The Finishes of 2016

Okay...I'm not very good at keeping up with blogging...

...which led me to miss the not only the 3rd Quarter 2016 Finish-A-Longs...sigh...but also the 4th Quarter.

Sigh...[insert sound of palm hitting forehead]

But in the spirit of end of the year wrap-ups...(only six days late)...I did make my goal of having only 40 (yes 4-0) UFOs remaining on my list at midnight on December 31st.

Tiny quilt from MSQ tutorial

Yay me!

Another finish from a MSQ Tutorial

On January 1st, I had 61 unfinished quilts...in various stages from "cut but not pieced" to "finished flimsy" all the way to one that "just needs binding".

Yep...61

By December 31st, I had finished: (drum-roll please)

3 Bed-sized quilts (one twin and two king)

My 1st King size quilt!

19 Lap quilts

Big Lap Quilt

10 Small quilts (think wall size to cat size...or baby size, whatever)

Started at QuiltCon...finished for Rooster (the cat on the right)

That's a total of 32 finished quilts...29 quilted by me and 3 quilted by credit card (thanks MSQ and Sew Shabby Quilting!)

Quilted by Me!  (from this awesome pattern)

Also...I purged some really old fabric stash (to friends and charity) and 13 UFO projects that were just never going to get finished (again to friends and charity)...let's be honest, tastes change.

Speaking of really old UFOs, the 2016 finish that wins the prize for being the oldest (started in 1997!) is this tiny Irish Chain, which now keeps my washing machine nice and dust free!  Thank you!

An oldy...but goody (37"square...and it took 19 years to finally finish!)

I also may have sort of maybe did add 24 quilts to the list this year...(I wanna make all the quilts!)

Added...AND finished this year!

So here is 2016's score sheet...

61 UFO's

-32 Finishes

-13 Deletions

+24 Additions

40 Remaining

Yay me!

I think I need to work on my picture taking skills

Let's see what 2017 can do for this...

Tops ready to be basted, quilted and bound...

Weekend Projects

I spent some time recently helping my Mom make some pillow fronts using her finished cross stitch pieces.  We had a lot of fun hanging out, chatting, laughing, swimming, taking the dogs for a walk...feeding squirrels...and sewing.

See that cute "leash" that hangs free?  Adorable!

Like me, and probably most crafters and sewists, she enjoys the process, the patterns, the supplies...just generally making something cool by hand...as much if not more...than the finished project.  And we all know how that can lead to a lot of finished, but unfinished UFO's.  (...a closet full of un-quilted tops, perhaps)

She had the idea to turn some of her smaller pieces into pillows, and asked me to come visit and help her out.

So some super simple patchwork, a bit of sashing and quilting and we turned 11 of the small cross stitch pieces into three pillow fronts...that she will make into pillow covers for the holidays.  (Uh-oh...did we make more UFO's?  LOL!)

I don't know much about the cross stitch patterns, other than these below are by Sue Hillis...

...and are my favorites!

Isn't this skate adorable!

The fabrics we used to frame the squares are random scraps from my stash...love using up stash!...so it was a win-win weekend!

And as evidence of my mom's patience (and counted cross-stitch requires it)...she has earned the trust of the neighborhood squirrels and hand feeds them un-shelled peanuts!

Finish No.1 - 3rd Q

Okay...so I feel a bit like this first finish is a cheat...all I had to do was get the binding sewn on and the quilt photographed.

I love piped bindings!

But then I have to remind myself that three months ago it was un-basted and un-quilted and languishing in my trunk...

And now it is done and living on my Mom's bed!  The pattern (modified to be a bit bigger) is Line Dancing by Kathy Mack for the Moda Bakeshop.  The printed fabrics are mostly Mod Century by Jenn Ski...with some Moda Bella solids (in what colors, I know not...sorry, I started this quilt in January of 2013!) a few random scraps thrown in to make my charm packs stretch, and the binding is fabric from Zen Chic...the quilt finishes at 60"X73"

I had fun quilting this!

And fun using up some very old flamenco skirt polka-dots on the back!

So this is finish #17 for the year....leaving 41 on my 3rd Quarter List.  Time to get back to the sewing room!

