UFO show and tell

 What a fabulous weekend. I didn't go anywhere, but I had some great conversations with friends. I got to sew and plan and clean stuff up. It doesn't get any better than that! Yes - it would be nice to go places, but I must confess that I'm happy as a clam. While I might want to go somewhere, what would I go for? I don't need anything. I don't even want anything. OH MY!!!!  I could probably live on a desert island and be quite happy - as long as I had the internet, electricity, and my sewing machine. Now, where's the Professor? (from Gillian's Island, in case you didn't make that reference). 

What to share with you today - there's Long Time Gone and UFO. I'll start with the UFO, and later this week, I'll do the Long Time Gone. First, I will tell you that I'm ALMOST done sending out all the homework notes from the classes this weekend. How did that happen? I put my nose to the grindstone (the computer) and spend all evening writing and editing. I figure I have ONE hour left this morning, and all the notes will be sent. 

I still have a bit of writing to do this week and some presentations to prep, so it's not like I won't have anything to do!

OK - so what's the deal with the UFOs? Remember, we all paid money upfront, and if we do NOT get our homework done, we have to cough up some money! NO money got added to the kitty this month. So many projects got advanced or completed. I just love the motivation, and my UFO for this coming month has been sitting on the shelf for years, and now that its number has come up, I want to start working on it NOW. Funny how that happens. It's all about setting priorities. 

Jane tries to get an award every month. Either she's the very first one to send in her pictures, or she's the very last. I think the e-mail was time-stamped at 1:07 AM on Sunday morning!!!

Without further ado, here's the show and tell from the UFO Club. 

Colleen got the label onto her hockey-themed quilt. 

Colleen's label on the hockey quilt

And she got the embroidery and the applique completed for this block. OH -- this is the cutest block ever!!! NO - I have several of these patterns, and I do NOT need to start another one. 

A Christmas project - the block is appliqued and embroidered

And she got all the narrow sashing on her scrap tulip blocks!!! There's a LOT of work in that quilt! A perfect thing to do when you're locked at home. 

Scrappy tulip quilt

Dede is working on her Dear Jane blocks and got four more blocks done. Completing four blocks per month is way better than no blocks per month. Slow and steady - my new motto - a little is better than none!

Dede's Dear Jane blocks

Diane finished not one but two lap-sized quilt tops from the block patterns and kits that she collected during the Northcott Stonehenge anniversary event. 

Diane's lap quilt number one made from 12" blocks

Diane's second lap quilt top made from 18" blocks

How do we get ourselves into these messes where we already have so much, and we NEED more. Thankfully, I'm over that. I'm quite happy to stay at home. I have ZERO temptation. I have NO more room to buy anything. As a matter of fact, I get excited when a spot on the shelves opens up! And not to put anything new, but to get everything into one spot. It's going to happen!! 

Here's my UFO - after how many years? This quilt top is done!!! Oh, shoot - look at those two dark blocks in the bottom left-hand corner. Don't care - they are staying that way. I wonder if the pattern was that way, or did I reverse that bottom border??? That might be an easy fix to swap the two corner blocks along the bottom. 

my Winter Wonderland quilt top

The binding is made, and the backing is pulled but not made—hopefully, a job during Monday sewing. 

The binding and the backing fabric

And a HUGE thank-you to Katheleen for suggesting that I do that fly stitch on the sewing machine instead of doing it by hand. If you want to check out the details, you can head over to QUILTsocial to see how I did it. 

Elaine S was going to assemble the top of the table topper, but it was almost finished - she was just hand stitching the binding down! I love when people go beyond their goal!! We WILL get these UFOs done. 

Elaine's table runner

Liz had all these applique shapes cut for the owl, and now they are assembled onto the background. One step closer to being finished!!!

Liz's appliqued owl wall hanging

Here's that quilt that slid under the radar at the last minute! This is Jane's quilt with the final three borders in place. 

Jane's quilt top

Katheleen stitched around her cow blocks and made two more! They are so adorable!!! And she finished off some blocks that were half-assembled. Don't you just love how we keep putting small tasks off until there's a bit of cash on the table!!!

Katheleen's cow blocks

Linda finished her "All About Me" quilt top. I LOVE it. This was a group project that eight of us worked on - many years ago. I made the Vegas block on the left. The quilt top turned out so beautiful, and it makes me want to get my "All About Me" quilt project out and finish it. Not this month, but soon!

Linda's All About Me quilt top

She also finished the hand embroidery on this adorable Block of the Month. 

December hand embroidered block

Linda G got all the half-pinwheel blocks done. This one has been languishing in the closet for a long time. Actually, there's a very cool story behind this quilt. She made the wedding dress for her daughter's wedding. As all good seamstresses should do, she made a muslin first. Now that her granddaughter is getting married, she cut the muslin up and is making a wedding quilt. I LOVE that story!!!

Linda's G's scrappy pinwheel quilt components

Lynne got the binding on two quilts  - the first is Summer Moon. 

