UFO club update

Although I have a class this morning, I'm feeling pretty relaxed. That does not mean that there isn't a ton of work to do. Instead of sewing this morning, I started some tidy up in that temporary space. I'm going to have to give it a specific name - Studio U for upstairs? and Studio D for downstairs? Oh yes - I like that. OK - so I'm tidying up Studio U. There's so much stuff strewn around - it's getting a bit difficult to work.

Part of that was the whirlwind of activity that occurred this past week. A part has been related to my laziness. I'm also starting to set stuff aside for the upcoming retreat. It has to be done - might as well do that as I'm cleaning.

Today I thought I'd share with you the photos and update the status of everyone's project. Let's just say that getting the pictures together was a bit of a challenge. For those that were present last Sunday, I took pictures with my camera. That was easy - I went into the memory card and extracted the photos. However, one person sent me her pictures via e-mail. TWO e-mails, so I had to find both e-mails and extract the photos from the e-mails. Then one person sent me two photos - one was via TEXT and the other was via IG messaging. The key here is to remember who sent what and how!!!  I could not open the photo from the IG messaging, into Photoshop, but I could open it on my screen. So I took a picture of that and sent it to my computer! Let's see - oh yes, I also had taken a couple of pictures on my phone and those had already been removed from my phone and put on the computer so I had to find those. You see where I'm going with this? It took me also 20 minutes to find everything!

And on top of all that? I forgot to take pictures of Laura's project! Oh, shoot me now!!! However, everyone but Linda is accounted for and I think she's still on vacation.

Let's have a look at what they accomplished. They are very prolific and it would appear that people are NOT willing to give up that $10.

We'll start with Susan. Her goal was to finish the quilting on this quilt, deal with the border (she wanted to make it wider) and have it bound.

Susan's quilt is DONE

The quilt was partially quilted so she was able to finish it off and used some of the designs that we talked about in the table runner/quilting class from last year. She had contemplated making the border wider, but once it was quilted, she left it at the size it was. It's a big job to add borders to a project when you're in the quilting stage. I'm glad she left it like this. The binding is also on. It's a scrappy binding. The quilt looks awesome and best of all - it's done! Way to go Susan!!!!!  I think she was going to put a label on it - that wasn't mentioned in the homework for the previous month, but it's a good idea to put labels on your quilts!

What is Susan going to work on for the upcoming month? She's going to design her quilt top using the Farm Girl Vintage blocks. Sashing or no sashing? How to use the two different sizes of blocks that she made.

Liz wasn't able to get her homework accomplished for the previous month, but she came with the February homework all completed. She had some applique to finish on the poinsettias in the borders, one of the blocks and the words on the top and bottom border. It's all DONE and ready to be quilted!!!! 

Candy Cane Lane by Liz is ready for quilting

Then Liz moved onto the homework that was due at the March meeting. She had more applique to do with the poinsettia of the next quilt which is called O Tannenbaum. It's a gorgeous quilt and I can't wait to see this one finished. I didn't get a close up of the actual petals, but she put GLITTER on them. They look very cool.

Poinsettia are applique for Oh Tannenbaum

She also repaired this block. Apparently, there were two identical light fabrics side by side and now the block is fixed! That's super exciting. I think this one was going to put aside for this month. 

Log cabin block is fixed

If memory serves me correctly, Liz is going away on a retreat (a different one from where I'm going) and she's going to work on this next project. Actually, her goal for the month is to work on Month 3 in the pattern. It's called Holidays at Home by Bloom Creek. Couldn't find a link to it on the internet.

The project that Liz is working on next month

Ronda is working on her Amish with a Twist II. She has completed her two blocks as was the deal. For next month, she's going to assemble the center of the big star in the middle of the quilt. The quilt goes together like a nine-patch and her goal is to get ONE section completed which is the center.

Ronda's two blocks

Laura is working on Kaleidoscope. And YES her homework is finished. She completed two more blocks and there were FOUR of each to make for a total of 8 blocks. For some reason, I was so excited that I forgot to take pictures! Her goal for next month is to get two more blocks completed. There are four of each so that'll be a total of 8 blocks to make. Everything is cut so that should be an easy task!


