2012 UFO challenge update

In January I posted a list of twelve projects to be finished in 2012 for the UFO challenge hosted by Judy at Patchwork Times The list was:

1. Jan Krentz difficult quilt - Summer salsa lone star. This was chosen for February but with all the Eisteddfod pieces to be finished I'll swap number 1 for something else.
2. blue and cream stars - finished
3. rainbow squares
4. 2 from 1 - finished
5. Disappearing nine patch - finished for January
6. TB BOM - finished
7. Modern V meets Thimbleberries scraps
8. Christmas table runner
9. Love laugh live stitchery
10. accuquilt feathered applique
11. Disappearing nine patch runner - finished
12. TQS BOM

So I need to swap some projects and add others, so my new list is:

1. blue and cream stars - finished for February
2. Jan Krentz difficult quilt - Summer salsa lone star
3. rainbow squares
4. Heart stitchery - not even started but I'm going on a few trips over the next few months so this will be my take along project
5. Disappearing nine patch - finished for January
6. Swoon - three more blocks to make
7. Modern V meets Thimbleberries scraps
8. Christmas table runner
9. Love laugh live stitchery
10. accuquilt feathered applique
11. Fat Quarter stars - just one more block to make which is released on Thursday, I think
12. TQS BOM

I think that leaves not on the list :
TQS 2012 BOM
Hugs cushion
Dreamcatcher cross stitch
Cowl which must be finished today
Vignette
Elephantz
Tree skirt

I've also bought fabric and a pattern from Thimbleblossoms for Hopscotch which is the next quilt along organised by I'm a ginger monkey I guess I'm my own worst enemy and it's no wonder my daughter gets exasperated with me. I may have finished six projects already this year, but I've also started three more and another is kitted up and ready to go.

2012 Eisteddfod project 5

Five down one to go and in theory number six is easy - sewing in the ends on a knitted cowl. However I'm not a knitter so will have to do some serious googling and Youtubing for some help.

This was fiddly to put the bits together but at last I've finished Tilda the Garden Angel.

Successful UFO day

Eleven of us at Caesarea Quilters UFO day. I'm glad I arrived early as I had loads of random questions thrown at me and plenty of miscellaneous quilting stuff to get out of the car, so it was ten before I was ready to start. I also picked up two quilts to long arm, probably after Wednesday, the deadline for getting my Eisteddfod entries to Astra. My Thimbleberries block of the month is now at the laundrette, so just my Tilda doll and sewing in the ends on my knitted cowl to complete. Very doable.

I achieved quite a lot during the six hours as well as quite a bit of morbid chatter. I completed three Farmer's Wife blocks from scratch and finished another swoon block making six so far.

85 square dance



42 fruit basket



40 friendship block




I've just updated my Farmer's Wife progress spreadsheet which tells me I have just 22 blocks to sew. I recently doubled checked my list and put all the blcoks in numerical order as some seemed very familiar and I thought I'd already done them. however there are several blocks which are almost identical to other blocks in the book. Of course most of the remaining blocks have 50 pieces in a 6" block, but there are a couple of simpler blocks which should be a quickish finish. I also have just three swoon blocks left to make which I will probably take to Chez Soi's all day session on Wednesday.

Fractured star

I'm loving this block. Another quilter on the Fat Quarter stars Flickr group replaced the inner background pieces with an extra fabric. I loved her subtle change and changed the background white for the icy blue. Whilst there is none of the icy blue in the other fabrics of this block, it is from the same range (Flurry by Kate Sain) and it will tie in with the other blocks.

Swoon 5

Progress will start to slow now as I concentrate on my Eisteddfod pieces. I also cut a few too many half square triangles and not enough squares for the remaining blocks so I need to work out a fix. I hope to get back to these blocks at Sunday's CQ UFO day along with some Farmer's Wife blocks



I think this is my favourite block so far. Lizzie pointed out it was like the fabric in Lorraine's green quilt. She's right, the quilt I made for Lorraine also uses a Sweetwater range.

FNSI results

Since planning what I wanted to do last night, I had a minor accident at the beach and slipped coming down some rocks and over extended my little finger on my left hand. Hooray I'm right handed. However my left hand has been very uncomfortable and then I went and had a wart frozen on the right hand. You get the picture. Not condusive to getting as much done as I wanted, but I still managed to:

Finish final of five Solstice star blocks. I changed the cutting instructions to eliminate the half square triangles as follows:

Fabric 1 four 2.5" by 4.5" rectangles
Fabric 2 four 2.5" by 6.5" rectangles
Background four 4.5" squares and twelve 2.5" squares
I then used the 2.5" squares and the double half square triangle method on each rectangle and then pieced the fabric 1 rectangle and background square. Then after pressing added the fabric 2 rectangle.



