#6 has a ways to go!

The first number of the 2011 UFO Challenge has been issued. The first project we will attempt is #6. In my list, #6 is a Crazy Flannel Quilt. I pulled out my project box to take a look at what state this project is in.

I started this project before I had children. My oldest is now thirteen. It's old. I took a look at the directions to figure out my next move.

These directions are quite funny. It was a class I had taken at a quilt shop called Country Sewing Center in Elk Grove, California. I live several states away now, and I don't know if that shop is still open. But if it is, and you live around there, check it out. It was a nice little shop. Just in case you didn't get a good look at the directions, take another quick look.

Do you see what is missing? No where in any of those sheets does it tell me what size the finished quilt is meant to be. It doesn't say what size the block should finish to, nor how many blocks are required. I figure since it's a crazy quilt, and there is only one block to make it all depends on what I decide. But still the directions are very vague, with statements like - "...and will be demonstrated if you don't understand."

I also found, and this is so amusing to me, I found mylar templates! I haven't used mylar templates in... well, I guess in about thirteen years! Thank goodness I have finished up all the cutting because I don't think I would want to deal with cutting from a template!

There were also twelve finished blocks that measure approximately 10 inches and haven't yet been squared up. My son asked me to include his robot dog in my picture of the blocks.

There are also enough pieces cut to make an additional 28 blocks. So I think I thats where I'll start, piecing 28 more blocks.

Cheers,

Dionne

UFO Sighting!

Well, I did it, I went through my entire cupboard and counted up all my UFOs, including photographic evidence!

Here is what I've un-earthed:

1. UFOM #1 - My First Quilt. This comes from a sub-set of UFOs called UFO Miracles, see earlier in my blog for details on this tragic tale. Status: Halfway done with the binding.
   Photograph: Well, I've blogged about this one enough before, if you want to see a picture, CLICK HERE I put a few pics on my first post.




2. UFOM #2 - Yes, it's a Quillow! and done in the country style that was so popular when I started this project. Which is not to be confused with today's country style. As if I have my finger on the pulse of the Home Decor world -- NOT! Anyhow, still not done! For more pictures CLICK HERE I posted about it shortly after it was "re-discovered"




3. UFOM #3 - Flannel Crazy Quilt. Not even touched since it was "Re-discovered" To see pictures of this Crazy Project: CLICK HERE




4. UFOM #4 - Almost Almost Done Christmas Wallhanging - Well, this one my children have helped me decide what to do with the blank panel, we're going to put in Christmas Stockings, and they will help finish the decorations on the little trees. We've decided that this one will be done by next Christmas, so progress will be slow, but steady! For Pictures CLICK HERE




5. UFOM #5 - Woodsy Center - Okay, I don't know what I was thinking when I started this! And I was such a new quilter back then (16 yrs ago?) that my inexperience really shows. All I can say is, maybe it will go on a quilt back~! If you dare see pictures CLICK HERE




6. UFOM #6 - The Really Big Kaleidoscope Quilt - Well, this one I've lost a critical piece of equipment: the ruler I was using! I'm pretty sad too because I was really hoping to finish this one up. I remember throwing out the ruler in a moment of disgust, because at that time, I thought I had lost my complete quilting stash - fabrics, UFOs, tools, everything! Well, I did lose most of it, except for 6 little miracles! For the complete Tragic tale CLICK HERE and for pictures of my Really Big Kaleidoscope Quilt CLICK HERE and if you happen to know where I can find this tool:
   
   
   
   And earn my undying gratitude, please contact me immediately!




7. Tree of Life - This is just the center block. But I don't know how to finish this. I don't have any fabrics to match, so I need to bring this piece to the store to find some fabrics. CLICK HERE for a picture.






8. Road to California - This wonderful project is actually a win from the Stichin' Post Lottery challenge. I love the blocks and I've only to assemble them into a beautiful Queen or King size quilt on-point. I've purchased additional fabrics for the sashing and this one is high on my list to complete. CLICK HERE for pictures




9. Botanical Shop Hop Quilt - This is the first quilt I've ever started that was meant only for me to put on our bed. Still not finished. But I am more than half-way through creating the blocks. CLICK HERE for pictures.




10. Old Tobacco Road - This is a Bonnie Hunt Mystery Quilt. I love Bonnie's patterns and books. If you aren't familiar with her work check out Quiltville.com Right now I'm still making the pinwheels. I need 100 pinwheels made out of 1.5 inch half-square triangles. That is a lot of work left to do. This UFO is my Sew-Between. (That is the quilt I work on in between my other items. I make a HST or a pinwheel as a Leader or an Ender for every chain on my current project) CLICK HERE for more pictures




11. '07-'08 Thangles BOM - This project is all in batiks and well... let's just say I had a brain block on my math. I need to finish it, but the sashing isn't going to align well. Too bad, but it will make a great lap quilt for watching TV.
    
    
    
12. Marisa Pinwheels - This is a very pretty little lap quilt that I had started for my MIL. But it was getting very close to Christmas and so I needed something I could finish right away, so this got shelved and I made something else. I'm about half through the piecing. This is a pattern from Roxanne Carter I have a few of her patterns that I am meaning to make!






