterday I sat down and did the blanket stitch around all the different cats.  This morning I pulled buttons   to use for the eyes.  I can watch a movie with my husband tonight or tomorrow and sew the buttons on.

I figure someone will be happy to find an "Ugly Sweater/Sweatshirt" for a Christmas party this year.  :-)

UFO Number 4

UFO # 4 is done!  I know, hard to believe.  But it was a little one, a market bag.  This is the pattern:

I made the medium size bag.

It shows up yellow on the picture, but it's really a chartreuse with brown and blue birds.  I used a cotton canvas type fabric and it doesn't roll into the nice, little, easy to carry, bag that's shown on the pattern.  I think I'll try this pattern again only use a regular weight cotton. 

Deadlines Are Good!

Deadlines are good!  Without a deadline I doubt I would be done with this pillow.  

The front.

The back.

I had two squares that wouldn't fit on the front.  So I put my signature block and the block with the date on the pillow back.  It worked out well!  Thank you Jean for your help in figuring out the backing of the pillow!

Thank you Country Threads for having Connie's Game.  I'm lovin' all the finishes for this year!  And boy, do those deadlines work!

ACK!!!!!

ACK!!! 

 I found a sandwich bag on my cutting table with some squares for B & H's wedding album top.   I thought it was weird that I had to use so many blank squares to finish this.  I don't think this is going to be done by tomorrow.  Sigh...

It's raining today, a good day to sit and rip!  

Top Is Done

The top for B & H's wedding album quilt top is done.

I was thinking this might make a nice pillow since it measures 26 inches by 26 inches. 

Wow!

Wow!  It's been two weeks since I posted anything.  The time has flown by.  As you saw by the previous post, I finished the graduation quilt.  We have had family staying with us the last two weekends, which is why it's been hard to post.  My sewing room is one hot mess!

Stuff stacked on the cutting table, under the table and beside the table.  Ugh!  You can see my May UFO on the left side of the table.  Tomorrow is the last day of school and I will be out for the summer.  Good thing I have until Friday to get my UFO done.  Hope to catch up on some projects.  Oh, and some cleaning too.

Waiting

The first day of the month always excites me this year.  Waiting to find out what number is next on Connie's Game.  It's number 10, B & H's guestbook quilt.  It shouldn't take too long.  I learned more about setting blocks on point with "Easy Street", so I'm looking forward to applying that knowledge to this quilt.

I am making progress on the graduation quilt, just not working on it much in the evening as maybe I should, I'm catching up on laundry now that the new washer is here.   The next few days we are to have snow and cold weather again.  Ugh!  This past weekend working in the gardens and now the snow.  I bet we don't have peaches again this year. :-(  I'm hoping for the best.

It was still a little dark, but this is the sight I woke up to this morning.  A couple of inches of snow and slush.  Hope this is the last of the snow.  I'm so ready for Spring and Summer.