Finally finished the June UFO.

July was off to a good start.

I finished my June UFO on July 2nd.  Better late than never.  I have been attempting to do a little analysis of why I have put projects away unfinished.

For this one I had the center of the quilt completed and all of the boarders sewn on.  The next step was to embroider the corner section of the text boarder and then embroider the snowflakes in the outer boarder.    So why did I stop?  When I look at what still needed to be done there was not that much, but this was the only the third project and I think I was worried about lining up the corners correctly.  However, once I pulled up the design I discovered that this designer had actually put in the line up lines in the design.  When I first started embroidering I didn't know what to look for.  I was able to spend several evenings stitching out a corner each evening but just did not get all the snowflakes embroidered before the end of June.  It feels really good to have finished another project.

This is my least favorite part of machine embroidery.  Takes me longer to take off the paper than to embroider.

hmm..why can't I figure out how to rotate this?

Oh well I have a picture at least.


I also got the Cat Weave quilted.  I still need to bind it.  I just did straight stitches on my home machine.  Gotta start somewhere with the quilting.

I am now working on July's UFO.

June did not go as expected.

The month of June has been hot...really really hot.

That is sort of unusual for the Pacific Northwest.  We usually say the summer starts around here on July 5th when the rain stops.  But we had a really dry winter and now a dry hot summer.

That translates into not a lot of sewing got done.  I also had one of my grandsons spend a week at my house when school got out.  He actually expected me to feed him occasionally.

I did sew it fits and starts.  But not a lot got completed.

Before the UFO number of the month was posted I made a mini quilt for my granddaughter.

It is called Cat Weave and it was from The Sewing Chick website.

I had bought a fat quarter bundle off Massdrop of the cat fabric and it was perfect for this project.

After we got the UFO number for the month I went looking for the project, which I finally found then I looked for the instructions which I did find a week later.   That project did not get finished this month.  I got so close.  I will get it finished, just not this month.

When I was not searching for items I did work on my flannel quilt and did get it sewn together.

So I did get something done.  Just not what I had planned on doing.  Now I will have to see if I can get July done.  But I have to tell you I am wishing for A/C it is so darned hot it is hard to sew.  I hope next month is not flannel.

End of May, Really?

I can't believe that it is the end of May.  Where did it go?  I did get my UFO finished early in the month, but then never took a picture until today.  Nothing like a little procrastination in your life.  This quilt is one just because, I like the colors.  No real plans for it but I am sure it will be with me for a while.  It matches some pillows I have.  I bought it as a clearance kit a while back and I got all the way to the last boarder when I stopped working on it.  When I picked it up this month I remembered why - the outside boarder was to be cut the width of fabric, fussy cutting the design.  Of course the design was not printed straight.  Can you say waves in this boarder?

I also finished sewing down the binding on two quilts.

The first has been quilted for a year.  I hate to admit that but last summer was to hot to bind and then I got a little crazed on making gifts for Christmas last September and just keep putting this one off.  It is a disappearing four patch using Kate Spain fabrics.  Nice and bright for our gray winter days.

The second one is one I showed the quilting on in March.  Amazing right, finished within two months.  The top had been waiting to be quilted for a while.  Remember that crazed in September....my daughter got sucked into my crazed behavior as my quilter, I kept her busy also.

Speaking of my daughter, I may have to learn to quilt.  For the last several years she has worked from home scoring sleep studies she is now going to be working outside the home 5 days a week.  (motivation was health insurance for the family, they can no longer afford to buy it on there own, it has gone up so much in price with the Affordable Care Act).  Anyway, even though she would work long hour they could be later in the evening and she could quilt in the light of day.  That is changing.  We will just have to see how her schedule works out and if she will get any quilting time.  And my darling husband is now the kid taxi.  He will be picking up her children after school and babysitting on non school days.  Can you say he is going to have a very busy summer?  Since he watches kids for both our daughters there will be some days that he has four children all day long.  Yes, four.  Right now they are 6, 5, 5 and 2.  Three will have birthdays in August and it will be 7, 6, 5 and 3. That will be Second grade, First grade, Kindergarten and pre-school in the fall.  The 2nd grader and kindergarten in one city and the 1st grader in another with 30 minute drive in between, if traffic is good.