13. Cinder's Best Day - This is a quilt I designed for my little girl's cat. I knew he was getting sick, he's always had trouble with his kidneys. So I wanted to make a quilt for her so she could remember him. But the poor guy went quicker than I thought and my little Cricket was too sad to stand it! I had planned a chenille cat and some applique. Now that the sadness has passed, we are going to finish this quilt together.






14. Garden Path Mosaic Pictorial - I don't know if I should include this in my list of UFOs. I wasn't even going to keep this. About 10 years ago I decided to make a mosaic picture because.... well, just to do it. I did this garden path. It was ok, but I wasn't enamored with the mosaic style. So I was going to toss it. My my middle child, a baby then, grabbed on and wouldn't let go. So it became hers. It was never finished and I noticed that the edges were VERY worn. I told my daughter ~ almost 10 now, that I would finish it off for her if she wanted to keep it, otherwise it would fall apart.









15. Lost Blues - This is a quilt that I started, then I moved one last time. I don't remember the name of the pattern or even have it. It's only a little bit pieced and has large bits of fabric that remains uncut. I suspect I will dissolve this UFO into the fold. Uncut fabric into the stash and pieced blocks into scrap bins or the orphan box.
    
    
    Now we are getting into a sub-set of my UFOs. This is a list of quilts underway, but that will progress slowly as it is part of a SWAP, a BOM or something else that meters my progress:






16. '08-'09 Thangles BOM - This is actually two quilts I am working on at once. My LQS is doing this in two colorways: Brights and Yellow, White and Blue. I am doing both simultaneously!






17. Friendship Star - These blocks started in an open swap and I'm now continuing this swap as part of a private swap club I belong to. Not sure how many blocks I'll end up with, but they are all fun and beautiful!







18. Disappearing 9-Patch - This started as a swap, I only have 8 blocks for this quilt and I want 12. So I am going to host one last swap at my club and should finish this one up very soon. I love this pattern, it's simple and pleasing.
    





19. Lap Quilt Swap IV - I am SO happy to be a part of this swap hosted over at Craftster.org. I have been watching jealously as Audrey worked on the previous swaps and finally had the opportunity to join. I've had so much fun creating blocks with everyone's beautiful fabrics and have received WONDERFUL blocks in return. I want to highlight them each on their own later (been in a Christmas rush the last few weeks).
    
    
    
    This is the last sub-set of projects on my UFO list. These are projects that I haven't even started:






20. Postage Stamp Quilt - For this project, I am finishing up a pattern (yes, I caved and am creating a pattern!) and also I am organizing my squares. I think I don't have enough of the colors I want and too much of colors I am eliminating. Bummer! Lots more work to go.






21. Midnight Garden - I LOVE LOVE LOVE this pattern by Roxanne Carter, and I have the Perfect fabrics that I searched High and Low for! I mean I called every Quilt Shop this side of the Mississippi! I can't wait to start this project!









22. A Girls Work is Never Done - This is going to be a lap/baby quilt. It should be cute. I have one fabric missing. But I must confess, I haven't tried to find the perfect fabric for finishing this off. So there it sits, the pattern and almost all the fabric! But now I know the perfect little baby for this little quilt, so I must put it on my active list!
    
    
    
    
    
    





23. Bold Over Batiks - This is a lap quilt that I wanted for myself, and like all those quilts I want for myself, they never get started. This one has all the fabrics just waiting to get started.







24. Cam's Snake Quilt - I found this great pattern for a Snake Quilt. Now my little boy is ALWAYS asking me to make him a quilt. He loves to go through my crumbs and hands me little pieces and tells me to stitch that into his next quilt. I now have many crumby blocks for him, but this snake quilt will blow him away! I know he will LOVE it. I just recently acquired all the fabrics needed, but have been busy working on his (and other) Christmas projects!

I also have 3 aprons, 2 Halloween bags, and a pillowcase that needs finishing, but they don't count as my Quilty UFOs!

So that's my UFO Report, Have you seen any UFOs hovering around your sewing closet lately? Inquiring minds want to know!!

• What is your oldest UFO?
  
  
• How old and why did it become a UFO?
  
  
• When do you plan to finish it, if at all?
  
  
• How many UFOs do you have?

UFOM #6 - The Really Big Kaleidescope Quilt

My last and final Miracle UFO! This was going to be a King Size Kaleidescope quilt. All done in purple. In retrospect, I find the color selection a bit dark. It's kind of funny how our tastes change over the years.

Everything was included here. All my notes, lots of fabric, Several finished squares, many more almost finished squares -- and even a marking pen.


Everything but the required ruler! The really irritating thing about that is that I remember seeing that ruler when we were moving. I remember thinking that it was out of place and ought to be with all my other sewing supplies. Then I got distracted, I didn't go investigate what the movers were doing. To this day I wonder if I would have stopped right then, would I have been able to salvage all my sewing supplies? All that fabric? All that work?