The binding on Summer Moon

And the second is the Celebration quilt. 

The binding on Celebration

She also got the pillowcase made for Christmas Fig, and that one is totally done!!! 

The pillowcase for Christmas Fig

Christmas Fig with the pillowcase

Morgan got the LAST block for her version of Christmas Fig done!!

The blocks for Morgan's Christmas Fig quilt

The four patches for the cornerstones are also complete. Some of the projects are going to be stalled until some in-person shopping can happen. This is one of those projects!

The cornerstones for Christmas Fig

Morgan also quilted and bound this table runner! I love how people quilt and bind right away. I often quilt but don't get to the binding until months later! That's why I never have quilt binding as a UFO project!

Morgan's finished table runner

Nancy finished her Misty Pines quilt top!! Yeah!!! This was a kit I put together years ago from a pattern designed by Patty Carey. It was a crazy quilt to assemble, but one more of the 20+ kits I made is done!!! 

Nancy's Misty Pines quilt

Rose completed the quilting and the binding on this curved pieced table runner. I LOVE the quilting. It's made with the Sew Kind of Wonderful Quick Curve Ruler. 

The quilting on Rose's table runner

Isn't that gorgeous quilting? 

The table runner!

Sharon finished up the nine patches in a square that make up the sashing for a hand-embroidered quilt. Don't you love how diverse all these projects are? It's so exciting when the pictures start coming in!!

Sharon's nine patch blocks

Sheila got the border on her "old fabric" quilt. I love the name, but the fabric is definitely quite old. It doesn't matter - it's soon going to be a quilt. 

The "old fabric" quilt

The binding is also made. 

The binding

And the backing! Yeah!!!! Her goal was to get rid of as much of this fabric as possible, and she got rid of a LOT of it. Most of it, if I recall correctly. 

The backing

She also got Moon Glow quilted and is working on the binding. WOW - that's a LOT of ruler work. Way to go, Sheila!!!

The back of the Moon Glow quilt

Sheila's Moon Glow quilt

Here's an important tip. When you say you're going to complete a project, it's a good idea to see how far along the project is first! This is Susan's Rock Candy Stars quilt. 

Susan's Rock Candy Stars

What she didn't realize when she committed to putting the top together was that MANY (or perhaps all of the blocks) in the outer border had NOT been pieced!!! Despite that and with nowhere to go, she forged ahead and got the top done!!! It's gorgeous - nice and bright!

Oops - these blocks still need to be pieced

And sometimes, our quilts take a life of their own. We were expecting Suzi to come back with a certain style for her Farm Girl Vintage quilt. Nope - she totally changed her original plans and got this completed. A few more blocks and the quilt top will be done!!! That makes me think that I have a LOT of quilts where the blocks are together - they just need to be assembled. The UFO Club will be running for MANY years. 

Suzi's Farm Girl Vintage

And she's working on the flowers for the border of Aunt Millie's Garden quilt and got several flower groupings cut. 

Flowers for the border of Aunt Millie's Garden quilt

Isn't that amazing? I have to say that the group inspires me to no end. While I have current project homework to work on (and I'm going to catch up - don't you worry and don't you laugh -- the end is coming!) Then I can move to another project! 

WOW!!!!!!   Let's get moving and get to the sewing machine! I will be later today, but first I have that ONE more hour of computer work!! 

I was good and focused on my exercises last night. Honestly, it's like doing yoga stretches, so I turn down the lights, ask Alexa to play yoga music, and I zone out!! I felt so good when I was finished (better than a massage!!), and well - I see a lot of changes in my flexibility, and I'd like to say posture, but that's going to take a bit to fix!!!

Since today is all about UFOs, the cleaning task today is to dig out a UFO. Preferably the oldest one that you have. What are you going to do with it? Send me a picture and send the date when you started it. Who can dig up the oldest UFO? 

Can you believe that I've had a Zoom account for ONE year?? I just renewed and saved 20% in doing so. That's been the cheapest entertainment for the year. The number of hours that I used Zoom breaks the cost per hour down to less than $1. 

And on that note, I'm out of here!!!!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!

The FINISH line

 

I'm pretty excited this morning. Why? I did it!! I walked the entire length of Route 66. That's a total of 2,280.3 miles. So bear with me for a minute while I mark this momentous occasion. 

Here's my position on the Santa Monica Pier. I see a Cheesecake Factory nearby - perhaps I can have a piece of cheesecake as a reward?

The finish line at the Santa Monica Pier

Here's the view from the pier!! I love it - I can't go any further!!!

The view from the Santa Monica Pier

It took me a total of 323 days, which averages just slightly more than 7 miles every day. 

I finished 41 days ahead of my predicted pace

I added .8 of a mile each day over my pace. What happened is that the cross Canada walk requires a more aggressive pace than what I set for Route 66. To make sure I complete the cross Canada walk on time, I had to walk more each day! That's why I finished Route 66 with 41 days to spare!

