Sunday, January 27, 2008

Another UFO Finish - #20

Well, I finally finished it :) This was a small wall hanging that I started about 8 years ago and I think was my third quilt project. My friend gave me the fish panel, and, I don't know why, but, I decided to border it in Japanese fabric. Hmmm? I wonder what I was thinking at the time LOL.

Anyways this is another project that I sliced the border on and put away for a number of years. Can you see a trend here at all?? LOL! Well, I finally finished it up this week and I am glad to get it out of the pile. It is only 21" square so it just seems like such a silly little project to have as a UFO. Oh well, it is finished now.

Next I need to finish up the baby quilt that I picked the fabric for a while back; and, I need to make a baby quilt for some people that commissioned one from me. After that, it is on to a wedding quilt that I need for the end of June. I have a good idea for the pattern and I think that I will use some of my own hand-dyes for it. I hope that the couple will like it. So many quilts so little time!! Life is good.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

My 30's Quilt is on the Frame!

Hi all;
I thought that I would share a picture of my 1930's Dresden Plate quilt on the hand quilting frame. We just started hand quilting it last week but I forgot my camera. You can see a few lines of quilting at the bottom of the picture. I just love this quilt. It is so fresh and bright looking and I really think that it will be perfect on the bed in the summer time. I think that I may make some pillow cases to go with it (at some point!). The more I think about putting prairie points around the outside the more I like that idea. I think that it will really tie in with the points on the Dresden Plates. It will also use up some more of my 30's prints! As usual, I bought WAY too much fabric. I am also thinking about doing a sweatshirt jacket out of the 30's prints. It would be a nice jacket for the spring.

Tonight is our quilt guild night. I didn't make it to the last meeting since my husband didn't get home from work in time. I told him not to worry about getting home fast because the roads were really icy and it was really foggy. Oh well!! I live in Canada :)

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Christmas UFO Completed

Hi all;
Well I got UFO #19 completely finished! I liked the layout of the scrap half-square triangles so I went with it! Luckily I had enough of the background fabric and some more batik for the borders. I used up a Christmas brushed cotton that was left-over from the back of a Christmas quilt I made a while ago and there was just enough for the backing and for a sleeve. I love using up left-overs like that.

I tried a slightly different feather quilting for this quilt and used Yenmet metallic threads for the first time. It worked really well and I am pleased with the result. I'm not sure if you can really see it but it is there :)

I think that I am going to rewrite my UFO list so that I take some out and maybe add in a few as well. Now to quilt the other little wall hanging.

Monday, January 14, 2008

More UFO Completions

Hi all!
I got UFO #18 completely finished yesterday! Here it is! Four place mats and a center piece or separate table topper. I can't tell you how pleased I am to have finished this. I just have to package it up, and, send it off now, and, see if the couple likes it. I hope that they do. I have made a vow to myself to stop buying pre-printed place mat panels. I have one more to finish, that has tea cups on it, but after that NO MORE!! I find that they actually take quite a bit of time, and, are not that much fun for me anymore. Back when I bought this project, about 4 years ago, I thought that these were the best ever; but, I like other things now. When I was doing another set I actually figured it out that start to finish, including machine quilting, they took me about an hour each. Ah well!! They are finished now.

I was so inspired by this completion that I pulled out another UFO that has been bugging me. I really wanted to get this one done before Christmas but hey it will be done for next Christmas. This is a whole bunch of half square triangles that I made several years ago while demonstrating the Eleanor Burns Triangle Square Up Ruler. I made a small quilt out of four of the center blocks that you see there and these were the left-overs. These have been sitting there in a ziplock bag all these years just waiting for something to be done with them. I pulled them out and placed them in what I think is a pleasing arrangement. Luckily I had enough of the background fabric to fill in the blanks and I put the quilt top together yesterday after I finished with the place mats. It is now basted and waiting to be quilted! I'll post a picture of it when I finish it off (maybe tomorrow or so).

I got so inspired that I actually pulled out another UFO and finished the top and basted it as well. This one is one of my first projects and has been sitting there for almost 9 years! It is another instance where I cut into the border fabric. I looked at it again and said "Ah, the borders are too big anyways!" So, the borders on this quilt got cut down as well. After I finish quilting it I will post a picture of it as well.

So all told that means that I am finished or making progress on UFO's #18, #19 and #20! Not too bad!

