UFO Day

Our UFO club is pretty simple. You signed up and paid some money. Each month you attend the meeting (or participate via e-mail) if you're too far away. You pick a UFO and you make a commitment (which I diligently record in my new book) and you better have the homework done for the following month.

We got off to a rocky start in January because of the weather. But we had great attendance this past month and NO money so far has gone to the kitty. Yikes - we might be having water and crackers for our lunch in December. And that's perfectly OK.

It's so amazing to see all these projects being resurrected and getting finished at last. That's what it's all about - getting things done. Well, getting those UFOs done. Hopefully, we've all learned a lesson and no longer let something become a UFO.

Susan's task was to make one block for her Farm Girl Vintage quilt. She's using several of the Lori Holt books to get the blocks she wants for the quilt. I think this one came from the Farm Girl Vintage II or perhaps Spelling Bee. Her other task was to take inventory of what she had already made and to note the sizes of each. She accomplished all that and now has a plan on how many more blocks in either 6" or 12" that she needs to make.

Susan's block for her Farm Girl Vintage quilt

Sometimes, having a plan is half the battle.

Jane is working on a Kaleidoscope quilt by Brenda Henning. This quilt is for her son and it sounds like it's been hanging around for quite some time. Her goal was to finish all the blocks. The blocks are DONE. Her goal for this month is to assemble the quilt top (minus borders). She's going to a retreat this weekend. Guess what project is on her priority list?

Jane's Kaleidoscope blocks

Then she pulled out these blocks as well. I believe these came from a workshop taught by a local teacher. It's a wonky star block. Her goal is to get the top together with sashing between the blocks. No commitment for the borders on the quilt and that's perfectly fine. Remember, each person sets their own goals depending on how much time they have in the month.

Jane's Wonky Stars blocks

Linda has not been able to readily access her projects for six months because of a reno and a move. Can you imagine??  I would have died! Her goal was simply to FIND the project which she did just days before we met. Her sewing space is organized more or less. We haven't seen pictures yet.

Her goal is to finish sewing down the appliques in the borders. Thankfully, after she located the quilt, more of the applique was already stitched down than she thought. Yeah!!!!

The border of Linda's Spool Quilt

I had a good chuckle when she pulled out this block. I LOVE this quilt. It's called Christmas Pickle by Possibilities. It's an old pattern. I forgot to ask how many blocks are in the quilt. Lots of the components are made, but the blocks are not. This is the first block. Her commitment is to make three more. Curved seams!! Now that she's a better sewer, some of the curves in the previous blocks don't pass muster, so she's going to redo them.

Linda's block for the Christmas Pickle quilt

Sharon is working on the Piecemaker Calendar quilt from the year 2000. I almost felt like we were in confessional as each person brought out their project. But that's what this club is all about. We don't judge because we're all in the same boat.

This is the block that Sharon finished for January, but wasn't able to attend. That's a ton of applique in each block, but the block looks amazing.

Block three from the left in the top row. 

Here's a picture of the calendar. Someone had asked me if they were still making a calendar and the answer is NO. The last one was for the year 2017. To my knowledge, they are no longer making the calendar. Some of these calendars are somewhat simple and others - well, they're a lot of work. The first was 1988 and if anyone has that calendar, I'll be happy to buy it off you.

Piecemaker Calendar 2000

Here is Sharon's fourth block for the top row. She got a lot accomplished this past month. Her goal for the coming month is to add the trees to that mountain. I think there are 7 trees.

Sharon's current block

Here are the two rows that she has completed. It's a gorgeous quilt and while it's a ton of work, it's a piece of art to be treasured.

Sharon's Piecemaker Calendar quilt - the middle two rows

Ronda is making paper pieced sections for her winter scene wall hanging. Five more sections were completed. I hope she starts to sew it together soon! I'm dying to see it come together.

Ronda's paper pieced sections

 Her commitment for next month is to get six more sections sewn. Paper piecing is a slow process, but it's the best way to piece all these fiddly little pieces.

Ronda's homework for next month

Lynn finished her snowflake quilt - somehow I didn't get a picture of it. I'll do that and share tomorrow since I don't have time to finish all the pictures today.

She's now working on a new quilt. Hey - a NEW quilt? Does that mean she has no more UFOs??? Anyway, she is using several embroidery files and making her own blocks. The cats are from Cat's Meow from Lunchbox Quilts and the quilted background came from another design company whose name I've forgotten.

Lynne's embroidered cat blocks

Did you see my pen on the table?? Oh - why are there so many pens around?

Diane needed to get the last border on this quilt and get it sandwiched so she can quilt it this coming month. She's also going to get the binding on for the next meeting. I think this is one area where we all struggle. It's mostly easy to get the quilt top done, but how do you quilt it? So we had a chat about that and I think she's fired up to get this done.

Diane's quilt is sandwiched and ready to quilt

Liz is working on the Garden Quilt by Amy Bradley. Her homework for January was to get the applique shapes done for three blocks. 

Block One

Block Two

Block Three

None of the pictures in today's post really do justice to the quilts or the blocks. They are so pretty and bright in person!

Anyway, Liz's homework for February was to finish the satin stitching on two blocks from the same quilt.

All the edges on Liz's blocks are satin stitched

And she had one more block with silver in it, so while she had the thread on the sewing machine, she did that one as well. A bonus block!!!

One more block from the Garden Quilt

Liz was having quite the time with the needle gumming up from the fusible and highly recommended using these needles. I happened to have a pack and I'm going to try them for my little monthly applique quilts.

Nonstick Needles

Her homework for this coming month is getting the satin stitching completed on these two blocks. That should be a piece of cake after all that other work. And it's nice to see that Liz does have other quilts in the works than Christmas quilts!!!

Two more blocks from the Garden Quilt 

 OH - I almost forgot, she's going to satin stitch around the rain boots as well. Which are totally adorable. I want a pair like that!!!

One more of Liz's homework blocks

Shelly is working on this quilt. When I first saw the picture, I called it the blob quilt, but it's called the Abacus quilt. I guess it looks like an abacus.

Abacus quilt pattern

Her goal for the month was to sort out what she had and figure out a plan going forward. She succeeded and has a detailed plan until May to get this project completed.

The bits for the Abacus quilt

 The goal is to make all the components as shown below made for next month.

One of the components in the quilt

Dede is working on Rosewood Cottage. Her goal was to get that border around the center part which she did. The coloring of this quilt is so soft and so pretty. But finding fabrics that match - well, those are NOT common colors.

The border is on the center part

 She also had to finish the stitching on this bottom border. That's done.

The last border is stitched in place

 Her goal for next month is to add the pieced border to the quilt. Then we had a look at what fabrics she has left and would any of them work for the final two borders. I think we chose wisely? Like I said, this is a very hard colorway to match.

Do these work for the next two borders?

I have more show and tell, but I've run out of time. I'll finish the UFO show and tell tomorrow. But isn't it amazing to see how dedicated we all are and how we're striving to get those UFOs finished? The big trick is to keep working on the UFOs. If you want to start a new project, go ahead, but you cannot let that become a UFO. The number of projects completed in a year (including UFOs) should be LARGER than the number of new projects started. Keep that in mind when you start something new.

Anyway, does anyone else want to share pictures of your UFOs? Let me know what kind of progress you're making on your own.

On that note, I see we have more snow last night. Yeah!! I'll be out shoveling the driveway as soon as we're back from our walk.

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!