Working on my first UFO of 2019

The APQ 2019 UFO Challenge has begun and I have a couple of items identified for January that I plan to work on.  Squared Away was the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2018 project and I kept up all year so I have 30 blocks all ready to set into a flimsy. 

My plan for Squared Away is a simple layout with sashing and cornerstones.  I had bought a white jelly roll this summer to cut into sashing for this project; what a time saver!!  And I dug through the box of 2.5" squares already cut from scraps to find enough pretty colors to go with the blocks.  It's ready to layout on the floor and arrange into rows for sewing.  I plan to have a finished flimsy soon, but probably not before the end of January as I'll be away from home for almost 2 weeks out of this month.



The Rainbow Scrap Challenge for 2019 has also begun. I've had a lot of fun with this over the years.  The host has a new plan for each year, and offers blocks to make using the color of the month if you want. Or you can work on anything else you want using the color.  This is my second of the RSC sampler quilts and I've chosen my own blocks for other years. 

Both challenges (UFO and RSC) are a fun way to sew along with others all across the country and also stay motivated to finish things.

Under a foot of snow

What should I do when we are buried under a foot of fresh snow and it's COLD outside?  The first thing that comes to mind is to sew for awhile, and then I have to work a couple of hours with some invoices.

Actually I was sewing at 2:00 am because I couldn't sleep last night.  I read for awhile, but just kept listening to the wind howl, so I got up and went down to the basement to work on Crackerjack.  The inner borders are now pieced and the 2 side ones are sewn on. This morning I'll add the top and bottom inner borders, and then work on the pieced outer border some more, which will take some time as it's "fussy" with a ton of 1" wide strips.  Each side has 3 of those flying geese units made of strips and half square triangles!  And last of all are the corner units made with square in a square units and those narrow striped sections.  

American Patchwork and Quilting has their UFO Challenge going again for 2019 and I'm working on filling in my UFO list. Their UFO list document just has 1 space for each month, but I've split them for up to 3 projects per month. That gives me something to choose from or do more.  In 2018 I put 36 projects on my list and finished 17 of them, with progress made on several more.  That is success!

Since they posted the number 3 for January, I plugged in 3 projects that I want to work on this month.  And I'm taking the printed list downstairs with me to look around for more projects to add. 

By mid-afternoon we'll be dug out and possibly go to a basketball "classic" event being held in town. 

Motivation and goals

I haven't been setting goals lately. I haven't had much motivation lately - to do anything. That needs to change!!

The November number for the APQ UFO Challenge is 4, and this is what is on my list.  I was looking at these 3 projects and trying to decide if one of these was achievable this month.  So I headed downstairs and looked in the drawer marked "Thimbleberries stuff".  Yikes!! A whole drawer full - why was I avoiding it? 

I was thinking the Thimbleberries Hourglass quilt project must be close to 20 years old.  But I found the pattern and it was from 2004, making it only 14 years old.  And I found the 7 (of 9) blocks folded up with the pattern.  I love the blocks, but just didn't get them all done evidently.  

I emptied the whole drawer and laid out all of the bundles and loose fabric.  Some of the bundles had the patterns tucked in with them - Yay!  But most of them do not have any pattern attached. So I made a decision and  I just ruthlessly pulled out some of the unidentified fabrics to use for the last 2 blocks and the pieced sashings to finish this quilt.  I'm going to consider anything without its pattern to be part of the stash and OK to use in some other project because 14 years is just too long to keep it safely hidden.  Many of these Thimbleberry fabrics look similar to the current Kim Diehl fabrics.  They all have that vintage look to them which is probably why I was drawn to both lines.

UFOs are my motivation killer right now.  It's also the time of year - knowing it's getting close to the end.  Early in the year I was doing really well as I plowed through the list.  I put 36 UFOs on that 2018 list, with 3 choices each month to give me some options.  In January I finished all 3. February through May I finished 2 of the 3 projects. And after that it's been hit or miss whether I worked on any of them at all.  This is my usual pattern when working with these UFOs.

Realistically I do have 15 of the 36 UFOs done and that isn't too shabby.  Two more of them are now completed tops and ready to quilt.  I'm trying to see the positives here.  But it's hard to ignore the fact that I have way too many unfinished project laying around. It weighs me down - and they take up space so I never seem to have my sewing room completely neat and clean.

So my goal is to work on this Hourglass quilt and try to have the top ready to quilt by the end of November.  We'll see how it goes considering there will be 2 of the weekends with other things going on, like Thanksgiving.  And the pieced sashing makes me a little nervous. 

Design Wall Monday - back to a UFO

With a morning off work, I pulled this UFO back out.  It's one of the August options on my APQ UFO Challenge list.  The only thing on the center section that still needed done was to applique the 5 red birds.  I've been using a simple blanket stitch on these applique pieces.

