UFO Club - Part Three

Isn't it exciting to see all this UFO work? I'm thrilled with how the club has gone and how motivated we all are. It's a small step towards getting the mounds of unfinished projects cleared up. Many of the projects have been languishing for years because of any number of reasons. The encouragement of the other group members and realizing they are in the same boat is making it much easier to get to work completing our own projects.

If you have a before/after of a completed UFO that you want to share - send it to me. There's nothing like getting a virtual pat on the back for a job well done!!!

I'm happy to report that I'm NOT writing this blog at my usual place. Just keeping it all low key in light of the current situation, although our city is opening up, and I'm not even there to celebrate that by having a beer on an open patio somewhere. That will have to wait until next week.

There are times when I feel like I'm inside a sci-fi movie. All the masks and protocols and physical distancing makes life feel very weird!

I wasn't as productive as I would have liked yesterday. A secret project got thrown in, an issue with the lack of a stabilizer for the handle of my yoga bag - I SWEAR that I had everything prepped, but obviously, not. But I'm on track for today, so that's going to happen. Lots should get done, I hope.

I have a shin splint that is my own fault, so I'm trying to keep from walking any distance at any kind of speed. Which is a bit of a challenge when I have my "road trip" cohorts hot on my tail, I shall endeavor to keep the walks slow, but well - that didn't happen last night. I might walk on my own today in hopes of getting rid of the shin splint. I do need to just give it some rest and ice. I brought my ice pack so I might sit for a bit this afternoon with the ice pack.

Why do I have this shin splint? I get them if I attempt to walk too fast. And I did that the other night. Why? I've no reason, but I didn't slow down when it started to hurt, so I've no one to blame but me.

I do have the dentist to blame for my extremely sore gums. He did some repair work on two teeth that was right on or even below the gum line. The first couple of days was not an issue, but now I'm experiencing sore gums when I eat. Oh well. Warm water rinses with salt? That sounds so disgusting, but I might give it a try later today.

Enough rambling - let's get onto the rest of the UFO club homework.

Liz's goal was to get this quilt top together. She cut apart a panel and used some matching fabrics to make frames around the blocks, added a border, and there's another quilt top done! She was hoping to get the backing of the quilt done as well, but she had nothing in her stash. Time to go virtual shopping!!!

Completed quilt top

Her goal for the summer is to get two additional blocks for this quilt completed.

Prism Stars Pattern

Here is one of her blocks partially completed.

One block partially completed

And here's the second one that needs to be completed.

The second partially completed block

I'm not sure how many blocks she already has made, but she does need to make some more, and the goal is to get at least four more prepped and ready to sew.

Fabrics that need to be cut into more blocks

I have to say that while it's more fun to be with your friends, the virtual UFO club is great because I get beautiful pictures of the projects and other images that we wouldn't usually get. Love it!!!!


Shelly is up next. Her goal was to complete the bauble quilt. Actually, I think the pattern is the abacus quilt, but I like the name bauble better.

Shelly's bauble quilt - DONE

She started the quilt three years ago and had to leave the meeting early as the quilt was being gifted that day!! So no hanging around - get it done!!! Here's the pieced backing, including the label at the bottom right of the photo.

The backing for the bauble quilt

She quilted it herself with some organic "straight" lines. That's so easy to do with your walking foot.

Organic quilting lines

But then she challenged herself to do some cursive writing in the bands that go across the quilt. These are some sayings about fishing that she quilted in. No marking, no figuring out the spacing - let's just wing it!!! She did a fantastic job with that, and it looks awesome.

Cursive writing as part of the quilting

And here's one more picture of the cursive writing quilting.

Cursive writing quilting

Her goal for July is nothing!


Diane is furiously working on her Stitcher's Garden quilt. That's the FOURTH Stitcher's Garden quilt that is getting completed with our UFO club. She finished blocks 6, 7, and 8. That's huge as these blocks are a lot of work.

The first completed block for Diane's homework

The second block

And here's the third block

Her goal for the coming month is to get blocks 9, 10, and 11 done.

Why or why can we get these blocks done now, but we didn't manage when we were actually taking the class? It doesn't matter. What matters is that we are getting them done now. But imagine that for every class we took that we stayed 100% up to date with the homework. That would be incredible!

Katheleen brings up the end of the homework for this month.

Even her cat got excited about the completed homework and had to test out the blocks. I swear - any fabric on the floor, but more delightful if it's quilt related, and those pets are all over them.

The quilt tester

He was persuaded to move, and Katheleen's snapped a photo. Her goal was to finish Section 2, which is also attached to Section 1. So what you see below are Sections 1 and 2 together. I can't remember how many sections are in this quilt, but that's a lot of hand embroidery. But it must feel nice to get moving along on this quilt!! It's going to be stunning when it's finished. This quilt is called Snow Days.

Katheleen's homework

Speaking of snow, we've had some pretty hot weather in the last couple of days—humidex in the high 30's. Now granted, we're not in the city at the moment, but the temperature plummeted. I think the high yesterday was 16, and it was windy—a perfect day for hot chocolate.

So that's it for today. I'm still all by myself in the kitchen, and that's OK. It meant that I got to write the blog totally uninterrupted. I let my oatmeal soak overnight (the microwave here and my oatmeal just do not get along), so I'm going to get that ready. Then while I have breakfast, I'm going to get some handwork done on that secret project. I can share the project with you in two weeks, but not yet.

Have a super day!!!!!

Ciao!!!!