Lynn finished her cat quilt. Her goal was to finish the quilting, but the quilt is bound and completely done. I know that she experienced a wee bit of frustration as she worked to find just what she was looking for. But she DID IT!!!!!  And it's super cute!!  This was a good lesson in trying to figure out the entire quilting plan before you start as she ended up doing a lot of extra work. But it was all worth it - the quilt looks awesome. 

Lynne's finished quilt

It's a tad difficult to see, but she used her embroidery machine and embroidered a couple of mice that are hiding from the cats on the quilt. It's just the cutest little mouse but required a lot of behind the scenes work from Lynne and her embroidery software to make that happen. I think the end result is gorgeous and she should be super proud of the job she did. 

One of the three mice that are hiding on the quilt

She also used her embroidery machine to make the cat faces. The original cats had no face and rather than embroidery something by hand, Lynne went through her patterns and what's on the internet to find the right thing. Then she resized the design to suit her appliques and the faces are machine embroidered. She did that part a while back - BEFORE she started the quilting process.

Faces were machine embroidered on the cats

Her goal for next month is to get at least THREE of the blocks for this next project. It's a wall hanging that's done in the hoop.

An Anita Goodesign design

 She has a number of blocks already completed. They're made with fleece which is pretty intriguing. It's all done in the hoop.

The stack of blocks that have already been stitched

Next up was Elaine S. I think the goal was to get the "bead" blocks done. She got the entire quilt top done! Yeah!!!!  We discussed some ideas for the quilting and she's going to experiment this coming month. She has some sample blocks that she made so she's got something to experiment on.  This is called Urban Abacus by Sew Kind of Wonderful.

Elaine's quilt top is finished

She also worked on the July 2017 shop hop quilt and got that assembled even though it wasn't on the homework list! Now for next month, she's committing to getting a border on the quilt and to cut a quilt that's called "Snapshots of New Zealand!" 

July 2017 July Shop Hop quilt 

Sharon got not one, but TWO borders on. And she almost completed sewing all the remaining blocks for the top and bottom borders!!!  This quilt is called Winter Wonderland by Crabapple Hill.

Sharon's quilt with TWO borders

I may have shown this before, but Diane's homework was to complete TWO quilt tops. The blocks were all completed. This is the first one that is the country look.

Diane's first quilt top

 Here's the second one which is a bit brighter. These two are from Laundry Basket Quilts and called Quilter's Patch. 

Diane's second quilt top

Shoot - I took a picture of Diane's next project but I forgot to locate it! I believe it's the 2016 July Shop Hop - the blue and white one.

Next up is DeDe. Here's her quilt top without borders!! It's so much fun. This one is called Blizzard Bunch by Pearl Louise

DeDe's almost finished her quilt top. 

And here's the troublesome block. That little sign - but it looks awesome!!!! 

The troublesome block is now DONE!!!!!

I have to go back into her e-mail to see what she is going to work on for the coming month.

This is Shelly's creative backing for her poodle quilt that she completed last month. She had some extra blocks and those got put into the backing. A nice big wide border around the outside and all is good!!!

The backing for Shelly's quilt

 And it looks like it's ready to be quilted. Here is the top, backing, and batting.

Shelly's poodle quilt is ready to be quilted

 I was working on two blocks from Stitcher's Garden quilt. I managed to get both blocks completed and I've committed to sewing TWO more. Hopefully the next two aren't quite as much work as these two were! But they are done and I'm that much closer to getting the quilt finished. 

Block one of mine - finished

Block two of mine - finished

Phew - that's a lot of finishing!!!  I'm so happy with the UFO club. We're all so motivated and everyone is picking great projects that have been hanging around for a while. Did you notice how many Christmas/winter quilts there are in the mix? And you may not notice, but there were quite a few that came from those year-long classes that I taught! Now if they had only stayed motivated through the class to get their projects completed!!!

Doesn't matter. What matters is that we're getting stuff done! And we all got our $10 back, except Linda because we haven't heard from her. So there's a total of $20 in the kitty at the moment.

I'll be running the club again next year and hopefully, Studio D will be finished by then. OK - it WILL be done and we may have a bit more room. Otherwise, we might try and do some online. But you'll hear all about the details as we get closer to that time.

Hopefully, you're motivated and following along with your own private UFO club at home.

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!