Finish the binding on my building blocks quilt, ready for our guild meeting on Monday where I hope to get two more ladies to sign up for our WI workshop.




Finish one more swoon block. I was concerned there might not be enough contrast between the pale blue and the grey background but now it's together it looks great.




I have block 11 of the 12 fat quarter stars cut and ready to sew with some more swoon blocks for tomorrow. Then I do need to finish my four Eisteddfod pieces as the replacement table for my Bernina has arrived. I will work on the table runner first as I can sew the binding on this piece at quilting on Monday night and Wednesday morning.

Friday Night Sew in for March

I am very ready for this month's FNSI. Valentine's Day yesterday brought six 13 / 14 year old girls for a games afternoon and sleepover. Nick was wondering how healthy it is to have so many bodies in a small space? It's half term here so it's nice for them to get together for a decent amount if time without Mum's having to run them around more than oce in the day.

Plans for Friday Night Sew In depending on what I achieve today and tomorrow:
* Sew the remaining 18 inches of binding on my 2 from 1 quilt
* Solstice star series block 4 is released today
* Fat Quarter stars - block 11 of 12 released yesterday
* If there's time I'll do a little swooning

It's now 8.45 am, when do I let some light into the sleepover room as I think parents are collecting at 11. Is it too early still? LOL

Productive Thursday

I just finished clearing up after our Thursday sewing session, in time for the arrival of Matthew's maths tutor.

Two blocks finished today:
My second Swoon block
Solstice star series - star of mystery

The Swoon block is using two contrasting fabrics from Home Town by Sweetwater and the background is from the Ruby collection by Bonnie & Camille. The FQs I bought are marginally smaller than usual and the cutting of the fabric is tight at best. I made a mistake on one of the red rectangles so had to piece together two pieces to make the replacement rectangle, but fortunately the join isn't too noticeable.



Continuing the star blocks using Flurry by Kate Spain is the fourth star from the Solstice Star Series called star of mystery. Only one more star in the series but they will be added to some other stars to make a quilt.

Up to date with my stars

I am particpating in two star based quilt alongs, Solstice Star and Fat Quarter star along. I have combined the two and am making the stars from the same fabric. Thirteen made to date and both sets are now up to date. Hooray.

From the Solstice Stars we have:

Star 2 - Whirling star



Star 3 - the aptly named Another star




And the tenth star from Moose on the porch is Milo's Star.



Next on the list? Alice's quilt which is ready on my long arm machine, at least one Famer's Wife Sampler block and I guess I should break out my #1 UFO.

January finish

At the beginning of 2012 I decided to participate in the 2012 UFO Challenge over on the Patchwork Times blog, and I made my list of 12 unfinished projects that I'd like to bring to completion this year. Judy chooses a number each month, and that is the project that we work on.

January was project #5 which for me was my disappearing nine patch, a simple small quilt which I just had to sew the blocks together, quilt and bind. I used the baptist fan pantograph to quilt it and hand stitched the binding whilst waiting for Lizzie at her swimming club session on a Tuesday night. Over the weekend I found some extra blocks in my sewing machine case so I think they will have to be donated for charity quilts to Astra.

The UFO to work on for February was released today. Fingers crossed again for it not to be the Jan Krentz star quilt!! Oh heck, my luck's run out already. Project #1 has been chosen. Okay this will be a challenge as I can't remember all the tips we were given and I have this horrible feeling that I may have used some of the fabrics for other projects.

January UFO day success

Eleven ladies at Caesarea Quilters UFO day. The best attendance we've had for a long time. And the first time I've been in at least a year. I find I need to put it in my diary as a firm commitment if I intend going. Lots of chatter and lots of work.

My successes were:
1. Binding sewn on my Building Blocks quilt. Just need to sew it to the back which I plan to do at Astra's group tomorrow.



2. I couldn't find my instructions for my star block so finished my first Swoon block. Looks great, just eight more to go. I cut some more grey strips including the sashing to get complete strips.



3. I then found my star instructions so made it up to go with the Fat Quarter Stars. Block 10 of the Moose on the Porch quiltalong is up so I'll attempt that on Thursday along with a Farmer's Wife block which is long overdue.




Next job is to find my special foundation piecing paper and print off a star and a Farmer's Wife block for Thursday.

UFO Day

I'm heading to Caesarea Quilters UFO day today. The first I've been to in a long time, but it's in my diary and I'm going. I plan to stitch the binding (already cut) on my Building Blocks quilt (already trimmed) which I quilted yesterday. This should in theory be a quick job. I also have to deliver Liz' Thrifty quilt which has one and a half rows still to do. I will do this once the rest of the family should be awake. Not "are awake" but "should be"!! They may think differently.

