2013: The Year of the Finished Project

 

 

Lynne over at Never Too Hot to Stitch! is hosting a monthly linky party on the first Thursday of every month.  The purpose is to outline what you want to focus on that month, and share what you completed the previous month, in the hopes that 2013 will reduce the number of UFOs floating around the house.  Considering that my UFOs and WIPs are growing exponentially, I feel the need to join in!

 

This month, I am only choosing 5 projects to focus on. 

 

1. Complete Easy Street quilt top

 

 

I have all the parts made for the Bonnie-size version, but my daughter likes it so I am upsizing it to King Size, with a slight modification to the colour order.  Where you see her lime green, I am going to be using a medium purple.  The other colour orders are changed as well, and there won't be any aqua after all, but she is thrilled with the sample block I made. 

 

So far, I have done all the calculations to increase the quilt to king-size.  I'm waiting for tomorrow or Saturday for Hamel's Super Stitcher Weekend (first weekend of every month) so I can get the medium purples at a 20% discount.  It should be finished by the end of the month.

 

Due to the size, this one will get sent out to be long-arm quilted.  Hopefully, I'll be able to do that in March.

 

2. Finish my Pure Happy Quilting Quilt-a-long Quilt

 

 

 

This was the first quilt-a-long I participated in (and Melissa's first one that she hosted!).  This is a lap quilt just for me. 

 

It is partly quilted with a chocolate minkee backing.  I put it aside to concentrate on Christmas presents.  I should be able to finish this in just a weekend, including binding.

 

3. Sarah's Dragonfly Table Runner



 

All that needs to be done on this one is finish the binding.  I was short about 12" so after a quick trip I was able to find the right batik on the third bolt I pulled!  That was a month ago, so today I finished off the strip, attached the binding and it is ready for handsewing.  This will be done by tomorrow night and taken to my daughter's.  We bought the fabric together almost a year and a half ago as a project to teach her how to quilt.  Needless to say, the baby kept her too busy and I did most of the work.  We`ll find another project to do this spring.

 

4. Gramma quilt

 

 

I bought this kit about 3 years ago, and I have no idea why I put it aside.  I finally cut it out this summer, but now it is time to finish it as I am changing the beds in the grandkids` room and need a twin size quilt.  I want the top finished this month, and will quilt it in February.

 

5. Just Takes Two Pillow Cover

 

 

When I started doing my Just Takes Two quilt blocks, I thought I might use aqua and white instead of red.  I found it very bland and assembled the first six blocks to make a pillow cover. I have done the basic stitch-in-the-ditch quilting, but want to fill in the white space with some FMQ, which I want to practice this year. It will coordinate with my lap quilt really nice, which will also match my sofa!

 

So that is the plan for January!  I really want to take control of my projects, and this may be a great way to do it.  In addition to outlining my plan on the first Thursday of each month, I`m also going to participate in Leah Day`s UFO Sundays and dedicate Sunday afternoons to catching up!

 

Thanks, Lynne for coming up with The Year of the Finished Project.

 

 

UFO Sunday, Week One, Part Two

I'm baaaaack!  Since it was Sunday, and I posted early, I thought I would add today's accomplishment!

Tetris - Blocks put together and ready for borders!

The design is by Melissa of Happy Quilting.  Her version was made with 5-inch squares, but I decided to use what I had on hand from my charm packs, and made mine with 2 1/2 inch squares.  It measures 24 1/2" x 36 1/2" right now, and it is the perfect size for a playpen or stroller.  It will make a great baby boy quilt for any upcoming babies, or I can use it here at the house for the grandbabies.

This one didn't actually make the UFO list, but because it was covering my ironing board, I decided to finish it rather than put it aside.  I'm going to put a black border on it, perhaps two but I'm decided.  I'll let it percolate a bit.  It will now go on the list - hopefully temporarily.

I pulled another UFO out, Vintage Valentine. 

 I started this project about 4 years ago, and started doing the machine applique but I didn't like it.  After a good look at it today, I realized it was because I didn't like the buttonhole stitch I was using and the delicacy of the design needed a fine satin stitch instead.

It's really obvious in this block and it was at this point when I put it aside.  I have done the red and pink on three blocks at this point, so I brought it upstairs to 'frog' out the old.

While I was digging around, I found another UFO that never made it past the 'buy the fabric' stage.  The fabric is an old Debbie Mumm line, Noah's Ark.  I envisoned a nice crib quilt for a boy but could never settle on a design.  I think there is enough fabric to make two, including backings!  I going to choose a Bonnie Hunter pattern, like Princess Crown or something similar and use it as a Leader & Ender project after I finish the Thangles quilt.

