UFO Challenge

A while back I signed up for a UFO Challenge where I made a list of 10 quilts and every month a random number was called and the corresponding quilt would need to be finished.  Here is the list and my update...

Project	Status Before	Status Afterward
1)  Pixilated Sunflower I created	All cut out and sewn, needs to be quilted.	April- still haven't started... Next on my list...
2)  Birds on a wire from Quilt Mania	Have a birds cut out, and some of the small quilts.  Need to continue to put them on and quilt entire thing.	January - Completed at the start of March - and it's fantastic.  See 2016 quilts for a picture.
3)  Midnight Garden	All material there but haven’t cut anything	March - started, lost the pattern and some of the block.  Had to buy a new book and now some black wool. Need to look into this.
4)  Garden that’s applique and wool – block of the month	All material is there but nothings been sewn or quilted.
5)  Blue stars	Two stars made, need to come up with idea to bind	February - Have a design in mind.  Will finish it this month.
6)  Houses – block of the month	All material is there,
7)  Block Lotto quilt - scraps	Missing 10 blocks – last two months, needs to be put together and quilted
8)  Green strip quilt	Quilts entirely made except for a side edge to make it a queen size quilt.  Need to put on sashing then quilt it all	May was to be #7 but this one was done instead.  At least one more off the list. See previous blog entry.
9)  Lily quilt	All completed.  Even sold.  Need to quilt it.
10)  two more quilts from the book PreCut Primers – authors Me and My Sister Designs.	These use 2 ½ strips to create.  Have material but not much more.  Need to cut.

Not included in this list but still done is the modern queen size quilt. (http://quiltinglikeamaniac.blogspot.ca/2016/05/two-more-completed.html ) and a couple more I started.  So this will keep me on track. Hopefully.

Two more completed....

It's been quite a while since I have blogged in regards to my quilting, and there is reason why....  In the past six months I have lost two family members, my father in November and three weeks ago my brother.  It's been hard to say the least and with it comes many feelings swamping you.  But like most people I turned to quilting to release some of my feelings and to give myself a few hours of not thinking.  So in the end I've been doing a lot of mindless quilting and here are the results....

A word in the quilting....  Canada

Lady bugs quilt tabletop ... Great backing.

Flower Rows

Quilted quilt large..... With wandering, and free style flowers, and leaves on a vine....

And what else?...

Tea time, the BOM that started 6 months ago... On the last row, and all flowers are completed.... See some pictures of them in the making...

Two white strips around the flowers and then a green large strip and you're done....  so #8 is done, and almost another one, plus an extra for the table top.  

Entering the 2nd Quarter UPDATE

OK, I've been doing well, getting a number of quilts done.  Into three different "Keep on task" groups to help me get the work done.  I was feeling overwhelmed, but I'm back on track.  So I decided to enter this quarter's goal settings.  Here's the picture and an explanation of each one.

0 - My row by row - water -  I have 58 (yes I know crazy) so I want to get at least 27 done to make one of the quilts.  I have 27 rows from Washington and from Arizona, and I want it done before this madness (extremely fun) projects starts again this year.

1 - A quilt for a very good friend of mine - tea time.  Have 2 rows to go, then quilting.  Plan on getting this one done by the end of this month.

2 - tulips paper piecing.  Small project but great for this spring time.

3 - My modern quilt as you go.  Been working on it for a month.  Will be done by the end of April.  DONE.

4 - A panel wall hanging that I've had since last summer.  Got the material, want to finish it.

5 - A large lap quilt I call the garden - was an Aurilfill block of the month from two years ago.  Need to quilt it.  I've already sold it.

6 - My pixulated quilt.  Want it to be a surprise.  I'm quilting it now.  It's done but the quilting is so small it's taking forever.

7 - two panels of the bird quilt.  There are 9 of them.  Have two already done.

