Snowmen are complete

It's even cuter than I had hoped it would be.  This was a kit (UFO) I purchased along with a pattern book by Kimberbelle.  Each of the patterns makes a wall hanging/table topper this size - about 30" square.  They are all seasonal designs and adorable. 

The buttons are 1/2" black satin covered buttons and the pom-poms on the hats are actually little hair clips.  They added more color and texture to this piece.  Some simple machine quilting and it's done.  Yay!! I can check off another UFO.

Digging into the UFOs

A couple of weeks ago I dug into the drawer holding kits, and just picked one.  It didn't matter which one - I just needed to find something to remove from that huge UFO list.  This particular kit was called Baby & Me, with fabrics by Henry Glass.  It's UFO that I bought from a friend when she downsized her stash. I've had it about 3 years and I have no idea how long she had it. The panel is cute, and the actual kit pattern had multiple pieced borders. It was an adorable pattern, but it was getting some age on it. So it was time to do something with it all.

I pulled out a pattern called Diva 2 that uses panels and borders them with diagonal pieces.  It's a really simple and quick pattern.  I had a couple of hours off this morning, and put this crib sized top together.  Since I don't need a baby quilt for a gift right now I think I'll wait to get it quilted some other time.  I cut the binding from the orange and will keep it with the flimsy until I need it.

Naturally there is quite a bit of fabric left over from the kit.  In fact, the leftovers will work perfectly for a couple of the big floor pillows I'm making for grandkids.  I have the pieces cut out for the capital "J" that I need for Jack's pillow. 

Using up this fabric will leave a nice big space in the drawer full of kits. Yay!!!

Reindeer 60 degree runner

 

I'm on a roll and another UFO is done.  This 60 degree runner top has been waiting to be quilted since November 2015. That's the good - or bad - thing about blogging. It's my journal and I can always go back and see when I worked on something.

 

I sandwiched this runner and began to hand quilt it, but then I got distracted and it's just been folded up and waiting, with the needle still in place. Yesterday I sat down and pulled the hand stitching out while visiting with my sister-in-law who had stopped in.  After supper I went into my sewing room and machine quilted this in a very simple manner, and then dug into the stash for a dark red for binding.  I woke up really early this morning so I sewed on that binding and now even the binding is hand stitched down.  This was #9 on my 2017 UFO Challenge list and now I can check it off as done.

Candy Dish is complete

 

Candy Dish is completely done and another UFO can be checked off the list.  I used a black thread and a decorative stitch on my machine to do some simple outline quilting around all of the solid black pieces.  Nothing fancy, but I like the impact. 

 

This isn't exactly a summer themed table topper, so it will probably go into the drawer until winter. Or it may go into my "gifting" stash after I've enjoyed it awhile. But for right now it looks pretty good on my little kitchen table.

Design Wall Monday - Candy Dish

 

This little 18" square UFO is a kit I bought 4 years ago on a guild bus trip to Minnesota shops.  It's done in just 3 fabrics with a black and cream colorway rather than the scrappy look on the pattern photo.  Candy Dish was the name on the pattern and I have to say that the instructions were a bit frustrating to follow.  The pattern was all single spaced and too "wordy".  The shop had also included a "copy" of the original instructions with things crossed out and hand written notes added to address this layout. I understand wanting to make it all fit on 1 sheet of paper, but it was too cluttered to make sense.  And they had crossed out pieces that I did end up cutting and using. 

 

But it's done and sandwiched, ready to quilt. I'm going to do it myself with black thread.  We'll see how that goes.  I really like the way it looks.

 

Check out Design Wall Monday to see what other quilters are working on at http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

UFO - Ladybug pillow

This bench pillow is another OLD project from at least a dozen years ago.  It was originally supposed to be a wall hanging, but I decided to turn it into a pillow cover.  And it's done - except for making a pillow form to go into it since it isn't a standard size.  It's about 18 x 38".

I quilted it using black thread and a simple decorative stitch. There is iron-on fleece under it for stability.  The ladybugs are appliqued and 3-D, with chenille around the red sections.

UFO #8 needs quilting

 

The #8 UFO on my challenge list is this Saturday Sampler from 2015 - so it isn't terribly old yet. I didn't do the gingerbread applique blocks from that series, but did make the floral applique blocks, and the large and small pieced ones.

 

I love the colors and the individual blocks, but do NOT love how I ended up putting this together. It's OK, but just didn't turn out as well as I had hoped.  However, the flimsy was done in September 2016 and I even found an aqua snowflake print for backing. Since then it has been hanging over a hanger in my sewing room closet.  It's time to move on.  I just need to piece that backing and get it quilted and bound.  So that is my tiny goal for the next week.

