Those Darn UFOs!!!

I am currently sitting in my sewing room watching reruns of Sex and The City.... when I should be working on my unfinished projects...... or at least working. Instead I am reading blogs about other people finishing their UFOs!

In the past month I have finished my Beatles quilt, finished the top for my Oriental Elegance quilt (which is now with a long arm quilter!!), and finished two wall hanging tops. All of this progress would be incredible had I not gone to the Creative Sewing Festival in Toronto and a local shop hop in the same time frame. I admit nothing..... but there may be a few more pieces of fabric to fondle in my stash and a few more projects.

In fact, the reason I am sitting and not sewing is I am trying to restrain myself from starting to cut the flannel I bought Friday on the shop hop to start my first rag quilt. I found great instructions on a blog by Jen Yu that were so clear even I got it!!! And what a fabulous way to use those smaller pieces of batting that are too small for anything else!

I am not sure what I am going to do but I am going to spend 15 minutes sewing right now! Great advice from several of the blogs about finishing UFOs which I plan on following tonight!

If there is anyone out there that is actually reading my blog I would LOVE to hear your advice on reducing the amount of UFOs in your sewing room! Or at least to hear that someone else has them!!

Baby Bargello!

It took me a while to develop a love for Batiks. Now, I want to use them everywhere I can! Making a baby quilt out of them was likely not the most practical thing I have ever made. It is currently sandwiched and ready to be quilted. I started a few weeks ago using InvisiFil. I love it for my handwork. It amazes me how it dissolves into my hand applique and I wanted to test it on machine quilting in the ditch on the batik. I did love the way it disappeared. However, although it will likely never see a baby, it just felt wrong. So I have pulled out the quilting and need to start over again with cotton.

The more I learn and experiment, the more I am pulled back to traditional quilting techniques, patterns and cotton thread!

But I am closer and closer to finishing another project on my UFO list!!

Happy Quilting!

All You Need Is Love.... and great family!

My brother-in-law turned 50 a few weeks ago. To celebrate this occasion, I had made him a Beatles quilt I had seen in a Fons and Porter magazine a while back. It is a crazy, psychedelic quilt with colors that gave me headaches. However, he is such a lover of the Beatles I just couldn't resist!!

I am lucky to have married into a very large family. Although it will take me 20 years to complete quilts for all my sister-in-laws, brother-in-laws, nieces, and nephews, it is a challenge I have slowly started to work toward! 3 down, 20+ (and growing) to go!!

The real catch is that I have a hard time finishing projects, so I really need to love fabric and a pattern to see it through. Given these were novelty fabrics, they didn't exactly fit into my "fabric fondling". However, sometimes you just need to suck it up (buttercup)!

Finishing this project and giving it to my brother-in-law made me an emotional puddle!! Although it isn't my favorite quilt in terms of fabric, it is one of the best "quilt gift" moments ever!!