OMG and UFO Challenge Finishes for Feb 2018

I have two finishes for these two challenges.  And it feels good to get them both done. I am linking to both the UFO Challenge and the OMG (One Monthly Goal). Click on the projects to see what others are doing with their challenges.

I get to a certain point in the quilt piece construction and it becomes less than imperative (or  fun) to continue going.  I want to start the new stuff!  I love these incentive programs to spur me along to  a couple of finishes.

First finish for February - whew, say that five times fast

100 Meter Swim - Just in time for the Olympics.  This is from a book written in German by Bernadette Mahr.  I love her work, so improv wonderful.

It is basically a Chinese Coin construction with watery blues to look like the shimmering water in a crystal clear swimming pool.  The diving board and starter blocks stand out in stark contrast to the cool of the water.

I really love this piece.  I am thinking it will be an entry in the CFAL show later this year.

The second finish is Triangles.  This is a quilt that started from nothings.  What I mean by that is multiple years ago Connecting Threads was having a clearance sale and I bought several packs of solid pre-cuts.  There were half yards, fat quarters and 10 inch squares.  Most of them are still sitting on the shelves.

I wanted to make a big block triangle piece so  I grabbed one of the 10 inch groups and just cut and sewed.  No pattern.  I ended up with a bunch of triangles and put them in a box for a year.  When they didn't  magically sew themselves together, I guess the quilting fairies didn't see them in the box, I  had to do it.  Then it needed to be larger, so I had a sheet from my mother's stuff from assisted living.

So the blue in the borders and on the back is that sheet.

It is a bit different to work with a sheet than it is to work with fabric.  And if you are hand quilting it would be difficult due to a higher thread count in the sheets, but I was going to put it on the long arm.

I also wanted to use it as a practice quilt for different free motion techniques.  I got out my Natalia Bonner and Angela Walters books and tossed in every design I could muster.

I totally love the solid blue back and the individual triangles.  Some are more shaky than others.  I found I had straight lines and ruler work down, but needed serious work on the curved designs!

So finish number 2 this month is done.  I have a thousand million threads to bury.  the back is finished and about 1/3 of the front done.  But it is done in all other aspects.


 Now on to the March finishing challenges!

UFO Challenge from Patchwork Times And the One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts

Just so you know I know....Judy picked umber 1 for the next UFO to be completed.  And I am using these two for my OMG at Elm Street Quilts.

That is...........

A double whammy......bind 100 Meter Swim AND the Triangles. and the One

I think I can handle that.

For some reason I can't flip it, but you get the picture.










Hmmmm.  this one either.  I wonder why I have to resize all the photos I choose now.  And why they won't flip.

These are mysteries of the universe and my computer.

An Accident in the Quilt Room

 So there was a near fatal accident in the quilt room today.




I  was vacuuming so I could mop up after the love  birds made such a mess on the floor. 




The vacuum blew a couple of birds off the design wall, and before I could do anything.....gobbled up the batik bird.  Surgery was required.  I had to replace a corner of the  HSTs.




For a while I worked on putting  my birds together, but I took a bit of a detour.  I remembered that Judy was going to choose a number from a list of 12 we prepared in December.  I must have missed that totally. 

She chose number 10 -  my Zig Zag quilt.  It needs to have a back  made and get quilted. 

The blocks were made at a retreat a couple of years ago.  From Sujata Shah's book Cultural Fusion Quilts.  One of my favorite books. 





 I pulled  some short lengths  of fabric to make a pieced back.  Even though the fabrics are more  traditional, it looks  like  a modern backing.





This is  where I am with the birds right now.  I have put together three sections.  Of course, not making the birds all the same equal sizes, I am having to create piecing maps and get very creative about getting them together.

I am adding white spacers where I need them.  I hope this will make it large enough just to need a small white border around the whole thing.


Frank watched the new X-Files while i watched the Aurora Borealis in Iceland.

That is where we  will be on this year's vacation!

UFO Challenge from Patchwork TimesIm

I generally do the UFO Challenge every year.  Last year was Flood Year so it was a non-UFO Challenge year.  I will do it this year though.  I couldn't resist a good list!

The gist of the game is to list 12 UFO projects and each month Judy will call a number.  You work on that one and post the end result.  And hopefully get 12 finishes in December 2018.

I will need to combine UFO Challenge projects with OMG projects.  Otherwise I will overwork myself to death by June.

Here is my list for the year:

1.  Bind Swimming Pool and Triangles
2.  Red Riding Hood - Paper pieced
3.  Finish London Tea Towel
4.   Finish Bird is the Word
5.  Quilt Orange Mystery Houses
6.  Quilt Foxes
7.  Finish GreenSquares BlackTriangles
8.  Quilt diamond Dogs and finish
9.  Make Birds of the World for Frank
10. Zig Zag needs quilting
11. Quilt Modern Guild Houses
12. QuiltCorner Traditional needs quilting


I guess I need to  post photos of these and put it on my blog header so I can find it again.

There are a couple other quilts I want to get done this year.  One is the Elizabeth Hartman Llama quilt Lloyd and Lois.  The other is a Yeti Quilt for Sawyer.  I want to get more modern and improv through the year as well.

I spent a lot of time doing quilts I liked OK, and then fell into the Modern genre.  That is where I want to live now!  Like my closet after the flood.  I only buy with a LOVE now.

It is amazing how cleansing losing everything can be.  I still don't understand why my clothes got tossed though.  And all my underwear.  And socks.  I didn't have one pair of undies to my name!

Judy L's UFO Challenge

Well, since I got so many done in 2011 not many done in 2011 I figured I needed to do it again this year.  So here is the list of the ones I will definitely do probably won't do either in 2012.

1.  Elephants fro Sri Lanka
2.  OUthouse blocks (yes, they did surface at some point and hopefully I can find them again when the # is called)
3.  Christmas Scrappy
4.  Scrappy X blocks
5.  Polar Bears
6.  Cow I and Cow II
7.  BQ Quilt
8.  Paperpieced Cats
9.  Blue Jean quilt
10.  Feathers
11.  Any one of Judy's Quilts (maybe the Connect the Dots class)
12.  Any one of Bonnie Hunter's Quilts

The UFO Challenge at Patchwork Place and Design wall 1-3-11

Judy asked us to list our UFOs we wanted to work on # 1 through 12.  I put 2 in each month because I have sooooooo many I wanted to get a number of them done this year.

She chooses a number at the first of every month, this January 1st she chose # 6.  In my list that was the Orange Snowball Mystery and the Outhouse Blocks.  Both perfect choices because the Mystery is due next Thursday and the Outhouse blocks will be perfect for a wild and modern quilt in the Inspiration Challenge.  (I may get nothing done this year but challenges, but hey.....)

I spent a few hours this afternoon and tonight working on my Orange Snowball Mystery and got the center put together.   I put the blue one on the design wall and laid the orange blocks over the blue blocks to make placement and turning easier.  It was a challenge to get it all laid out correctly when I did the blue one.

Tomorrow I should have some time to work on the snowballs on the outside edge.  They are all put together, they just need to be sewn in strips and attached to the inner border that needs to be put on.  Aside from nothing being equal in size and no block being the correct size, it went together fairly quickly this afternoon.  I had most of the work done on the pieces from the months of keeping up with the mystery.  The blue snowball mystery will have to go to the quilt meeting with no backing or quilting. 

Inner border will be the orange and the snowballs will be the light with the fossil fern surrounding them.  It will be bright!

glen