2012 UFO Challenge

I'm going to try this again this year. Hopefully, I'll be more successful than last year!!  Although I did finish a couple and moved several further along. I will list the quilts for now and post pictures later.  We've recently put down laminate flooring in my sewing room (YAY!!!!!) and I don't have all these quilts available for photos.  Hopefully the first one Judy picks will be one of the ones I CAN get to!  Here goes.

1. Piano
2. Cuddle
3. sno ball
4. Billie mystery
5. blue and yellow
6. pineapple blossom
7. brights and black
8. wonky house
9. star struck
10. heart mystery
11. kaleidoscope
12. Bright 8's

Uncle Eli (Whitney)'s Quilting Party

I had the pleasure of attending the 80th Uncle Eli's Quilting Party today.  It is the oldest continuous quilting event in the US and was held at the Eli Whitney, NC Community Center.  The Center is a former school and the party started in this agricultural area when the principal of the school tried to get the parents more involved at the school.  I checked the sign in a little before noon and already almost 300 people had shown up.

While there, I learned how to hand quilt!  DH's response when I told him?  "You already know how to do that from watching that lady at quilt bee" - which meets at our house.  Anyhow, here is a pic of my first effort. I'm pretty pleased with it.

All in all, a good day.

Design Wall Monday April 4 2011

This is my UFO for this month. Thank you Judy for choosing a fairly easy one for me.  This was supposed to be a bargello quilt, but when cutting, I neglected to allow for going back up.  I intend to look for a border fabric, but if I can't find one, I'm ok with just finishing this off.  Will probably just do a diagonal waving line down the center of the colors, so it shouldn't take too long. I do have another I'd like to finish up this month - or at least get it to the completed top stage.

Design Wall March 21 2011

Yesterday was one of those days.  Our guild was having a sew in to celebrate National Quilting Day.  And NOTHING went smoothly.  No one had gotten the key to the facility we were using - because they don't GIVE us a key.  We finally got in touch with security and they let us in.  Fred had just called to say he locked himself out of the house, could I come let him in.  So back home I went. And brought coffee, since no one else had bought coffee.  When did I start running this?  It's not a workshop.  I didn't really get very much accomplished, due to a lot of interruptions - but the Tarheels won!! Fred kindly kept me updated since I missed the game.

On to the design wall.  This is a UFO from several years ago.  Since Judy's choice for me for March was a quilt that was fairly far along, I'm trying to get 2 completed.  This one is ready to quilt and will hopefully be finished tomorrow.

Stash report March 20, 2011

Fabric.com had wide backings on sale for $7.00/yd. with free shipping over $25, so I bought 9 yards.  I don't mind pieced backings for quilts with fairly uncomplicated blocks, but when I have lots of seams, I want only one piece for the backing.  I do all my own quilting on my DSM, so seams back to back can be difficult.

I used 3 of these yards for the backing for my stack and whack quilt and the rest of the yardage was used for another UFO that is now ready to quilt and will be done tomorrow, or at least that's the plan.

Used this Week:     8.5 yards

Used year to Date:  45.25

Added this Week:   9 yards
Added Year to Date:   29
Net Used for 2011:   16.25

Design Wall 3/14/2011

This is actually what is OFF my design wall.  Got the piecing finished last night but had to wait until this morning to get a picture since I need to go outside.  This is also lat month's UFO challenge, but when I decided to add all the borders (Thank Judy, you were my inspiration for the pieced border) I didn't get it finished last month.  I've figured out what I want to do for the quilting on the sashing and the blocks.  I'm hoping to get an inspiration for the borders while working on the rest of it.  I will be using my DSM.

Another bonus that I discovered is that my garage door is metal and I can put the quilt up with magnets!!!!  So much easier.

Am trying to finish up lots of UFO's this week (this one will not be finished this week) so I have lots to take to bind at my guild's Quilt Day celebration/workday on Sunday.  Will go through UFO's and will probably find a lot that can be finished and bound on Sunday.

Thanks to all for your comments.  I was surprised to see them this morning.

Design Wall 3/7/2011

Here's what's up on the design wall today.  Judy FINALLY picked one that is fairly well along.  And not huge.  These are12" blocks and I will make it 4 x 5, so have some work to do.  Hope to have it done by next week.

Stash update

I have finally found my camera cord!!!  So tomorrow I will be able to participate in design wall - if I can figure out how to add the pic to my blog.

Used this Week:     13.75 yards
Used year to Date:  36.75
Added this Week:    8 yards
Added Year to Date:   20
Net Used for 2011:   16.75

Used this Week:     9.0
Used year to Date:  23 
Added this Week:    0
Added Year to Date:    12
Net Used for 2011:    11

Stash Report January 2011

Used this Week:     9.5
Used year to Date:  14  
Added this Week:    0
Added Year to Date:    12
Net Used for 2011:    2

2011 start

Robin and Evelyn came to sew with me yesterday.  We sure had fun!!  It all started several years ago when Robin and I were both doing the same New Year's Day mystery and decided to work together on it.  And we've continued the sewing tradition, though not necessarily a mystery quilt, every year since.  I got my personal challenge UFO for January put together.  Fortunately, my most time consuming UFO was not the one chosen to be completed this month, as i have a lot of other stuff to do.  Stay tuned and see what I actually get done!!  On the exercise front, I've been doing well with both my steps (10,000 per day) and stairs (500 each way per day). And I've gone back to doing Bodies in Motion when I'm up early enough.  Will do something else - wii, elliptical, bike - on days I'm not up by 6:00 or so.  At least 4 days a week.