Then I rethreaded my machine and stitched up the top section and the bottom section.  Those side sections will be next. Several sashing pieces need to be added as well, but I'm starting to get excited about having this one getting closer to being a completed top.  It's very overcast again today so the lighting isn't showing the colors very well, but this will be a cheery Christmas-y quilt.



Let's all see what is on other Design Walls today:  http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

UFO Challenge #8

On my UFO list I've called this Red Bird Christmas, but now that I've pulled this project out again I'm reminded that it's really called House Warming Party.  The APQ UFO Challenge number for August is 8, and this is on my list in that spot so I hope to work on something to bring this project forward.  And luckily I had all of the patterns and fabric, and the finished sections, all kept together so I didn't have to search for anything.



I have all of the blocks done- except for the large center block with the bird houses.  Except for the 5 little bird appliques, this center section looks pretty easy to do. 

This was originally done as a BOM but I just purchased the whole kit.  The fabrics are very pretty, and I would have never picked out as good of a collection as this. 



I'm thinking this must be the year for Christmas quilts, since this is the third one I've worked on this year. 

It's a New Year!

Doesn't it feel like anything is possible on January 1 of every new year?  I used to make resolutions that I didn't keep.  I kind of like the word "challenge" instead of resolution.  I can challenge myself to accomplish something, but can feel successful even if I only make it part way on that challenge.

So - I've once again made a list of some UFOs for American Patchwork & Quilting UFO Challenge. You can download the form and can join the Facebook group too.  If you already joined the Facebook group last year, then you are already seeing the 2018 Challenge info.  One of the gals in the Facebook group turned the PDF form into an Excel spreadsheet to make it easy to type into it. You can find that in the Facebook group, under Files in the left side menu. 

I decided to add a second and third UFO to most months. It's not that I expect to finish all 3 each month, but it gives me some options. And I may switch out a couple of things like I did last year. For the 2017 UFO Challenge, I managed to finish 9 UFOs. Three of those were switched to other items from what I already had on the list, but that's OK too.  So having multiple projects on the list for the month with give me some flexibility.  The January number was already announced and it is #12.  I deliberately put 3 things on #12 that I want to have finished by the end of January.  Technically the blue bag was finished before midnight, so I can check that one off already. Maybe I'll get them all done in the next 30 days.  It's a challenge after all. 

 

This one is headed to Minneapolis in the mail this week for my cousin to gift to a friend.  Now, go check out what other quilters are working on for the first Design Wall Monday of 2018:  http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

APQ UFO Challenge

American Patchwork & Quilting has chosen #2 for the May UFO number.  This is an old, old UFO.  I worked on the hand applique for the 4 Season Cats wall hanging in 2000 on a road trip from South Dakota, to Atlanta, to North Carolina, up through Chicago, then Green Bay, and back to South Dakota. My youngest child had just finished her sophomore year in high school. She is now 33.

 

The hand applique was done years ago and now I'm hand quilting it. The quilting is just a simple diagonal grid plus outlining the cats, and it's nearly half done already.  I bought this as a kit, along with the book, but I have no idea where.  This was a lost item for several years and when I found it again the binding and pattern book were with it. Now I can't find that pattern book - and I'm assuming the binding is still folded up in it. So I can't even tell you who designed this. Maybe if I finally finish the quilting this month it will prod me into cleaning up the sewing room more deeply to find that binding and the book.

 

 

 

As you can see I did finish 4 UFOs - one for each month so far. However, I've cheated a little because I switched up 2 of those projects. As long as I finish at least 1 UFO each month I'm not going to punish myself for switching some of them.

	UFO/WIP Project	Status Before	Status After
1	Valentine Bench Pillow	Needs blanket stitching around applique, then sandwich, quilt, and add envelope backing
2	4 Seasons Cats	Finish hand quilting, bind
3	ABC kid quilt	Machine quilt, bind
4	House Warming Party	Finish blocks
5	Circa 2016	Finish making blocks
6	Easter Sunrise runners (2)	Applique, quilt, bind	DONE in January!
7	Batik Stars Saturday Sampler	Finish blocks
8	2016 2015 Saturday Sampler	Finish blocks, need to cut out setting pieces Quilt and bind	DONE in February!
9	Reindeer 60-degree runner	Quilt and bind
10	2015 Friendship Exchange	Blocks are made, need to determine a layout
11	Beach cross-stitch piece Harvest Bounty 60-degree runner	About half stitched only Re-do quilting	DONE in April!
12	RSC16 Crown of Thorns	12+ blocks finished, need to determine layout	DONE in March!