Design Wall Monday – Week #7

My Design Wall is pretty full this week!

I am working on my Scrappy Bearpaws for the 2012 UFO Challenge, and making great headway.  The blocks go together quickly and I just love making them.  As you can see, they are truly scrappy, with lots and lots of different fabrics! 

They will be assembled with neutral sashing and red cornerstones, then a neutral inner border, a red/neutral sawtooth middle border and then another neutral outer border.  I have been making the sawtooth HST’s as leaders and enders, and they are piling up quickly (thank goodness!). 

A friend recently gave me a bag of scraps from her last project and guess what I found inside ….

Yep!  A pile of these just-the-right-size triangles for the HST’s!  I usually use the Easy Angle ruler to make HST’s anyway, so I got busy and cut lots of red triangles to put with the scrap neutrals.  

Before I knew it, Presto! Shazam!!!  I’ve got lots of cute perfect HST’s!!!  Love it when a friend shares her scraps =^..^=  Of course, there will be lots of HST's with other neutrals too, but I just love these with the pretty red flowers.

I’m also getting ready to work on my green pineapples for the Rainbow Challenge – here is my bucket of crumbs with a lot of green scraps added in.  Yum!!!!  These will be so sweet when I’ve got them done.  They will look like Christmas when I put them on the Display Wall beside the red ones I made last month :*D

And just because I like you all, here’s a little Show-n-Tell of my recent finishes…..

Quilts in Progress – just love this little wall-hanging!!!  You saw it on my Design Wall picture above, but I completed it Saturday night, so Hooray!  A finish!!!!

And this is my Iris Tango, with its binding all finished up and now hanging on my quilt rack in the front dining room.  Doesn’t it look all sophisticated hanging there?  I’m so happy to have a new quilt to display!

So what have you been up to in your sewing rooms?  Share with us at Patchwork Times!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

February UFO Challenges

I am going to have to plead insanity for scheduling myself to take on TWO UFO's each month - one piecing project and one top to be quilted!  My reasoning was that I had twenty-four quilt tops languishing on a shelf in my sewing room closet that were desperately calling out to me every time I opened the door – “Save us!  Please quilt us and let us see the light of day once again!”

And I also had quite a few half-assembled projects that I really wanted to get done.  I hoped that getting on board for the Patchwork Times UFO Challenge would help hold my feet to the fire.  So I decided to work from two lists.

January worked out really well because Judy picked #5, which selected the Oriental Peacock wallhanging for my Piecing UFO, and my Iris Tango lap quilt top for the Quilting UFO.  Both were fairly easy and small enough to be manageable in a month’s time.  (Click on the name of each one if you missed my earlier posts about these quilts.)

But I knew that some of the projects I put on the lists would be well nigh impossible to complete in a month – especially getting my Dear Jane quilted.  Here is the top in all her glory!

So what number did Judy pull in February?  ......#1.  
And what projects are on my lists at #1? .......... **** drum-roll please ****

Quilting UFO – Oh yeah! You guessed it! – DEAR JANE!!!  I started quaking in my boots when I saw that Dear Jane’s number had come up!

I pieced Dear Jane over a 4-year period, meeting every Friday with a group of friends.  I took my time.  I was in no hurry.  But now I am getting anxious to have it DONE.  Two other girls are finished with their tops and they are almost finished hand-quilting them.  Not so Teresa!   As you can see, my quilt is more contemporary in color and design, so I decided that it did not require hand quilting.  However, even machine quilting seems pretty daunting to me right now!  I'm not even sure how I want to quilt some of these blocks.  And in what color?  My oh my!

But at least now I have a compelling reason to get it out of the closet and sandwich it in preparation to putting my nose to the grindstone!  I’ll start this weekend and keep you posted on my progress.  Wish me luck!!!

Piecing UFO – Scrappy Bearpaws.  

This is doable since I already had 27 of the 36 blocks done and have gotten 3 more done this week.  Strips are cut and ready for assembly, so the blocks are really quick.  Once the remaining 6 blocks are done, I’ll need to make a jillion red & cream HST’s for the sawtooth border and then put it all together.  Compared to quilting Dear Jane, this part of the Challenge is a cake walk!  If I don’t get it finished, I’m pretty sure I’ll be close.

How are you doing on your UFO's this year?

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

January 2012 UFO Challenges

Another UFO Completed! Another quilt completed on the long-arm last week – yay!!!  Thanks again Joanne!!!

  

Don't you just love these colors?  The panto design called Hearts in Bloom added a heart in with the daisy stitching …. I don't think I did quite as well as last time, but still happy with the result and happily growing in skill.  At any rate, I’m SO happy to have this one done!  This quilt meets another January UFO Challenge over at Patchwork Times!!!!

I call the quilt Iris Tango, and it is a UFO from about 4 years ago, pieced at my very first retreat in Sewanee, Tennessee.  The pattern is called BQ2, and I chose it so I could keep those nice big chunks of that wonderful iris fabric.  

See it here....

A good friend and I both bought this fabric and made BQ quilts.  Neither of us had them quilted until I finished mine.  Of course, she is pretty motivated to get busy on hers now!

To see how others have done on meeting their January UFO Challenges, check them out here at Patchwork Times.

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=