8 - A queen quilt already completed, I need to quilt it.  I'm looking at making it a cover for a light white quilt I already have.  I don't like white on a bed with a cat  ;)

9 + 10 - two quilts from the School book by Sew Sisters.  Excited to do this.  I've already done one from the book, it's so much fun!!!

11 - Blocks from the BOM for Canada.  It's a panel for every province.  Need to complete this for next year's Canada Quilt theme.  TWO DONE.

12 - A pixelated pattern that I've been working on of Spock, for my Trekkie mother!!!  I'm bring it to her at the start of August to Manitoba, so I HAVE to meet the deadline for this one.

13 - A BOM I did online with Craftsy.  Was great fun and the 2nd part of it (another Craftsy class) is how to quilt each and every block.  The quilt has a traditional block and a similar modern block.  I loved doing this quilt but it's taking me forever (keep on putting is off) to finish the quilting Craftsy class.  But I'll be back at it, been practising quilting.

and finally, this one is not in the picture but it's one I plan to finish in April.  It's by Zen Chic - I love this quilt.  #14 -

This is my entry to the 2nd Quarter of the 2016 Finish Along - My first time.

I'm linking to Leanne from She Can Quilt.  But here are the other hosts:

• Debbie - A Quilter's Table - USA

• Jess - Elven Garden Quilts - Australia

• Stacey - SLO Studio - Canada

• Jennie - Clover & Violet - USA

• Helen - Archie the Wonder Dog - UK

• Nicky - Mrs. Sew and Sow -UK

• Cindy - Fluffy Sheep Quilting - Ireland

• Rhonda - Rhonda's Ramblings - US

OMG for April

Already April and where has the time gone?  The weather has warmed up, I'm able to go for warm walks, and less rain for staying in and sewing.  But I still have goals to meet and quilts to finish so here are my 3 goals for this month (yes, three):  

1.  Finish the tea set quilt for my friend, quilting and all.   I have the tea cup row completed, and working on the final border of flowers.

2.  Complete my quilt from Zen Chick.  Haven't even started.  But the pattern is below and I do have the material.  A gift from my aunt for Christmas.  Love the style, can't wait to start it.  It's modern and simple at the same time.

3.  Do two blocks from my collection of Row by Row blocks.  After all I have 47 to go and the new series is coming in.  Which ones is unknown.  It's what ever takes my fancy...

And OK, one more, finish my modern quilt that has turned into a queen size quilt.  Thanks Marianne Haak who taught us this style of quilting to the Fraser Valley Quilting Guild.  Here wesite Quilting Edge gives a number of tutorials on how to do the blocks.  I started with the idea of doing 9 blocks.  I've reached 16, and am still counting.  I have one more row to complete to finish a king size quilt.  Here's the look so far:

One more row to go.

Anything more is extra - if there will be extra time??!!

Short and sweet.  Hooking up to RedLetter Quilts for the OMG listing.

Still at it...

I have been doing a lot of stuff this spring break but I still have time for sewing.  As promised I'm trying to clean up my sewing room and I made a list of things I wanted to do for Spring Break and for OMG - One more Gone.  Here's the list I said I would do:

1. I'm two behind on the Quilt Doodle Quilt - but that's about 7 blocks.
2. I need to make my mini "Sew" block
3. Want to start the tree design I've been talking about - Winter trees in Manitoba
4. I still have to make another quilt from "Precut Primers" by Me and My Sister.
5. Have to catch up on Pat Sloan's quilt along.  There are 5 blocks to do.
6. Have to do at least one month (I'm really one month and a half behind) of the 365 days quilt along.  3" squares - wow!!!

And now I'm stopping.

But for "One Monthly Goal" (I think of it more as "One More Gone") I'm talking about completing the Birds on a wire (completed it)  and the Zen pattern.  The rest would be bonus and a long Spring Break time that I need to get my head back on.  That means sewing.

Here's some completed work:

A cover for my machine.  I quilted it using the new quilting rulers.  Loved the ease of them.  This is a pattern from the mini patterns from Cluck Cluck Sew.  #2 on my list.