Ahead of my pacer by 256.8 miles

And here's the final note - SUCCESS!!!

A sweet victory

And there it is - 100% completion. OK - I think I've documented EVERYTHING about the finish! The only thing left is to get the medal, which I ordered this morning! 

100% complete!!!!

So that's it for Route 66. I contemplated starting another one, but I've decided to wait. I still have my cross Canada challenge, which will go until the end of next year. I have another aggressive challenge that I'll talk about later, and there's the group challenge of walking from east to west in Canada. I think I have enough on my plate at the moment, although all steps count to all the walks. 

I"m going to wait to see if they have another challenge for 2021. They usually have a special - well, they did last year, and I'll sign up for another one at the same time. I'll wait and start on January 1. I'm going to miss looking at the Route 66 map each day, but I've got the others to keep me entertained!

Isn't that exciting???  

And now back to the mundane life of a quilter! I did get a lot done yesterday, but nothing that I can share with you! Sorry. But I'm thrilled with the outcome of what I did. I can't wait to share it after this coming weekend, and can you believe that I'm ahead in the homework preparation? That's a shocker!

I tried to unpack a few more things from the weekend bag of finished projects. Do you remember those red and white blocks that I worked on for THREE days? They are the blocks in the border of this Winter Wonderland quilt. 

Winter Wonderland

Now the blocks are sewn together, and all the embroidery is done! That means I can start to sew it together. I was not planning on finishing this quilt this year. It's on the UFO list, but I just might be able to do that! 

The rest of the embroidery blocks for Winter Wonderland

If I play my cards right, I might be able to finish off FIVE more UFOs before the end of the year. I'm going to push it. It'll be tight for two of them, but what a coup that would be!!!! That would leave 17 for next year, plus the additional 12 that I'm going to add. Oh boy - I'm on a roll, and I'm motivated!!!!

Here's the second little red/white mini quilt that I finished last week. The binding is made, but I need to find something for the backing. Those little half-square triangles are tiny! 

Red and white mini quilt

I did find a couple of things to buy when I was away. I was looking for this embroidery pattern, and it was on sale, so I scooped it up. I have one more embroidery design that I want to make as well. Both are on CDs, so I'm off to the library this afternoon to put them onto a USB. Yep - I could buy a CD drive for the house, but I could also use it as an excuse to walk to the library. I choose to walk!

Embroidery pattern

I bought a puzzle with a barn quilt on it! How cool is that? 

A barn quilt puzzle

For the moment, I've put it with the rest of my puzzles. My puzzles are stored on the top two shelves in this closet. My goal is to work on TWO of the puzzles this Christmas season, and then I'll be giving them away. I know there's a couple of ladies at Monday sewing who like puzzles, so they'll get first dibs on the puzzles.  And that closet used to be a HUGE mess, but it's all organized now. I  may not look perfectly organized, but it is!

The puzzle storage area

There's still stuff to unpack, but no time at the moment!!!!

More stuff to put away

It was back to sorting through the remainder of those blue fabrics. This is the reject box, which is getting fuller but still lots of room!

The blue scrap box 

This is the box that I'll be working with. Still lots of room in there!!!

The blues that I need for my project

And I still have to go through all this. It's boring, to say the least. So I do a bit each day! The bottom line is that progress is being made. I hope to do some sewing this afternoon. I need to get sewing the quilt together, so I MUST get through this pile by the end of the day tomorrow. 

The pile of blues to still go through

But it's going to be a busy day. I have to take my car to get the tires changed—a couple of calls, a Zoom session that I'm monitoring. I've no presentations today!! That's exciting. I had two more last night and loads of questions from the group. I love questions, and I LOVE how many are doing the little homework assignments that I give them. I love it even more, when they come back the following week and show me their homework and tell me how much they learned! That's the best part of the entire presentation. Kudos to those that are doing it because it's the BEST time and place to learn. 

I still have 14 presentations before I'm done for the year! I have to say that it's nice to have the agendas done, the samples gathered, and the rest should go relatively smoothly as the end of the year draws to a close. 

Then it's back to the drawing board to rejig the agendas, look at what's missing for samples, and get ready for a brand new year! There's never a dull moment or time to waste! 

Someone mentioned my energy the other day. Where does it come from?? I've always believed that the more you do, the more you can do! It all starts with a tiny step. Then tomorrow, you can do two tiny steps. And the day after, you can do four tiny steps. Here's a quote that I firmly believe in. 

So what has happened to me is that I've had that philosophy for MANY years. So my first tiny step years ago has resulted in MANY steps today! It's simple. It's like money! Save a quarter a day, and all of a sudden, you have a lot of money. Sadly, I was never good at saving money!

Don't forget the virtual retreat this coming weekend. The first day is Saturday and starts at 6 PM EST. Then on Sunday, it starts at 9 AM and goes until 8 PM. I'll be posting the links tomorrow so watch for that. 

And that's it for today. I've got to generate some more energy!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!