2016 3rd Quarter Finish A Long

So after the rousing success of the 2nd Quarter Finish A Long...here is the working list for the 3rd Quarter:

...Apple Stars, Shiny Happy Dog & Cat (softies), Bonnie's Blooms,  OHO, Line Dancing, Hand-Dyed Stars, Big Hexies, Zig Zag Diamonds, Snapshots, HST Pinwheels, 2014 Mystery BOM, Brown & Blue UFO, Oh, My Stars, Chevron Cats, Cherry Tweet, Hand Quilted Postage Stamp, Flowering Snowball, Log Cabin, Cricket's TV Dinner, Batik 1600 Quilt, Mystery Quilt (still need to find the name of the pattern), Ribbon Box, December 26th, Bee in My Bonnet Row Along, Aunt Ruth's BOM, Perennial Stars, My TV Dinner, Starry Log Cabin, Hand-pieced Henry, (in the boxes, partial tops) Yoyoville, Clover, Ferndale Flora, Adore, Sew Sweetness Bag, New Year's Stripes and Squares, Dapper Dan, Chunky Blue and Gold, Leslie's Geese, Starburst, Red Trip, Ava's Starry Eyed and Olivia's Christmas Snowballs

Still a list of 42...several adds and quite a few deletions from last quarter.  I like a big meaty list, I can never tell what I'm in the mood for...

So, here's wishing myself and all the other FAL-ers the best of luck in the 3rd Quarter!

2nd Quarter Finish A Long Re-Cap

Here's a quick recap of how I did during the 2nd Quarter of the Finish-A-Long...it's not too shabby, if you ask me...

Starting List (42):

Hand-Dyed Stars, Big Hexies, Ribbon Box, Zig Zag Diamonds, Apple Stars, Snapshots, HST Pinwheels, 2014 Mystery BOM, Strip-Pieced Mini, Penny Candy, Angie's TV Dinner, Baby Star, Brown & Blue UFO, Line Dancing, Oh, My Stars, Oh, Americana!, Chevron Cats, New Year's Stripes and Squares, OHO, Shiny Happy Dog & Cat (softies), Cherry Tweet, Hand Quilted Postage Stamp, Flowering Snowball, Log Cabin, Cricket's TV Dinner, Batik 1600 Quilt, Mystery Quilt, Ribbon Box, December 26th, Abundance, Bee in My Bonnet Row Along, Celtic Solstice, Aunt Ruth's BOM, Perennial Stars, My TV Dinner, Bonnie's Blooms, Yoyoville, Clover, Ferndale Flora, Starry Log Cabin, The Big Easy and Hand-pieced Henry.

Finished (6):
Ribbon Box, Strip-pieced Mini, Penny Candy, Angie's TV Dinner, Oh, Americana! and Abundance

Deleted/Donated (3):
Baby Star, Celtic Solstice, The Big Easy (definitely was the big ugly)

Remaining, but made progress (6):
Apple Stars

The top is pieced...and the paper is mostly removed

Line Dancing

Just need to attach the binding...

New Year's Stripes and Squares

The top and backing are all pieced...

OHO

Changed this to a small quilt, too many blocks weren't square (need to practice my curved piecing)...and I got the FMQ started...

Shiny Happy Cat and Dog

Shiny Happy Daisy & Shiny Happy Bonnie need shirts!

Bonnie's Blooms

I got the flowers cut and pinned on...but I'm not feeling much love for this project anymore...hmm, donation maybe?

And least you  think I was good and didn't add any new projects to my list...here they are:

Oops...[insert shameful winking eye emoji]...Added UFO's (5):

Chunky Blue and Gold (stash buster)

 Dapper Dan (stash buster)

 Starburst from MSQC tutorial (stash buster)

 Leslie's Geese

Adore (and I do...)

I have already started FMQ this one...and am having a lot of fun!  I'm debating on whether or not to make each "leaf's" quilting the same or unique...

I also did a little re-organizing, stash thinning and quilt-top wrangling...

They all look so nice hanging in a row...I certainly have my work cut out for me!

Check back tomorrow for my 3rd Quarter List of UFO's...

Finish No. 6

For my SIL's birthday I finished up my Abundance quilt from Jeni Baker's pattern.  I instantly fell in love with the pattern when she first blogged about it...and I think I even went straight home and pulled some stash to start one of my own!

With my ever faithful assistant's help!

I started piecing the rows in the middle of July, last year...

 and was finished with the top a few days later....and then it just sat, nicely folded...for almost a year...

Until the 2016FAL/Q2.

I used my "go-to" quilting pattern Orange Peel, with some FMQ swirlies in the border...and finished just in time for my SIL's birthday on June 21st...she loved it!

This is the awesome backing fabric...shows the quilting nicely!

I totally doofed-out on getting a nice picture of the entire quilt before she took it home...but the picture above shows the quilting really well.  I used a fabric from Joann's, that looks a lot like a vintage sheet, for the backing...it works perfectly with the scrappy pinks, greens and yellows in the top!

The quilted ended up being 72" X 88" (including the border I added to the pattern) and will make for a fantastic picnic quilt for her and her daughters to use this summer.

Sixth item checked off my UFO list!

This makes finish #16 for 2016...and 52 remaining UFO's (36 remaining on the 2ndQ List)

Taking Quilt Pictures...with a helper

Joe...

Always willing to help!