February UFO Challenge is #8

The 2017 UFO Challenge from All People Quilt has selected #8 as the number for February.  We'll receive the final block pattern the 2nd Saturday of February. I have all previous blocks made, but have been a little reluctant to cut into the setting kit fabrics.

This quilt has blocks set on point and then has a beautiful pieced border. The setting kit has very specific instructions (with pictures) for cutting the pieces.  And I'll readily admit it has been a bit intimidating.  There is absolutely no chance that I'll have this done, quilted, and bound by the end of the month.  So my goal for February is to just finish the top.

	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 Saturday Sampler	Finish blocks,  cut out setting pieces, reach flimsy stage
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	About half stitched only
12	RSC16 Crown of Thorns	make additional blocks to do 2 baby quilts instead of 1 large quilt

Design Wall Monday - small finishes

I was on a roll this weekend, trying to finish up some small projects that have been cluttering up my sewing space.  I finished 3 small items, including machine quilting. Yay me!!  Check out what others are doing at Design Wall Monday http://www.patchworktimes.com 

 

 

This grey/white/yellow pillow is made from leftovers from a chevron baby quilt I made last spring. I had extra HSTs left after finishing the quilt and kept thinking they would make a great pillow.  And they did make a nice pillow, along with a strip of the flower print added to make it large enough for the 16" pillow form.  I machine quilted the chevrons by just following the shape and quilted a 1.5" grid on the flowered section.  Now there are only 2 grey and white HST remaining, and those are in the scrap bin.

 

 

The Dresden Plate block was something I started and stopped and started and stopped.  The blades and center circle are all cut from a charm pack and yes - there are still more of these blades ready to be made into something.  Sometime last month I actually sewed them into the Dresden Plate and appliqued it to the white background. Yesterday I quilted it very simply and added an envelope back. One more 16" pillow done.

 

And finally, I pulled out this little table runner to finish. This is a Pieced Tree pattern (on the little cards) and is basically just made from large flying goose units.  You can cut and stitch the top in about an hour. The original pattern is actually one "goose" longer on each end, but I've found this to be too long for many tables, so it's smaller than the pattern.  I cut this out last winter from 3 Christmas fat quarters and it's been just hanging out on a shelf ever since.  This was sewn together quickly and then I marked the grey triangle sections using a disappearing purple quilting pen and machine quilted it myself.  I have to finish the binding but that will probably happen over my lunch break today. These would possibly make good Christmas gifts.

Throw Back Thursday - looking for old UFOs

I know this one never got quilted, so now I'm wondering what drawer or box this flimsy is hiding in. This was from 2010 according to my old photos.

I need to start looking deeper in that sewing room.

Batik star block

OK - one more block with blue in it for RSC15. This is one of 4 unfinished blocks from a past Saturday Sampler.  Now there are only 3 of them left to do.

I'm not absolutely sure why these got set aside because I love star blocks and I love sewing on batiks.  It was probably because there was an applique snowman block that went with each of these and I wasn't too fond of applique at the time. I'm getting better at it.

The snowman blocks are not done either, but are now destined to become something separate from this star block project. I can deal with making a smaller quilt out of the 12 star blocks and doing something else with the appliqued snowmen later.  So 1 UFO has become 2 smaller UFOs.

Retreat sewing

Heartland Quilt Guild held a "Let it Snow" retreat on Friday night and all day Saturday.  I was only able to attend on Saturday, but that time allowed me to get a couple of big tasks checked off my list. First, I got all 36 pigtail blocks sewn together into a flimsy. 

After adding the last 2 rows I laid it out and realized that I had goofed and didn't have the white sections meeting. So I "un-sewed" those rows and fixed the problem.  And I cut enough strips to make another 10 blocks for my Trip Around the World. 

I'm linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday at: http://www.patchworktimes.com/ 

Winding down in 2014

Just a little end of the year sewing . . . and it was 4 more of these Traveling Stars blocks.  I still have quite a few of these to make from 6" squares shared by guild members.

Yesterday I prepped and sewed on several pillowcases from my stash fabrics. 3 of them have snowman fabrics, 2 pillowcases have motorcycles, 1 is bright yellow with kitties, 1 is butterflies, 1 is smiley faces, and 2 more are florals.  I have the tops on 5 of them, have 2 more pinned into the "tube" and ready to sew. The rest are cut and ready to go. 

And this morning I've been doing a little organizing in my sewing room and working on my 2015 UFO list.  I've found the past 3 years that having a list of UFOs to work on has helped me focus.  When I have a little time to sew and nothing planned, then I can check that list and choose something to work on.  2014 saw a LOT of projects checked off the list and that definitely made me happy.

We're going to spend New Year's Eve having supper and watching the kids open Christmas gifts at our older daughter's house later today. They had a house full of influenza over Christmas, but everyone is healthy again and we are looking forward to spending some time with them.

Happy New Year!!