Out With The Old!

Last year I made a resolution to finish all of my UFO's.  I should have counted and kept records of them all, but I didn't.  I do know though, that this one was at the bottom of the pile and now it's finished!  That's right, I no longer have any more UFO's!  Of course that doesn't mean that I don't have any PIG's (Projects In Grocery sacks) hiding the the sewing room closet!

Another Finish

This quilt is so old that I had the top put together and tucked neatly away at the bottom of the to quilt pile before I even started my blog...and that was in 2008!  Back in 2005 I was part of a group that was offering quilting classes to kids and I put these blocks together as class samples.  I believe that all of the kids actually finished their quilts at the time and now, 9 years later, I can say that my quilt is finished too!

Sew Busy!

I've been so busy sewing that I haven't even taken time to blog lately.  I'm sorry about that, but as you can see it's been worth the wait.  I just love how my Ami Simms String Quilt turned out...I guess I should have finished it 5 years ago!

Another Finished Quilt

I made this little top quite some time ago with leftover squares from my son's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle quilt. Once again, I was just playing with scraps and design and once the top was finished I tossed it on the "to quilt" pile and forgot about it.  I love the bright primary colors with the white and it's the perfect size (36" square) for a car-seat or stroller quilt, so I'll probably set this one aside until I need a baby gift.

Waiting For The Perfect Fabric?

I started this quilt in an Ami Simms workshop back in 2009!  I couldn't decide on backing for it, so I added it to the mountain of quilt tops to be quilted and promptly forgot about it.  One of my favorite quilt shops was having a sale at the beginning of the month, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to shop for a backing fabric for this top.  I figured any batik would do, but when I walked into the store and saw the display of Bloom Crazy fabrics, I knew it was the perfect backing for this quilt!  Perhaps I set this quilt aside just to wait for the perfect backing fabric to come along or maybe that's just a good excuse from this quilting procrastinator, but either way, I'm glad I waited because I absolutely love these two together!

One Quilt At A Time

My quilting machine is really getting a workout these days!  Of course, it helps that there is over a foot of snow outside, so I really don't want to leave the house.  I might as well stay home and quilt, right?  I finished this top at a charity workshop that our guild held last April.  I'll be the first to say it...shame on me for not finishing this charity quilt sooner!








I even had the backing pieced and folded with it, so I have no excuse other than it was swallowed up by the massive "to quilt" pile.  However, that pile is getting smaller...one quilt at a time!  

I'm On A Mission

I started this little quilt back in March of 2011 as an experiment just to try some Crazy Nine Patch blocks.  I liked how the top turned out, but as usual for me, I promptly folded it and added it to the "quilt another day" pile (AKA mountain of UFO's). Yes, I'm on a mission...a mission to finish my UFO's!  It may take me the whole year to do it, but I have accepted the mission and I will climb that mountain! 

Another UFO On The Frame

I've always said that I'm a piecer, not a quilter, but with all the quilts that I have been quilting lately, I may have to start calling myself a quilter!  Once this quilt comes off the frame it will be the tenth quilt that I have quilted since the beginning of the year!  If I keep up the pace, my UFO pile will be nonexistent in no time!

To Sew Or Unsew?

This UFO is so old that I can't even remember when I started working on it!  Quite awhile ago, I pulled it out thinking that I would turn it into a throw and a couple of pillow shams, so I added the finishing border rows and then promptly put it back in the UFO pile.  Now I am DETERMINED to get my unfinished projects finished, one way or another, and this one is next on the list.  However, I think I need to reconsider my throw and sham set idea and go back to the original plan of simply making a larger quilt and add the blocks that I saved out for the shams back to the quilt.  That means I have to unsew the finishing borders if I want to continue the matchstick pattern or I could take the easy way out and leave the extra row of squares at the one end of the quilt.  What would you do?

