Another UFO to work on

Does it count as a UFO if you had opened the kit, looked at the pattern, and then set it aside?

I think it does count and I've decided that while I'm feeling some enthusiasm for UFOs then I'll work on as many as possible.  This set of puzzle pieces are for 3 pineapple blocks.  The kit is for a pillow, but I think I'm going to make it a wall hanging instead. I bought the kit at Heart and Hand in Sioux City this summer so it is a relatively young UFO. 

I had 3 items on my UFO Challenge list for January. One of them has been dropped off at the long arm quilter, one is ready to be sandwiched with batting and backing to quilt myself, and the third item was a blue Sew Together bag. Well, that bag should have the final stitches put in later today, so I pulled out the pineapple UFO too.  Guess it won't matter which month I work on it as long as it gets finished, right?  

Ready for quilting

 

This was the most recent Saturday Sampler and was a mystery. I love stars of any kind so this one really appealed to me. Plus it was quite easy to assemble. But I decided that I just didn't want it to be square, so I finally got some plain borders added to the top and the bottom to change it to a rectangle. Plus the added length will make it a better option as a cuddle on the couch type of quilt.

 

I'm having this one professionally quilted as I want a simple edge-to-edge design. 

Sewing therapy

I was finally able to spend some time playing in my sewing room yesterday. Now that the Farmhouse Stars top is done I allowed myself to work on a couple of things.  I added borders to a recently past Saturday Sampler, and I made my 2 blocks for the current Saturday Sampler.

 

Each month we're doing 2 variations of a block. I've chosen to use my stash of black and whites and my stash of bright batiks. This month I pulled a couple of purples from the batik drawer. And I'm choosing to make mine a light/dark variation. One block will have more white and the other block will have more black. 

 

When lining them up together, I do notice that the black print I used this month reads a bit more grey than the previous ones. But that's OK. This will be a scrappy project. And now that I see them all together, I'm thinking that next month needs to have orange in it.

 

A small finish

 

This little finish is only 12" x 16".  It's totally made from trimmed half square triangles from the Farmhouse Stars wall hanging.  I still have a few more HST that I could have used, but I just liked the rectangular look of this. It's a good size for a candle mat.

 

Farmhouse Stars is now a flimsy and I found a backing fabric in the stash yesterday. I need to check my batting leftovers to see if I have something big enough to use. If not, then I guess I'll need to buy some batting. I'm planning to begin quilting it over the weekend when the daily high for a couple of days could be below zero. I've challenged myself to finish it completely before I can start any new projects.

 

As for "nearly done" items - I have the fabric to add a couple of borders to a previous Saturday Sampler quilt.  And I have the last 2 blocks to make for our current Saturday Sampler yet.

 

Merry Christmas!

I didn't even get any photos of these little people opening gifts - it all happened in a flash. But we did try to get them all to put on their SDSU Jackrabbit shirts and gather in front of the tree. It was like herding cats . . .

Grandpa got to read to 3 of them while we were getting food ready.  And our Christmas Day ended back home with a fire going in the fireplace, and a grumpy cat thinking we came home smelling of kids and dogs.  It was a relaxing day with our family. I hope you all had some wonderful family time too.

One row to go

There has finally been a little more progress on Farmhouse Stars. I have only 1 row of 3 blocks left to finish.  And the bonus project is made up of the trimmings from the HST corners.

Let it snow!

 

I used to love "snow days" because it meant I could hunker down and sew. But I work from home now so I get to keep working and just watch the snow fall.  We've had almost 5 inches so far and this is the view from my desk.

 

But my desk has a deep "drift" of invoices so I probably won't see my sewing room at all.