Now that ruler is gone, and so is everything else. Well, almost everything. Everything except my 6 little miracles!
Here I've placed the finished squares together on the floor (my design wall is already covered with my "real" work -- ha ha) I think it will look nice when it's all done. If I can find a ruler replacement, I might even make it a King size! Probably not though. We'll see!

UFOM #5 - Woodsy Center

This block I was making for someone I worked with, back when I was expecting my first child (who is 11 now). She and I were quite friendly.

Then one day, she just didn't come in to work. When I inquired about her, they said she called in to quit with no notice and said she was moving to Georgia -- Atlanta I think.

So there this sat, for ages. Of all the projects I had sitting in my sewing room, if I had to choose among any of them, I must say, this would be the very last one I would want saved. It's very much not my style.

In this close up you can see my four-patch is a bit wonky! Probably better I didn't give it out as a gift I suppose! Maybe I can find a center medallion swap or something, although, now that I've highlighted my wonky squares, perhaps I should rethink that!

Well, this one is a puzzler. I've promised myself to finish all my UFOMs. Problem is, what to do? What to do?

UFOM #4 - Almost, Almost Done Christmas Wallhanging

This one is nearly done. And I remember very clearly why I didn't finish it. I couldn't decide what to put in the green panel. If you look closely, I've used scrap from my very first quilt (UFOM #1) for two of the trees.

That and I didn't have enough buttons to finish the trees. Now that is a silly reason, I know, especially because you can pick up buttons so easily!

I remember wanting not only the skin color of the angels to be varied, but the shading on their wings. So I took the doily, and tea-stained them in different shades. Then I was disappointed because I thought the stained wings didn't show up quite as well from the background. It doesn't bother me so much now. Maybe that was the real reason why I didn't finish it.

Now, what to put in that green panel. Mmmmmmm....

UFOM #3 - Flannel Crazy Quilt

It seems that all my 'miracle' finds have been from really early in my quilting career.



This one is a crazy quilt made entirely from flannels. I have all the directions and some templates that I made out of plastic. The directions say you should be a confident beginner or better.




I have a lot of fabric here that is uncut. It seems I wanted it to look very scrappy and not at all patterned, because I have only used the templates that I created on some of the "squares" and on many I just stitched pieces together.



I use the word squares very loosely, as none are in an actual square shape, and the sizes are somewhat nebulous. Aside from the fabric and templates, I do have several "squares" finished, and it looks like I was going for a Queen size quilt.



I also have two ziploc bags stuffed full of more fabric that has been cut according to the templates -- I guess at some point I was planning on using the templates, but then gave up(?) Who knows!



All in all, I think I'll like having this quilt around once it's done (finally) because Flannel should be very cozy. I still haven't acclimated to the cooler climate here.

I love the green, green, green of it all, the beautiful mountains and being surrounded with so much water. But it seems, after two years, I am still constantly cold!

Maybe I'll use wool batting on this one~!

UFOM #2 - Yes, its a QUILLOW!

Right out of another one of THOSE bags! Yes, you've haven't heard about quillows in years! In fact, I think they were all the rage the year I started quilting and then immediately died out.

Well, I'm not sure about that. But I had forgotten I ahd even attempted to make one. And from the amount of fabric I have, I think I wanted to make FOUR!

These fabrics aren't really my style, and I don't think they ever were. But they are nice and I know that my daughters will love them. So, I figure I'll make two for my daughters and finish the other two off for a Linus Project quilt.

The only problem is that I don't know how to make a quillow. It seems I took a class at a quilt shop in a town I haven't lived in for more than 15 years! Well, I didn't get very far in the class because I've not even cut the fabric. I only have one pillow panel with an added ruffle.

The sheet I saved from the class only gives yardage requirements, but directions. Why on earth would I save yardage requirements but not the directions. I must have thought the whole thing so easy that I wouldn't need directions.

Either that, or I thought it too hard and I would never attempt to make them. I have no idea, but there is PLENTY of fabric here!

Anyone out that know of a good quillow pattern??

UFOM #1 - My First Quilt

I've decided to call these UFOMs -- the M is for Miracle. (or You-Foms).

So my first find was this finished quilt top. It's the very first quilt I ever made. I was so very proud of it and I remember how much I loved the fabrics I chose. To this day I have a weakness for tree quilts and leafy fabric prints.

But the funny thing about this quilt is that I had sent it over to a long-armer (couldn't imagine myself doing the quilting in those days -- or even what a long-arm quilter was!)

Anyhow, the poor lady took one look at my quilt and sent it back! Said she couldn't do my quilt. I must have been her worst nightmare as a client (except that I was pleasant I'm sure)...

She had finished the edges on her serger for me and I just folded it up and dropped it into a bag. I haven't looked at it since.

It has some damaged bits, and if you look close you will see that the bag I kept it in has some mold on it -- never very good for a quilt.

Well I'm going to finish it up on my Pfaff machine. I grabbed some leftover novelty fabric of christmas pigs (Olivia if you have children) and it'll make a great lap quilt in winter for when the kids are watching t.v.

So that's it - My first UFOM is my first quilt! Ironic....