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.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!!  I'm beginning the new year very frustrated!  Nothing serious in terms of life events, but frustrating non-the-less.  It's a sewing machine problem - just when I'm feeling really motivated and had the time off work to sew.

Yesterday I was switching from brown thread to green to finish blanket stitching on the palm tree leaves - and now the thread won't "catch" in the slot needed for tension.  GRRRR!  I'm only partially done with this mug rug, and my backup (old) sewing machine doesn't have a blanket stitch at all.  This is a project for an exchange coming up in just 18 days.

Since I couldn't sew any more yesterday on this project I did some serious cutting for 2 other projects.  Once my Christmas decor is put away today I'll pull out my old machine and hopefully will still have some ambition to work on those.  And tomorrow I'll be making a call to a repair place in Sioux Falls to see if I can get my machine in for a quick fix.

So I'm reminding myself that at least I do have a backup machine to use for plain stitching, and it's not the end of the world as we know it.

I'm linking up with Linky Tuesday at Freemotion on the River: https://conniekresin.com/2019/01/happy-new-year-linky-tuesday.html

Design Wall Monday - a mish mash

I have several things on my design wall today, none of which have a lot of chance of being finished by the end of the day. But it's a good way to spend at least part of this windy, snowy day.  I need to take advantage of it since I'll have to go back to work on Wednesday.

I am working on a mug rug for an exchange I have coming up in a bit over 2 weeks.  My plan today is to get the top of it done and ready to quilt.  It will have a tropical theme, and this palm tree will be part of the design - once I find some appropriate scraps to use for the applique.

Second is to make the letters for another big floor pillow. My cousin would like one made for her nephew.  His name is Lukas, so only 5 letters to make.  This pillow is going to be all from my stash and she has requested blue and brown.  His birthday is next week so I know it will be late unless she decides I should just mail it directly to Virginia.

I hope to get binding made and attached to Hourglass, which came back from the quilter just before Christmas.  The quilting is beautiful as always and I'm looking forward to finishing this one. And I'll definitely be sharing some pictures of the finished quilt.

My 2019 UFO Challenge list is nearly done, but I have a few more spaces left to fill.  So I need to do more cleaning and organizing while deciding on more UFOs to put on this list. I could fill out more than one page, even after identifying 3 per month instead of only 1 like the challenge.

Check out other final 2018 Design Wall Monday posts:   http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

Perseverance

Some projects seem destined from the beginning to become UFOs. This was one of them. But I stuck with it and my perseverance paid off with a finished top. It’s 36" square with a zillion pieces. 

I struggled with the cutting and the sewing. And I hope the quilting will force it to lay flat. All of the plaids in this Kim Diehl pattern are flannel and I hate working with flannel. It stretches. Enough said on that topic. 

When making those weird flying geese blocks in the border I ended up with bonus triangle leftover. I’ve sewn them together and sliver trimmed all 24 of them. There are just enough to make 6 of these 6.5" pinwheel blocks. I see another mini quilt in the future. 

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. 

Snowy day sewing

The wind has swirled around and piled up the snow deeper on the deck than out on the lawn. But we’ve easily had 3 or 4 inches so far today with more expected. 

Morning progress on Crackerjack has the center section only needing 6 more tiny churn dash blocks and sashing. This is giving me fits trying to keep things laying flat. 

Crackerjack and snow

Because everyone had gone home, I had lots of time on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to sew, but spent very little time doing that. Instead I did a little cutting, a little sewing, and then curled up with a good book.  And there may have been a couple of naps in there too.

Kim Diehl's Simple Whatknots are some of those projects that I'm planning to tackle this week. And since we may be getting 12" or more of snow between today and Friday I'll have plenty of sewing time. 

It's been snowing since dawn this morning already.  So far we've only gotten a couple of inches, but Dave decided to run the snowblower over the driveway now and get a head start.  Tomorrow is likely to be the worst day with LOTS of snow expected with wind.  Probably a typical South Dakota winter storm.