Catching up on Quilt Doodle BOM - #1 done on my list.

These are with the others.  I'm all caught up.

Then there is something I started to cut before Valentine's Day.  I'm sorry, I forgot who's pattern it is and it's not on my list but I've done it.

I made a mistake on that last heart but I love the quilting I did with my walking foot.

Then the baby quilt that I still need to finish by quilting it.  It's from Quiltmaker Magazine March/April #168.  This is extra but still good.:

And finally I'm on the last row for the Garden Tea Party by the Quilt Company.  The tea pots are ready and so are the cups, it's the flowers to go.

The tea pots came together perfectly.  I'm happy with the results.  And the teacups (another day for those pictures) were great.

Busy week so far.  And more to come.

Busy day...

First day of spring break and I've been very busy, and not just sewing.  In the morning I finished the Alberta block for the Canadian Mystery Quilt" by Shania Sunga Designs.  Alberta and Nunavut are both done

Each block is very busy and very detailed.  It takes a while to do.  I have two more to catch up.  Hope to complete that this week.

Two big goals, finish the quilt for my friend Gro, and finish that modern one.  Worked this afternoon on another modern block.  A row is ready for joining.  I'm excited about that😊

Look at my great spiral.

But I also went back to my school to pick up my quilting rulers (showed them to a friend) so I can use them.  Stopped at Home Depot, got some supplies to work around the place.  Stopped at the library for some books.  Came home, fixed the shower curtain, replaced some lights in the place, clean the bathrooms, washed the rug in the sewing room, did a load of laundry, did the quilting mentioned above, and made supper.

Tonight, reading a book and watching a movie.  May even do some hand appliqué while watching.  

Enough for one day.

What's the Plan for Spring Break

We'll have had a busy day at a quilting class for the last two days doing modern improv the easy way and is it every easy.  We learned how to make curved modern blocks and then quilt as you go.  Every method this woman taught us is the easy way to do it.

The only problem I had was letting go. The quilt blocks start at 20" each and you use a version of the whack and stack but you do very loose circles.  You then mix and match and resew everything.  Marianne Haak was the teacher.  Her website is the Quilting Edge.  Tutorials are on the site about how to put thin and fat borders around the blocks you quilt ahead of time.  I'm excited about what I've done so far.  I have 9 blocks completed.  Two of them I sewed together to make a bigger block and it's almost completely quilted.  I'll do another block and practise putting the two blocks together with a wide band of red...  Here's the one block I have so far and a couple of pictures of blocks not quilted.

the blocks I created.  There are 12 in total.  Look at the top calm ones

then the red ones.

This one is quilted.  You can see some of the lines at the right by the red stripe.  The white is the number of the block's position in the quilt.  Used Aurifill rust color.

Here is the "All People's Quilt Challenge" update so far.

Project	Status Before	Status Afterward
1)  Pixilated Sunflower I created	All cut out and sewn, needs to be quilted.
2)  Birds on a wire from Quilt Mania	Have a birds cut out, and some of the small quilts.  Need to continue to put them on and quilt entire thing.	january - Completed at the start of March - and it's fantastic.  See 2016 quilts for a picture.
3)  Midnight Garden	All material there but haven’t cut anything	March - hoping for 3 things.
4)  Garden that’s applique and wool – block of the month	All material is there but nothings been quilted.
5)  Blue stars	Two stars made, need to come up with idea to bind	February - Have a design in mind.
6)  Houses – block of the month	All material is there,
7)  Block Lotto quilt - scraps	Missing 10 blocks – last two months, needs to be put together and quilted
8)  Green strip quilt	Quilts entirely made except for a side edge to make it a queen size quilt.  Need to put on sashing then quilt it all
9)  Lily quilt	All completed.  Even sold.  Need to quilt it.
10)  two more quilts from the book PreCut Primers – authors Me and My Sister Designs.	These use 2 ½ strips to create.  Have material but not much more.  Need to cut.

There are others as well.