2019 UFO Challenge-February Update

Here it is, the last day of the month and

Granddaughter Estella's 7th birthday and

I have February's UFO almost finished.

The binding is on,  ready to stitch down.

Ernie has hunter's ed class tonight so I decided
to rent Bohemian Rhapsody and bind.

I used up quite a bit of older stash fabric to make the back.

The cherry fabric has aged enough, the chicken panels too.

A friend gave the me navy fabric.

It was all I could do to squeeze the binding out of the rest of that chunk of fabric.

I had to piece some to get the strip wide enough for the last few inches and by golly, 

it worked out great! 

I'm pretty excited to mark this one off the list

and see which number Judy L pulls tomorrow morning.

I Like Thursday #39

Thursday Likes include dogs on quilts and kids.

It doesn't matter if it's finished or not, 

Daisy thinks the quilt is there for her.

I'm having fun quilting this one.

Short periods of quilting time are needed so my shoulder isn't irritated. 

I hope to have it finished this week.

Little Jessie does not like to be disturbed when he's napping under the quilt.

It also doesn't mater to him if it's finished or if Mom is taking out some stitiching.

My bean shelf was empty.

It was time to stock it up again 

with some chili mix, black beans and pinto beans.

2 hour late start means Gramma will let us play video games in the morning.

I love that Corbin has his perch of quilts and pillows.

We spent some time coloring this morning.

I hadn't intended to color but when he put the paper and the marker in front of me,

I felt I really had to.

And the conversations while coloring are priceless.

There are lots of great Thursday posts listed over at 

Not Afraid of Color. 

Check them out!

Design Wall Monday

I've finally started quilting this month's 2019 UFO Challenge.

With the impending snow storm, will I have a chance to finish it?

We will soon see.

Of course there has to be a whoopsie.

Not really a whoopsie but I had quilting in there that I decided to take out.

So I cuddle up on the couch with spoiled rotten little dog to take out the stitching.

He loves to cuddle under the quilts.

He was a bit irritated with me when I moved the quilt.

He has a good stink eye!

So to make him happy again,

 I settled in with my basted quilt and we took a nap.

We are still staying with the kiddos in the mornings so I took a little projects.

I needed to pair my rectangles and mark the starting points.

In no time at all,

I had them all paired and marked and ready to sew.

I laughed at myself for all my tape marks. 

I have my main sew line, my bonus triangle sew line and my 1/4" line.

Made quick work of sewing my rectangles.

All these are sewed and pressed.

Even the bonus triangles that I have no clue what they will be used for.

Check out the great things happening at

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Design Wall Monday.

I Like Thursday #38

Our kiddos had a 2 hour late school start this morning due to icy roads

so I am having a 2 hour late start on my home stuff,

including my Thursday blog post.

Here are some of my likes for this past week.

I like having quilts basted and ready to work on.

I did 2 more this week but haven't started quilting them yet.

I decided to start this quilt for our oldest grandson.

So this morning I marked and clip the pieces together for when I have time to sit and sew.

2 hour late start means Gramma will let you play games if you are ready for school.

Gramma all comfy with her soft pants and fuzzy warm socks. 

We are headed out soon to pick up 40 super small Leland Cypress trees.

These are at our daughter's house.

With 2 more homes being built up on the hill, 

that means 2 more families using the gravel driveway right next to ours.

I need more privacy and these grow super fast. 

We'll be having a tree planing party soon.

Want to be invited over for the fun and games?

And these two! 

Daisy and Jessie

Daisy will scooch over so Jessie can have part of the middle.

Jessie, the spoiled rotten little dog, will not scooch.

If he gets the middle, it's all his! 

Visit other Thursday Like pages posted at 

Not Afraid of Color.

Have a wonderful week!

Design Wall Monday

 

After finishing my log cabin quilt Saturday,

I went through my UFO list to find something to finish for our oldest grandson.

I didn't see anything I wanted for him,

everything is too feminine.

So I decided to pull out my 2 1/2" batik strips and a stack of books.

After looking at all of them,

marking and looking again, I chose to make Monkey Business.

It's in Kim Brackett's Scrap Basket Surprises.

Then I pulled UFO box #7 and 

decided to use the fabric I had set aside for something else for this quilt.

I have that big bin of batik strips but these are all ready to go. 

I think I may even have a great animal print to use for the backing.

Use the stash Judy!

While I was pulling, 

I got out the replacement UFO #12,

(I explained that it in Saturday's post.)

I have 35 12 1/2" blocks.

I'm not sure how I'll set them so I pulled out this Log Cabin book.

I might make another block for a 6x6 setting.

But I'll think about then when #12 is drawn.

In the mean time,

I pin basted February's UFO today.

This is #10 on my list. 

Since the tables were all set up,

I basted a small string quilt too.

And now I'm out of batting on my roll.

Any others basted in the near future will need to have batting pieced for them.

Use the batting scraps Judy! 

Check out all the great design walls at

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Design Wall Monday

Finish #6 and Changes To The 2019 UFO Challenge List

While cataloging all of my UFOs and explaining to hubby what was happening

and how depressed it was making me with so many tops to finish, 

he suggested I send a big quilt top out to my friend Jane to get quilted.

So which one do I choose? 

I chose this log cabin top to be finish #6 for my goal of 20 Finishes before 2020.

