It's all about the UFOs

Yesterday was a pretty productive day. I worked on TWO of my UFOs and I'm very excited that getting those UFOs done is a reality!!

It was great to get back to Monday sewing and catch up with all the ladies and what happened over the holidays.

Here's the first UFO.

This is a Block of the Month that I did through Jillybean's. Since that store has been closed for a long time, we know that this is an old project. Yep - the shop ran it as a monthly class in 2006/2007. Each month we had to make one applique block, one large pieced block, and one small pieced block. I was keeping up and getting all the homework done ON TIME. Then disaster struck! The store closed when we were working on Block 9. And well, you guessed it - nothing got done after that.

Have a look at where I am.

Gingerbread Joy by Sue Garman

The picture on the right is the pattern cover while the picture on the left is what someone did with their blocks. They didn't use the embroidery blocks nor the large pieced blocks.

Here are my pieced blocks. There are 9 large ones and 11 small ones. A total of 14 small blocks are needed for the quilt and it looks like I got those two extras completed. Yeah!!!!

Pieced blocks for Gingerbread Joy

Here are my applique blocks. That's a LOT of circles!!!

Applique blocks for Gingerbread Joy

There's also some embroidered blocks and those are finished as well. All that writing in a STEM stitch. 

Embroidery blocks for Gingerbread Joy

So that leaves four applique blocks, three large and small pieced blocks. The pieced blocks for Block 9 are already done.

Here's the pattern for the Block Nine applique.

Block nine for applique

I opened up the package to find that my gingerbread boy is already prepped and ready to be hand stitched. Well, I did have to do a bit of work on the white trim bits, but for the most part, he is ready to go. I didn't get any stitching done on it yesterday, but it's all in the little bag and ready to work on when I get tired of sewing by machine. Or next Monday!

Block Nine - ready to stitch

I started to work on the applique prep for Block 12. Oh yes - let's just skip ahead. Well, there were 44 circles that had to be prepped. And they take time. So I spent the day making circles. I didn't get a picture but it was on Facebook. Oh - here's the picture.

Making circles for Block 12

I'm bound and determined to get this quilt done! I remember about 4 years ago that I resurrected this quilt to work on. Lynn and I had been doing the same quilt although we weren't in the same class and she had also abandoned it. She got her quilt done, mine is not!!!  OH MY GOD - you have to go back and read this blog post from 2013. Scroll down until you get to the Gingerbread Joy part. It would appear that the store closed during Block 7 or 8, not 9.

Someone also gave me their small blocks as they did a different setting and did not need them. Not sure how those will get used, but they are in the box.

Extra blocks that were given to me by someone

I found this striped fabric in the box. Oh my - this is supposed to be the border/binding. It would sure look good on the Jingle all the Way quilt that I'm working on. I might need to steal a piece from it! But NOT before I measure it to see that I have enough.

Perfect fabric for the border

That's what happened at Motivational Monday sewing. Then totally ignoring what was in the Task Master for me to work on, I opened up another UFO box. This was a class that I taught at Ruti's Needlebed (now also closed also) YEARS AGO.

Stonehenge meets Jamestown

 The fabric is Stonehenge from Northcott and the pattern is from Marti Michell.

Thankfully all the fabric is labeled. This is another one of those projects that if the fabrics weren't labeled? Well - it wouldn't be pretty.

The fabrics are labeled in the project box

The pattern was originally for a queen size quilt using 35 blocks, but you could also make it a king sized quilt which needed 36 blocks. I was certain that I had made the extra block, but couldn't find it anywhere. Seriously????  Where is that damn missing block? And this has sat for YEARS because of that missing block.

Rows of blocks

More rows of quilt blocks

Yep - when I laid it out on the design wall, four of the six rows were sewn together and two rows were even sewn to each other. You can see where the missing log cabin block needs to go. There were two blocks that needed to be sewn to the end of their respective row.

Quilt blocks/rows on the design wall

So I got to work and cut the missing log cabin. Enough of this trying to find it. It's gone or perhaps I never made it!!!!

Log cabin block ready to sew

And now it's together

I also found a layout for where I wanted to place the 12 blocks.

My quilt layout form EQ7

I rearranged the rows and sewed everything together. The top is now in THREE sections.

The quilt in three sections

Isn't that super exciting???  To think that it didn't require a whole lot of time to get this thing done. There are three borders to put on. That will slow me down a bit as this is a very large quilt, but nothing that can't be done in a day. Then to find something for the backing - it's going to need a lot of backing, but I've got bolts. I'm sure I'll find something. And the binding - let's not forget the binding.


This is the update on Jingle all the Way. Here are those three blocks I made on Sunday as well as all the other blocks I had made earlier.

Blocks for Jingle all the way

There are some pieced blocks as well and those are all cut out. Some of them are sewn together - they were ender/leaders for the log cabin block. No picture yet. 

Blocks are cut out

A quick note on the diet. Again - no issue with sugar cravings although at some point in the day I was hungry so I need to get checking on the calorie intake to make sure I'm eating enough. Thanks to drinking lots of water, my weight is back in the buffer zone! Already got my supplements in me for the day and two full glasses of water. Here's one think about this program that bugs me.

This is the container that the shake mix comes in. It's BRAND NEW and is less than half full. Can they NOT put it in a smaller container? The cost of transporting this huge container and the EXTRA plastic required to make this huge container - well it's very wasteful and I shall be writing a letter to them. I did last time, but nothing changed. The company is supposed to be very carbon footprint conscious so I shall remind them of this mess. But the shakes are good and I'm happy.

A brand new container of shake mix - less than half full

I got home to this wonderful news.

I guess you can figure out what that is. I was pretty certain that this was going to be the response to the damages on my car. I'm guessing I was hit hard enough that the frame was damaged. I had a little chat with the insurance company, but I didn't get all my questions answered as I was passed onto the personal injury people - the left side of my neck and upper shoulder are stiff as a board and I'm going in this morning to have it looked at. Hopefully, I'll get an offer on Wednesday. I've got a test drive booked for Thursday AM. Oh, the joys!

It's not that I don't like shopping for a car - I like shopping on my own timeline. And I wasn't ready yet. But it must be done.

On that note, I'd better get ready as I have to be at the clinic at 8:30 AM.

Have a great day!!!!!

Ciao!!!!