Thanks again, Leah, for giving me the push I need to get some of this fabric out of here!

Joining UFO Sunday - hosted by Leah Day from The Free Motion Quilting Project

The last few weeks I've been beating myself up about the number of UFOs (UnFinished Objects) and WIPs (Works in Progress) I have on the go, but it hasn't stop me from starting more!  Let's face it - they are all UFOs in my house.  I'm pretty sure I suffer from QAD (Quilter's Attention Deficit). I'm putting a moratoriam on starting any more, unless they are a gift for a specific person for a specific date.  After all, I proved I can do that by making baby Brayden's quilt in just two sittings!  

Then last Sunday, I came across this post by Leah Day.  I think she was reading my mind. 

I love Leah's blog, The Free Motion Quilting Project.  I found her when I was searching how to free-motion quilt on my home machine (not that I've really tried much yet!).  She has terrific videos, goes into great detail and shares so much of how her mind works as she comes up with designs.  She also shares her personal history and how quilting has helped her, and as someone who also has had a difficult background, she has given me some great insight.

I've challenged myself to learn how to set up a new page (yay! done that) so I can list all my UFOs and I'm committed to UFO Sundays! And I've set up a separate page so I can list them all in one place, have links to their related posts, thereby tracking my progress and celebrate my finishes.

See my page here!

 Eventually, I want to have links on each name so I can go back and just see the posts related to that quilt.  I think might have to stop putting so much in to one post, and start posting more regularly with just one or two subjects.


 

This week's project - get my precious new-to-me Featherweight up and running! 

(Accomplished! and work done on an actual UFO - full story below if you want to read on!)

I purchased it six months ago, but have been afraid to use it until I dealt with this:

I'm scared of anything electrical (my sister lost her home to an electrical fire), and this was the original wiring, and there were exposed wires where the tape ended.  Major confession here - I have not even plugged it the machine since I bought it. So last Sunday, after making my UFO list, I put in a new light bulb, bravely anxiously plugged it in and flipped the switch.  NOTHING HAPPENED! OMG, what have I done?  Thrown away over $200 on a doorstop? I started googling and found out the switch only turns on the light, so obviously power wasn't getting to the light.  (PS: The Ebay seller was upfront and said she had no idea if it worked as it was her grandmother's and she had no idea how to use it.)

I googled some more, and decided I could handle looking inside the plug, after all I couldn't make it any worse. It was a mess, so what harm could I do?

 I got all the wires cut back and rewired in the right places (photos are so helpful at this point).  Plugged it in, and lo and behold the light came on!

I gingerly stepped on the foot controller and....NADA!  Still nothing.  I figured I would have to hunt for a new foot controller so back to Google I went.  I couldn't believe my luck - there was a Featherweight maintenance and repair workshop being held just 45 minutes from my home, across the border in Lynden, WA just 5 days later.  It was being put on by Tangled Threads and the teacher was none other than Dave McCallum from Featherweight RX, the author of "The Featherweight and I" and "Those Fantastic Featherweights".  According to everything I read, this is the guy who knows everything about Featherweights.  The only condition of the class was you had to have a running Featherweight.  I emailed Dave, explained my problem and asked if it would still be worth coming to the class.  I was surprised when he personally phoned me, and after talking, he assured me that it would definitely be worth my while to take the class, and even if it was full, to come anyway and he would get me up and running. I registered, went to the class on Friday and Dave plugged a new foot controller into my machine and just like that, my machine is running as smoothly as a brand-new machine.

It turned out I didn't even need to replace the foot controller - I just had to replace the power cord at a cost of $13.50!  If you own a Featherweight, I encourage you to buy his bundle which includes the book and DVD set.  It has everything we learned in the class and more, and well worth every penny.  You would never have to send your machine for service again, and I even learned some tips for my newer machines.  (No affiliation or compensation - I was just so impressed with the class and with Dave and his wife).

I was so excited I went home, pulled out the first UFO I could get my hands on (dating back to 2008), went to my friend's home and started sewing.

This is the first Thangles project I signed up for.  My LSS does one every year, and for $2/month you get 2 strips and the instructions to make one or two blocks.  I finished the flimsy of one in July and have two more to do.  This one is pink and green, the other one is black and rose.  I didn't participate this past year, because I had 3 unfinished.  I've promised myself if I get them all done this year, I could join again next year if one appeals to me (or not!).

Thanks for reading!