It will be a few weeks more before I have my quilting machine back from repair and although I am sooo tempted to start something new, I am trying to be a responsible quilter and turn my energies to finishing some things up.  

These were some snowball swap blocks from a couple of years ago, I threw them together with a border to make a baby quilt.  (Notice the remnants of hurricane Lucy on the right side of my design wall.  Love those kittens but wow can they be destructive!)

 In my attempt to be organized and ready to pump out some finished projects I have been preparing  everything needed to finish the quilt once the big machine comes home.

I hate to thread and re-thread the machine so I plan to put the black cone of Aurifil on the machine and assembly line quilt any finished tops requiring black thread.  Maybe that's the way to approach my UFOs rather than list them and beat myself up, maybe I should just go with quilting thread color, first my black period, then my tan period, etc.  I'll let you know how it works out!

Looking Glass View

A little finish for this weekend, pattern called Looking Glass View that uses fusible and machine applique. I have been sorting through UFOs trying to see what I can manage to complete without the big machine since its in for repair for up to six weeks.  I spent so much time and energy swapping blocks, and as I went through the totes and piles and boxes, my thoughts went to my prolific swapping friend Sandra,  I  think we must have swapped well over a thousand blocks over the years. She sent me this pattern as a little gift after I saw her beautiful completion.  We lost Sandra to cancer in October and I miss my friend.

What can I say? when I'm in love, I'm in love

I told you I'm in love with that Magic Binding technique.  A table runner from September's retreat finally finished.

And then, out from the depths of the UFO pile.....

Sonnet from April Cornell, man I just love these colors!

So several years ago I bought some yardage and several charm packs, most of which were homespuns. Then I started cutting everything up and stitching. Maybe it was a different time in my quilting life, but the wonkiness of the homespuns drove me crazy and away it went to UFO pile.

Today I am in a finish it, use it or move it along kind of period and I pulled this back out. Still in love with the fabrics....its not their fault they are stretchy, I am ok with wonky right now so I am just trying to finish as quickly and easily as I can so i am using what i had precut and I need an inner border so that I can just do more rail fence blocks around the outside and show a definite change. So what do you all think? #1 #2 #3 or #4?

UFO or UFOs?

So I did it, I backed a UFO with another UFO. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. Scrappy and fun...I'm smiling!

Back is Turning Twenty from homespuns.

Front is Wonky Houses from quiltville.com with some free formed wonky looking trees and geese all around.

UFO Analysis

I am involved in a UFO challenge at Mailblocks, we have four months to complete up to ten different UFO's that we listed at the beginning of the challenge. This really got me to thinking about how many UFO's I truly have and what makes them UFO's. Why have some of my projects lain at the back of the closet or at the bottom of the stack for so long? So I decided to pull a few out and seriously evaluate them.

This is a 4 Patch Stack n' Whack that I started at last September's retreat. What about is it that had it tucked away to live a life of loneliness? I think its maybe because I don't really like it. I loved the fabric, the whacked patterns did not turn out as dramatic as I would have liked and the blocks look uninspiring. I am thinking they might be better served if I gave them to someone who likes them or make a little charity quilt. Its not that they're not nice, I am just bored.

These raggedy flowers are just nine of a total thirty six that I have from a row robin that finished in April. I like them, I plan to add leaves and some butterflies and a nice floral border. Why haven't I worked on them? I think because there's still so much work to be done to complete the top let alone quilt the big beasty once the top is done. Oh yeah, and let us not forget that once its done and on my bed a 90lb. muddy dog will surely fly in there to avoid having her feet wiped off and roll all over that cream fabric! :-)

This is an older one, Wonky Houses from Quiltville.com made during a swap in 2006. I loved the blocks and decided to make some wonky trees for corner stones. But its small, I want to make a really killer border, like maybe pieced deer or bears with larger wonky trees. Again...that's just a lot of work. Maybe I will just make a nice colorful scrappy border of geese and use the following quilt to back it?


Homespun Turning Twenty from 2007. This was a retreat project that I used unloved homespuns just to try out the pattern. Now I really like it! I have a distressed black that I planned to make an inner border and smaller pieces of homespun for an outer border. I think the colors will work well with the Wonky Houses from the previous post. (Wow, it sounds like I have a definitive plan...maybe these will be my next UFOs to tackle!)


A Row x Row from Quilting in Indiana. This is a killer top, can you guess what I haven't finished it? Because I have been too lazy to figure out how to continue the black and white pinwheels into the border. I have a really nice gray for a border, but my laziness just keeps me from continuing.





A row x row from Mailblocks, really cute isn't it? I designed it with a particular lady in mind, an ovarian cancer survivor that i have so much love and respect for. I have been telling her about it for 3 years now. I wonder when she's going to finally tell me to get off the pot and MAKE HER QUILT ALREADY!!! What has me stuck on this one? I am envisioning a picket fence border around the outside. Again, I am just dragging my feet at designing the block for the borders.

Another Round Robin. I am disappointed at this one. One robiner made her round completely contrary to my color requests. I'm sure you can guess which round has me upset. Its almost 2 years old, and I pull it out occasionally. My anger keeps lessening each time I drag it out, maybe in another year I will actually be able to throw a black border on it and get it quilted.

This was a Row x Row that got hung up in the events of one Robiners life and I got it back after an extra six months. I was so excited about this when it started, it just makes me happy to look at. But somehow it got lost in the shuffle and now I do not have the intended border fabric anymore....Grrr! So now I am on the lookout for a nice complimentary fabric, but it always slips my mind when fabric shopping.

There's another factor in finishing UFOs, the cost of completion. Now when I look at the stack of UFO's I cannot help but to see $$$ fly around in the potential cost for batting and backing. Of course I could always piece the backings...but that would become a UFO in itself!

Good Gawd! This is just a drop in the UFO bucket around here...this partial list has really hit home....I need to go and hang my head in shame.....