Is this a UFO?

Would you consider this a UFO? The quilt is designed and in the manilla folder and all the fabrics have been pulled. It has been dormant in a bin for over a year.

Thoughts on a Grey Day

Today is a very cold and grey day. Do you knit? You know that I do and it is a wonderful way to not only unwind but to let your mind wander. After all, if a mistake is made it is easy enough to fix. The reason that I bring up the subject of knitting is because as I was working towards the toe of a sock my mind wandered to UFOs. A UFO, for the uninformed, is an UnFinished Object. I have several. LOL! Don't we all? Do you remember this post about the UFO Challenge List? Here is the photo from that post way back on January 1, 2011.

I dug out that notepad again and as of today, this is what it looks like.

So in the two years since that post, progress has definitely been made. "A Christmas Wish" was the first to be finished and it has graced the coffee table each Christmas since."Hugs and Kisses" only has a dashed line through it because it is at the long arm quilter's. "She Wants to DANCE!" won a 3rd place ribbon in a quilt show that features the Hoffman Challenge. "Double 4-Patch" was king sized and finished before winter 2011. That was one of the barter quilts I have made. The plans is to work on "Iris Garden" after the "Baltimore Christmas" quilt is finished. I have found that I can only do one applique quilt at a time. I can't split my focus on those quilts because they then get too over whelming.

Is this a resolution? I hope not, I don't like resolutions. Let's call it a goal: work on and finish "Iris Garden" in 2013.

UFO Challenge List

Okey dokey. Here is my UFO Challenge List. There are ten projects here, but the Number One project is that Double 4-Patch. It is a commission quilt and WILL BE worked on first until it is finished. After all, I have already received payment so I must deliver, right? There is a lot of applique here folks, five to be exact. Plus one hand piecing project that is more a WIP* than a UFO**.

*WIP - work in progress
**UFO - unfinished object

New Year's Eve UFO Challenge

I have joined Finn and some other bloggers on the New Year's Eve UFO Challenge. Want to join in? You can click on the badge over there in my sidebar and it will take you to Finn's blog.

Committing for two UFOs is maybe, just maybe, do-able. Now what should they be?

I would like to get this runner quilted before Christmas so it will be the first UFO done, hopefully.

The second UFO, is something I've been sporadically working on: a Halloween quilt. It won't be ready for Halloween this year, but I'll be ahead of the game for next year.

Thanks for hosting this challenge, Finn.

Here Comes The Sun

Once the sun came out from behind the clouds the waiting feeling was gone and I have been out in the yarden putzing around recharging my internal batteries.

The block is of one quadrant of a paper pieced sunflower.  These four blocks are orphan blocks because I forgot to mirror image parts of it and they are all exactly alike. The paper is still in them.

Throughout the waiting, creative endeavors have been happening. One and a half pairs of socks have been knitted and two Quilts of Valor quilts have been quilted, bound and labeled. The third will be done this week end. Then three presentations cases will be made and they will await a meet up with Alycia to hand them over.

Clothing needs to be made. Part of my plan has been implemented. All the fashion fabric has been measured and a tag pinned to the fabric with the yardage and width. All the fronts and backs of the garment patterns have been copied and put into a binder. Now to make a spread sheet with photos of the fabric and the yardage and then match it up to a pattern. Some of this fabric will have to be donated because it was purchased when I worked in the corporate world and will not be appropriate where I work now. What is my work garb now? Mainly tees and jeans because the environment is fairly dirty with bronze dust, liquid latex and molding plaster and I just don't want to ruin good clothes. I can see a lot of shirts and blouses in the sewing future, tho.

Journal Covers

I have been busy in the sewing room, can you tell? It seems that MagicLady and I use the same style calendar. My calendars take a lot of abuse so I have always made covers for mine. This year I made two and in the process used up 3 orphan quilt blocks. Pretty neat, huh?

There are spaces in the flaps to store business cards and papers and to hold a pen or pencil there is a simple loop of elastic next to the hook and loop tape on the strap. To be able to find your place easily a ribbon is sewn in at the spine. Over the years I have perfected what I want in my cover and long ago decided that I did not like to tie it closed because it was alway coming untied in my purse -- hence the hook and loop tape closure. A button or other geegaw could be added I suppose, but these two were whipped out in under an hour.

You might consider something similar as a gift item.