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 :)