Once my binding is stitched on I will work on my first Swoon block made from Sweetwater's Hometown range.

I have just come across this sew along and I'm thinking that these stars would go nicely with the Fat Quarter Stars I'm making from the Flurry range by Kate Spain. What do you think?

Friday Night Sew In January 2012

I worked on two things last night:
I sewed in the ends I could find on my cream and blue stars. This now needs to be taken to the laundrette to get the markings out
I finished quilting a baptist fan pattern on my disappearing nine patch sample on the long arm then applied a black and white binding. I have sewn one side of the binding and will finish the rest after a Chinese takeaway.

Stars Quilt along block 9

A nice relatively simple but striking block. the original had background fabric in the centre of the stars which I have changed to a third feature fabric which contains both the red and green of the star points.



And here are the nine blocks so far. I have just about run out of the splattered red on white fabric so have changed over to white on white.

Stars Quilt along block 8

Keeping up with the blocks. This one looks more complicated than it actually is. I've also quilted the blue and cream stars quilt so it now needs trimming and binding. Photos to follow next week.

In other news all of the fabric for my TQS BOM arrived yesterday and today. My Carol Doak foundation paper also arrived from Amazon. I must resist starting this as I need to get my samples ready

Crafty girls

Matthew is at an all day Lord of the Rings watching marathon with David so after I dropped him off I headed to Waitrose to buy some cup cake supplies for Lizzie. She made two batches of cupcakes and iced the neapolitan 99 version.




I finished unpicking my blue and cream stars and it's now on the long arm. I misjudged the size of the digital pantograph which is only 5 inches deep and it overlaps by 2 inches so will take ages to quilt but will look lovely when finished. Inspired by Rachel of the Beaulieu Crafty Mums, I melted down some candle ends and wax to make some new candles. Love the strawberry jam pot I picked up from the charity shop, I have a matching orange too.

2012 Finish along

I've been waiting impatiently to see what the first project is to work on for the Quilting Times and hoping it's not Number 1. It was revealed this afternoon and so the first project of my Finish along for this quarter is:

1. disappearing nine patch for CQ workshop




2. Cream and blue stars - already started to be unpicked and should be ready to start quilting again this weekend




3. 1930s table runner - half quilted




4. Tilda doll - Just in case I finish the others. No photo yet as I just can't find it. Perhaps I need to do some more tidying and it will surface. Found it whilst looking for candle wax!!




5. 2 from 1 - just needs brown border and quilting on the long arm

It's Thursday

And I'm officially up to date on the Moose on the Porch fat quarter stars quilt along. The next block is published on 3 January 2012. In between each block I also pieced the binding for one of my UFOs which I wound on the jumbo spool I bought at the Festival of Quilts. This UFO just needs a border for the top to be finished. Hopefully that number will be chosen as the first UFO to work on.





Today I start my craft room tidy up ready for the New Year. Or should I say tidier, as it'll take more than a few days to get it tidy. Job number 1 is put the 12 UFOs on the top shelf of my cupboard, numbered and ready for the UFO challenge.

Free day

I thought today was Thursday with a committee meeting and funeral, but it's Wednesday, so I've had an extra half day to sew. I have done two of the star blocks from Moose on the Porch and have two more I think to be caught up. As the UFO challenge doesn't start until Sunday, I thought I had a free pass to work on projects which are more WIP than UFO.





I need some more white thread to finish another project so will head out later to search for some and do recycle the mass of cardboard that has built up over the last week.

2012 twelve UFO challenges

1. Jan Krentz difficult quilt - Summer salsa lone star. This is going to be a challenge to remember all the tips Jan gave us and I have a horrible feeling I might have used up some of the fabrics I used.



2. blue and cream stars. Quilting needs unpicking as there was a pleat in the backing and put it on the long arm - in the depths of my cupboard so no photo.

3. rainbow squares - in process of quilting being unpicked



4. 2 from 1 awaiting border fabric


5. Disappearing nine patch




6. TB BOM - almost finished quilting when my machine developed problems




7. Modern V meets Thimbleberries scraps - quilting needs to be finished



8. Christmas table runner - stitcheries done just need to put it together


9. Love laugh live stitchery



10. accuquilt feathered applique - should look like this




11. Disappearing nine patch runner - half way through being quilted



12. TQS BOM - piecing finished. Needs to be pressed and wadding purchased. I have the backing somewhere. I want to do some custom quilting on my long arm for this one, so it may take a back seat for a few months.