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.

A New Year Is About To Begin

A new year is about to begin!  With that comes my list of projects I want to do for 2014.  As you know last year I was a part of the UFO challenge called Connie's Game with Country Threads.  ( I did complete 11 of my 12 projects for 2013.)  Plus a couple of others that were not on the list.  SO... Here is this year's list...

Six of the projects are UFOs, the rest are projects I want to finish in 2014.  Plus, who knows what other projects will come along.  I know for sure that I will be helping my friend Patti again with Wings Of Hope, Women Helping Women Dinner.  Not on the list is Celtic Solstice, I just want to complete the top.

So how about you?  Are you going with any UFO challenges this year?  Or have you made a list of projects you want to complete?

How Do I Keep Up?

I just can't seem to figure out how to keep up.  LOL  I'm still on step one of Bonnie's mystery.  I had to get together with Jeanine who heads the Quilts From The Bluffs quilt ministry to collect some blue fabric to use.

This past Saturday was our Christmas Party/Quilt Day.  We had lots of good food and fellowship.  (Isn't that what quilting is all about? )  I worked on string blocks.

We make these blocks for twin size quilts for a local agency, Children's Square.  We had such a nice note from this agency letting us know how much the children love the quilts.

My friend Rachel inspired me to work on these again as she just finished a top of string blocks.  She also gave me a wonderful tip.  She said she went through the bin of strings she had and pulled all the ones that were long, to be used in the center.  Saved her lots of time when starting the blocks. She said this is a great job for doing while you're watching TV.  So I put her tip to good use.

Little bin in front, that is overflowing, are the long strips.  Bin in back are all of the shorter strips.  Today, Friday, is the last day of work.  I have a 2 week break.  Hoping I'll be able to spend some time sewing during the break.

The Mystery Begins!

The first instructions for Celtic Solstice were posted last Friday.  So I have been busy cutting my fabrics!

I'm using the TriRecs ruler for these blocks.  I've never used this ruler before, but so far it's working great.  Haven't gotten to the point of sewing them.  I'm hoping to have all the cutting done before the next set of instructions come out on Friday.  Wish me luck!

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!