From WIP To UFO To WIP Again

I don't know if there is a specific time frame that makes a project a UFO, but I think spending 6 months in a closet makes a project about as close to a UFO as you can get. It has been pointed out to me that once work resumes on a UFO (Un-Finished Object) it becomes a WIP (Work In Progress). I guess my Dear Jane quilt is no longer a UFO and is a WIP now that I have started working on the borders, so I did actually make progress on a UFO this week, but something tells me that I need to work on some of the other quilts that I have vowed to finish before they turn from WIP's back into UFO's again!

Did you work on your UFO this week?

Weekly UFO Report

As predicted, I don't have any UFO progress to report this week. Between the new selvage projects, closet cleaning, and making Quilt, Craft and Stuff Sale preparations, I just didn't make time for UFO's. I think I may need another one of Terry's "Get It Done or else" pep talks!

Spring To Finish

Jacquie at Tallgrass Prairie Studio is having a Spring to Finish Challenge. The rules are simple, you decide what you want to work on and then do your best to achieve your goal before the end of May. Jacquie said that just writing the words "spring to finish" gave her the kick in the pants she needed to get motivated. After a week of absolutely no progress on my UFO's, I'm hoping that this challenge will help motivate me too. I would like to say that I am going to finish all of my UFO's by the end of May, but that is probably a bit ambitious, so how about if I say that I will do my best to put a big dent in the pile?

Another One Bites The Dust!

I have been working at cleaning and organizing the closet in my sewing room and during the process I found this little wall hanging in the bottom of a bag. I started it way back, when I thought that I was going to be a hand quilter, so it was all hand quilted and only needed a binding. I don't know why I never finished it! Anyway, I put a binding on it this week and hung it up in my sewing room. Another UFO bites the dust!

Did you work on your UFO this week?

Matching Pillow Shams

One thing that I found when assembling the blocks of my oldest UFO was that my 1/4 inch seam allowance has become a lot more accurate over the last 6 years! Several of the blocks were so far off in size that there was no way I could work them into the quilt. I couldn't bring myself to throw irregular blocks away or put them back into the closet to remain a UFO, so I decided to use them to make a matching set of pillow shams!

Six Years In The Making

It has taken six years to put this quilt top together, but my oldest UFO is finally ready to be quilted!

Did you work on your UFO this week?

No Longer A UFO!

What was once a UFO is now a finished quilt...right down to the last binding stitch! Yessirree, I can cross this one off the UFO list because it is 100% DONE!

Top It Off

The finished tops are really piling up around here! It's time to measure out some batting and backings, so I can do some quilting and finish some of these projects for good!

Did You Work On Your UFO This Week?

It wasn't easy, especially with so many of you telling me that I deserved to start a new project, (What happened to "get it done or else"?) but I did it! I avoided the temptation of starting a new project with the patterns that I brought home from the quilt show and put the second thangles top together instead! I'm glad that I didn't listen, because it feels great to finally have this top together!

Did you work on your UFO this week?

Did You Work On Your UFO This Week?

As I said yesterday, the weather has been much too nice to be inside sewing, but that doesn't mean that I have totally ignored my UFO! While I was out earlier this week I stopped at one of my favorite quilt shops and found these fabrics on sale for $3.00 a yard! I think they will make the perfect sashing and border fabrics for the last of my Thangles blocks. More seasonable weather is expected to return next week, so I hope to be able to show lots of progress on this quilt next Friday!

Did you work on your UFO this week?

My Oldest UFO

There's no question that my oldest UFO is the match stick quilt that I showed yesterday. The pattern for the blocks is in the book, Allegro by Atkinson Designs. The book was brand new and being promoted at the 2004 Lancaster quilt show when I bought it. It was my first quilt show and I remember coming home excited to make a quilt with some of the Civil War Reproduction fabrics that I had been collecting, so I started cutting strips. Somewhere along the line, the excitement for this quilt wore off. I've tried to work on it in the past, but I always seem to lose interest. This time it WILL get done!