April UFO plus some

I have to admit that I did not immediately start on my April UFO.  I had other things that I was working on.

It was an interesting month in that I acquired two additional UFO's from someone else's sewing room.  It is a sad story, but it is giving me the kick in the butt that I need to motivate me to get stuff done.

My daughter received a call from the mom of her son's good friend.  Her mother-in-law had passed away at the end of March and they ask my daughter if she would finish the quilt that grandma had started for their oldest daughters high school graduation.  As my daughter said, when she ask for my help, How could she say 'no' to someone that had just lost someone so close.  What my daughter did not realize at the time is it is not exactly a traditional quilt.  It is pieced traditionally but the quilter had just made a lot of different design choices to the quilt pattern.  The daughter-in-law brought us what she could find in the sewing room.  We are taking her pattern, fabric and inspiration picture and doing the best that we can to complete it by June.  We are hopeful that we will have it they way it was intended. 

The other project is the repair of the quilt that the quilter had given to her son for his 21st birthday.  It has been well used.  My daughter did not realize they were bring that one also.  I have had a lot of practice lately fixing quilts so I will work on that one after we complete the graduation quilt.

Why am I the one doing it you ask.   Because dear daughter already has two jobs, three if you count the long arm quilting plus taking care of husband, house and kids.  I keep telling her the kids can do more for themselves than she thinks.  She is just so used to doing everything.  And I have apparently become her official seamstress.  This month I sewed two tops for her for gifts

The first was one that she wants to give to her son's teacher for the teacher gift.  I know, who gifts the teacher a quilt at the end of the year?  She cut it out of her stash and I pieced it.  She will get it quilted after she gets a customer quilt off her machine.

I also pieced a baby quilt for her.  My 7 year old granddaughter laid it out, I pieced it and my daughter quilted it, we got it bound and gifted, all in the space of 5 days.  I had to grab the finished picture from her IG feed with granddaughter holding it up.

For the other teacher gift, she is going to use one of my quilt tops that I did not have actual plans for.  I had finished it earlier this year.  It was on my original UFO list and I did it early. She got it quilted this last weekend and I attached the binding to the front today.  I wanted to add the picture here in case my daughter decides to have her husband finish the binding and I do not get another chance to get a photo.

I also made some spring dish towels for all of us.  I think I bought this to do last summer but did them last weekend as I waited for my grandson to come over to work on a project with me.

And last week I completed my April UFO.  It was a quilt that I started in the fall.  It is the pumpkin quilt pattern from Cluck Cluck Sew.  I had put it aside because I needed one more fat quarter of orange.  Even though I had found that I had never gone back to it.  Now the top is completed.  I hope that it will get quilted before the fall.

I almost forgot I also made some kitty blocks for @Chistypugh.  She lost her daughter in February and is making kitty quilts for all the children in her daughters class.  She asked for help from the Intragram community #emmasplan

I also fixed the Christmas quilt that I had done several years ago and when my daughter looked at it had told me I needed to turn a block.  I un-sewed it and put it back in after giving it a half turn.  I had had three strong reds right next to one another.  I had probably turned a block as I was sewing the rows.  The second picture is after I turned and sewed it back in.  I can live with that.

I also did another UFO from my list.  I mended my youngest daughters quilt that her dog had chewed a hole in.  This is embarrassing since it took me eleven years to mend it.  I was going to rip out quilting and replace fabric after I had found some of the fabric, that took at least 5 years before I ran across that in my oldest daughters scraps.  But my youngest daughter asked me a couple of weeks ago, "Why don't you just patch it?" So that is what I did.  It is hard to find on the front, the fabric is just a little brighter.  I never found any of the fabric to match the back so it is really visible.  But it is done.  This quilt was made by my oldest daughter and given to her sister.  This is before she became a long are quilter so it had to be at least 17 years ago since she got her machine at the end of 2001.

I worked on one other quilt this month.  My daughter had quilted a top I had made several years ago.  I can't remember how many years.  It was a Christmas quilt that I had planned to give to my best friend one year but because it didn't get quilted at the time it languished.  It was quilted in March and I got it bound this month.  My girl friend was over the other day and I gave it to her forgetting to take a picture.

I also worked on catching up with the block of the month that I signed up for this year.  I know I said I was not going to do that this year, but I signed up for 'The Flock' with the Hummingbird Highway.  The are all pieced bird blocks.  Not paper pieced.  The kits are laser cut which is great because if I had to cut all those pieces it would not be happening.  They are amazing. I still need to make March and April's blocks but here are January, a bonus block and February's block.

And what made me kick it into high gear this month?  Everyone who talked to me about the quilter who passed made these statements.  'She was about your age'  and 'She wasn't even sick.'  That is what kicked me into gear.  We do not know the time or the day that we will leave this earth.  But I need to not leave a room full of unfinished projects.  I still have more to finish.  And I am not even counting the projects that I have never done more than buy fabric for or the mountain of fabric in my stash.

Now to move into May and keep the momentum going.