Work gets in the way

I work in IT as a Quality Assurance Software Engineer and this month we had a major release.  I put in many long hours doing the month getting the testing completed for the release and then supporting the go live. I lead of team of 18 and we were stretched to the limit to get it all tested, even with the automated test suite that has been written.

Needless to say - had lofty goals that did not come to fruition.

The UFO for this month from 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks was #9.  My number 9 was to get all the blocks completed for the block of the month from 2012 from The Fat Quarter Shop.  I did not get them made into a quilt but today I did get the last block made and that was my goal for the month.  Since I bought this BOM late I did not get a finishing kit only the blocks so I am going to have to come up with a plan for the assembly now that I have them together.

I have loved the Vintage Modern fabric since the first time I saw it so I am happy to finally have these together.  I do have some other fabrics that I am going to audition to use for the finish.

I was disappointing that I did not get the binding sewn down on the quilt from last month but any progress is better than no progress.

It is almost the beginning of a new month and time to set new goals.  Maybe May will be better, June is not looking so good for getting much sewing done.

Past Quilts

Since I want to use this blog to record the quilts that I have made I am going to add a few old ones that I have given in previous years.

I have grandsons that love construction equipment.  So much so that for the last three years these boys have attended a local event called Dozer Days in which they can actual sit in and 'operate' big equipment.   If they go this year it will be four years in a row.  My daughters think that the interest is waning, I am not so sure.

This is the quilt that I made for each of the cousins.

That same year I also made a quilt for a grandson who is just a little older that was not interested in construction equipment.  For him I made an eye spy quilt, of sorts.  Not the traditional and because his mom really likes modern quilts I used gray as the sashing.

All three boys received there quilts for Christmas 2012.

That same year I gave my daughter in law a flannel Christmas quilt.

This was actually my first foray into flannel and I was worried about the fabric stretching but had no problems.  I do plan to eventually make a flannel quilt for myself.  I have a lot of quilts that I want to make.  And many already started, which is way I am currently working on UFO's.

March 2015

The March UFO # 4

This one had been kicking around my sewing room for a while and I am really glad to get it done.  It seems I was always moving it from one place to another.

A finish for a gift for one of my co-workers.  Baby was due earlier in the month and finally made an appearance on my husbands birthday last week.

Actually did finished two of these.  This one was given to a baby girl of one of my husbands ex-coworkers.

My daughter also quilted an older quilt top that I finished awhile ago.  This one is not finished yet but I love this shot of the quilting.  She had just unpinned it from her long arm, the light from the window really highlighted the quilting.  I still need to get it trimmed and the binding on and will take another picture when it is done.

I also took a machine embroidery class and worked on another project that I have finally finished all the blocks for.  Now I just need to get them all sewn together....a bigger project than that sentence makes it sound.

In addition to the above, I have been making binding for my daughters quilts and sewing them on for her.  I owe her big time for all the quilting she did for me last year.

Speaking of which - I almost forgot to include this photo.  I love to see my quilts put to good use.  These little darlings are my best friends grand children.  I made them quilts before Christmas.  There is nothing like a quilt fort.

February 2015

February has been a very long month.  Not so much in days but in busyness and in the fact that I have been sick.

At the beginning of the month I started coughing.  No sore throat, no running nose.  I just started coughing.  A week later I did get a sore and runny nose.  This was the weirdest illness. After about 11 days I went to the doctor and was put on antibiotics.  I am not doing much better now.

In spite the fact that I was fighting the crud I did get some sewing done.  The first item was the #1 UFO.  It was a recent start so that was satisfying.  During the great Christmas sewing spree I had completed 2 Hungry Caterpillar quilts.  But I had cut out 3.  I have two grandsons that share a bedroom and my daughter wanted matching quilts.  One of the boys got one for Christmas and this month I got the other top sewn together.  I am afraid it is not a very good picture and it is not quilted yet but another top completed.

And since I seem to be on a Hungry Caterpillar roll I also did a baby gift for a co-worker.  I have to get this on quilted quickly.  His wife is due in Mid March.

It is so hard to take pictures this time of the year.

I think that what ever Hungry Caterpillar fabric I still have is getting donated somewhere.  I have completed a total of 6 quilts using this line.  That is enough.  I know I had always planned to make the youngest boys matching quilts but I had so much extra.  I am calling it quits.

I have been working a couple of other items but nothing else has been completed.