This log cabin is on my 2019 UFO Challenge list as project #12.

I happen to have a set of log cabin blocks that are ready to be made into a top

so I will replace the old #12 with those for the new #12. 

(Is that even legal? 😀) 

I picked out a feathery design and Jane made my quilt fabulous!

What's a good way to get an extra UFO marked off your list?
Use it for the back of a quilt.

These were a stack of 20 16" Turning Twenty blocks.

I just started sewing them together.

No planned lay out, just grab and sew.

Then measure and add some more fabric from the stash.

With all the quilting and binding I've been doing, 

I've irritated my shoulder.

So it's short binding sessions, and then lay it aside for a while.

Miss Polly is making sure I don't overdo. 

 So while "resting", I made 2 more quilt backs.

I'm ready to having another basting party.

The first quilt to be basted will be the UFO for this month. 

I Like Thursday #37

I'm so sorry to have been missing nut on my I Like Thursday posts.

I really do still like Thursday!

I usually write my posts in the early morning but

since the beginning of January, we've been going to 

Daughter Crystal's house as she returned to work.

She has to take several weeks of training before she can officially start her job

and her littles need their grandparents there to get them off to school in the mornings.

When we get back home around 9, 

it's on to the regular day stuff.

So in no order, here are a bunch of things I've liked this year!

Happy New Year!!

I like the elk in Crystal's neighbor's field.

I LOVE the Quiltville mystery this year called Good Fortune.

Mine has all the parts complete and is ready to turn into a top.

Clella plays basketball games of Saturdays.

They are so fun and stressful!

I made a lemon meringue pie!

It's our favorite and I don't make it often.

2 goofy boys waiting for the bus.

I knitted each of these guys new hats.

4 for this family, on to the next family!

Hubs bought an incubator and hatched out 6 new babies!

Then he sees this Mosaic Rooster on Craigslist from a local gal.

So we got him.

Meet Bruce Lee, he's about 3 months old here.

That same day, my friend posted 3 Ayam Cemani chicks for sale.

These are the all black breed and I've wanted a couple since I first learned about them.

So now we have 10 new babies in our flock.

We attended a Kindness Award Assembly

where Leland received an award.

Proud Gramma moment!

I've canned some soup.

This is my fiesta chicken soup.

I also did more ham and bean soup.

Awesome to just open a jar, heat and eat.

We've had lots of snow.

Not lots and lots but 8" is quite a bit for us.

And cold...not cold like some of you but cold for me.

So I've been quilting!

And quilting and quilting.

This beauty will arrive at Granddaughter Amanda's house today.

This one will be at Granddaughter Ashlee's house today.

I love surprising my people.

You can see all my finishes for this year on my

20 Finished Before 2020 page.

I've missed you all and will try to catch up today on this day off from 

being out of the house by 6am. 

So I am now headed over to Not Afraid of Color and catch up with my friend's

 I Like Thursday posts.

Design Wall Monday

It's been a busy week in the sewing room.

After finishing last month's UFO, 

I decided this beauty was next.

The binding is sewn down and 

it will soon be headed to a special girl in Texas.

Shhh, she doesn't know it's coming.

Finish #4 for my goal of 20 Finishes Before 2020.

Next up is Sanctuary from Kim Brackett's Scrap Basket Beauties book.

It was started in May 2013 at a retreat.

It's done with flannel from strip swaps with friends.

At the next retreat, I won 5 yards of red flannel that was used for the border, back and binding.

There is a small piece left that will be cut up into more strips for the flannel box.

WaaHoo for Finish #5!

Trying to get a picture of this was a joke.

Daisy dog plopped herself right down and

Tony had to come and show how to sit pretty.

Little Dog took over the middle of the dog bed.

Saturday morning, trying to be quiet and clean up my messy binding box,

I started sewing the leftover binding hunks together.

After sewing 7 or 8, I realized there was no top thread.

Duh!!! So I put some thread on, threaded the machine and started again

only to realize the bobbin was empty!

While stitching down binding on the Dresden Plates quilt, 

I discovered where I had run out of bobbin thread.

7 Inches from the end and I didn't even notice!!

Joke's on me I guess.

So now I have my binding box nice and neat again.

I like having the black bindings all together.

The red on the right is all the same fabric. 

My heart sings at all those leftover pieces. 

I can't wait to use them.

The others are for specific projects and each are labeled.

This is why so much quilting is happening.

I'm perfectly content to stay inside and 

make pretties happen while we wait for round 2 of this "5 part weather event".

Check out the fabulous design walls at

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Design Wall Monday.

Another January UFO Report

WhooHoo! Quilting is finished, binding is on.

I'll stitch it down in the evenings while watching tv.

I'm going to call this one a finish.

I'm not the best free motion or straight line walking foot quilter

 but I'm not the worst.

I have fun.

I'm a firm believer in Done is Better than Perfect!

Life's to short to be a perfectionist.

Last night I laid the quilt down on the floor to see if I really should 

quilt in the black half square triangles.

After the quilt inspectors report, 

I decided I should.

This was started in my first Bonnie Hunter class in June of 2014.

When the top was finished, 

it went straight onto Mt ToBeQuilted

where it marinated for a few years.

This will be sent off to a special girl as soon as it takes a trip through the washer and dryer.

I love sending quilts to my special people.

Since this is our day,

I'm going to go in a start quilting another one for a different special girl.