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Tackling Another UFO

Hi all!
Even though I finished 17 UFO's in 2007 I still have many more to go! Some of these are really silly UFO's and some I really don't want anymore. I think that I will have to take a very close look at some of them and decide if I want to give them away or add them to our guild's yard sale. I did manage to turn several of my UFO's into gifts and baby quilts which made me really happy. I'm actually at a stage right now where I feel bogged down by my UFO's and unmotivated to start any new projects. I have made the resolution to either finish these projects or get rid of them! They are causing me undue stress and anxiety over completing them! This is causing me to not really want to quilt as much as I used to. I think that I will have to be brutally honest with myself and chop the UFO heap to only the projects that I actually WANT to be finished and either want to KEEP or want to GIVE AWAY. What do you think? I figure that there is no point in draining myself over projects that I really have no interest in anyways. Who cares if I lose some money in giving these projects away; I really think that my motivation is worth more than a few dollars.

This UFO is, I believe, a Kathy Schmitz panel that I purchased about 4 years ago to make 4 place mats and a table topper. I cut everything out and put the borders on the place mats. Then, with a quick slip of the rotary cutter, I sliced into the stack of place mats and made about a half inch cut into them. I was so mad, and, I didn't have enough of the border print to take off the top border and replace it. So into a bag it went to sit for a few years. You can see the little sliced bits at the top of the place mats.

This UFO has been really bothering me; because, I could have it finished in no time at all. Well, I pulled it out this morning and got a brain-wave! Why not just trim the half inch off the top and bottom! So, I did, and, I think that they look just fine! I pulled the Kathy Schmitz pinkish star fabric out of my stash as a suitable backing fabric and I think that I will try to finish these up today! I have a friend whose house I think that these would go very nicely in and would enjoy a late Christmas gift of them. I feel pretty good about this UFO since this one was really bothering me; and, I was able to pull out of my stash.

On another note. I finished the Dresden Plate quilt top and completely marked it! After I had finished marking it I decided that the border would need more quilting so I went back around it again and added more. I'm not sure if you can see the marking very well or not in this picture. I did a one inch cross-hatch all over the body of the quilt, and, in the center of the dresden plates. I did a single hatch coming out from the saw tooth border; but, that didn't seem tight enough, so, I added in another line a quarter inch in from that line. I used the Clover blue was away pen. Quilt marking takes so much time and if you try to do it fast it looks horrible. Ah well! It goes on the frame on Tuesday night to be quilted by the bee that I belong to "The Silver Thimbles." I can't wait! I got the new 90% silk and 10% polyester batting put out by Hobbs to try this time :)

Friday, January 11, 2008

I Finished the Little Sheep Rug

Hi all!
I finished the little sheep rug and I wanted to post a photo of it for you all. A friend of mine gave me the great orange wool to whip the edges with and I have to say that I think that it is a perfect match for the orange in the rug. I added the little C's and G's into the body of the sheep because I thought that it would look too dull without it. I really didn't like this project, when I started, it to be honest, but, it has since grown on me. I was making it for a Christmas gift but that space has passed now LOL! I think that I may keep it for myself now!

I have also finished marking my 1930's Dresden Plate Quilt. The marking took me hours!!!! I cannot stress that enough :) I think that I probably spent about 9 hours marking this quilt! I completely hate marking a quilt so this was a real chore but I think that it will be worth the effort! I'll post a picture tomorrow maybe :)

Thursday, January 03, 2008

World's Stupidest Quilting Mistake!!

Well I've done it!

I have made the world's stupidest quilting mistake today! I was putting on the last two borders for my 1930's Dresden plate quilt. Everything was going along well. I measured the center of the top to find out how long to cut the borders. I was using corner-stones so I measured to the borders. But, wait for it, I measured to the inside of the first (pieced) border not to the outside of the pieced border!!!!! I even reconfirmed this measurement three times!! So I cut my borders, on the lengthwise grain, 5 full inches too short! You can see this in the picture. What was I thinking! Thank goodness I have enough extra fabric that I can get another two borders out of it! I had been thinking to bind it in the background fabric but that idea is shot now! Well, I guess I could still use the mis-cut border fabric. Oh well. I was also thinking that prairie points and a mock binding, out of the purple, would be nice. I guess that's what I'll do now.

Other than that I think that the quilt is turning out very nicely :) So be honest have you ever heard of a stupider quilting mistake?? Maybe it's a full moon!

2022 Christmas T-Shirt Quilt Gift

As promised - here is the T-Shirt Quilt Christmas Gift from 2022! I did share this on my Facebook page but not on my blog, (whoops sorry!) s...