Two Finishes!!

My vow to finish some of my UFOs before starting anything new has resulted in two finished quilts!

A year or so ago I bought some charm packs of a fabric line called Spirograph.  I loved the bold colors, but they were definitely outside my typical color palette.  I bought some yardage of one of the green prints in the line and got to work using a crazy eight pattern for the blocks and the green as background.  That quilt top ended up bigger than my typical throw-sized quilt and I was a bit intimidated to try to quilt it.  Fast forward to the new year and my inventory of UFOs.  This one was one of the closest to completion, and I wanted to get some momentum with a quick finish.  So, a couple weeks ago I loaded it on the long arm and did a simple all-over looping pattern.  This is the best pic I could get as it is too big to lay out in my foyer (where I usually take quilt pics from the landing).  The snow covered deck is not such a bad backdrop.....I love how this one turned out!

The weekend after the quilting was done on Crazy Eights, I pieced a back and put my version of Scrap Jar Stars on the long arm.  For the quilt pattern, I wanted something to contrast the strong geometrics in the quilt, so I used wavy lines across the quilt spaced about 1" apart.  It gave the quilt some GREAT texture.  I am definitely going to do it again.  It went super fast and turned out so good!  I was so excited to get a pic when I finished the binding that I threw it out on the deck but it was late in the day and I couldn't avoid the shadows.  But, this picture does show the quilting really well.

  

Here is a better pic after it was washed, showing the texture and more accurate colors.  This one is also pretty big and barely fits in my foyer!

Overall, two finishes in January feels like a great accomplishment.  I would like to finish at least one more UFO before I start looking for a new project.

New Toy!

Last week was my birthday and my parents gave me a gift card to Joann's.  I saw that the AccuQuilt Go was on sale and decided to splurge.  Ran out and bought one.  I figure with the gift card and the sale I got a super deal and I have been looking at it and pining for one for about a year.  So, I will be spending my day cutting scraps!  Oh, and dreaming of which dies I will need to buy next.  :-)

Quilting Plans for 2013

As I was thinking about what I want to do with my quilting this year, I decided it was finally time to admit to all of my UFOs.  So, for the first time ever, I made a list of them.  Ouch!

Here's what it looks like:

SEVENTEEN UFOs!!  That is more than I thought I had.  A couple of these are just barely UFOs, as I started them within the last couple of months, but I decided that anything in-progress as of the end of the year would go on the list.  

Several of these are close to completion and for at least a couple of them the reason they are not done is because I have not found the 'perfect' backing fabric.  So, one of my first priorities is going to be to find backings and knock a few of these off the list right away.

Of course, I also have a Wish List of quilts that I would like to start.  Here is the wish list:

This is definitely not a complete list.  These are quilts I could think of off the top of my head and it does not even include all of the patterns I have bookmarked in quilting books all over my house!  But I figured I should stop before it got overwhelming, and I can always add to the wish list.  Maybe as a reward for finishing UFOs!

I definitely have plenty to keep me busy for the upcoming year.  I am posting these lists here as a way to keep me accountable for my goals.  Since I want my quilting to be fun, and not a chore, the goals I set are going to be pretty broad.  Here they are:

1. Finish the year with fewer UFOs than I started it with (17).
2. Don't add to the wish list until some UFOs are finished.
3. Have a plan for backing and binding BEFORE STARTING a quilt!

Simple enough, right?  I am pretty sure I can meet these goals.  Watch for some finishes soon, I am going to order backing fabric right now!!

Another Catch-up Post

Of course, I did give quilts as gifts at Christmas.  This year I decided to give quilts to my family that would match their living room.  I quickly realized that everyone in my family has brown couches!  I am the rebel of the family with red furniture.  :-)

I raided the stash for brown fabric and a coordinating color for each quilt and here are the results:

Mom and Dad have red accents in their living room, so they got a red and brown quilt.  This was the quilt I made during spring Craftapalooza in March 2012 and I was even able to post pics of this one on Facebook, becaus I knew my parents would think this one was for me (since the decor at my place is red with brown accents).  They were really surprised when they opened it at Christmas.

My brother, Brian, and sis-in-law Amy have very contemporary decor, so I thought batiks would work well for them.  They loved it!

Brother Mike and sis-in-law Beth got a brown and green quilt.  My aunt said this pattern reminded her of kleenex boxes, LOL! 

I love giving gifts of quilts.  Actually, I don't think I kept one of the quilts I made for myself until I had been quilting for over 10 years!

New Year, New Plan

It has been a BUSY few months for me and unfortunately the blog had to take a back seat.  But, I am hoping the new year will be a bit less hectic and I have a plan to be more consistent in my posts.  I am going to use the blog as a diary of my quilting, which will hopefully give me an incentive to FINISH some quilty projects and at the same time ensure regular posts.  Sounds easy, right?  :-)

For now, I want to catch up on what I have been doing since my last post, which was right before Craftapalooza.  We got lots of quilting done during our girls week, and we ALWAYS take pics of our accomplishments!  So, here's what we did:

We always pick one pattern and we each make a quilt with it.  This year the pattern was Scrap Jar Stars.  Here is my finished flimsy.

I am always amazed at how different our quilts end up looking.  Here are all three of them.

Once the common pattern is done (it usually takes us 3 or 4 days) we still have plenty of time left for additional projects.  Milli decided to spend time finishing some quilts, quilting them on my long-arm.  Here is one of the three quilts she finished.

Mary worked on another quilt top.

Tara spent a day with us and finished a flimsy, too!

And I started another quilt, this time using the Starry Eyed pattern, which I found on the Moda Bake Shop site.  I didn't get the top quite done during Craftapalooza, but I loved how it was turning out!!

Overall, we had a fun and productive Craftapalooza.  The next one is scheduled for March in Colorado!

Cutting, Cutting and More Cutting....

I am so excited because Craftapalooza is only FIVE days away!  My best and oldest friend, Milli, is coming from Denver with her sister Mary and friend Dawn.  They will be here for a week full of crafting (mostly quilting and fused glass), chick flicks, great food (& drinks!) and fun girl times.  Several of my local friends and my mom will also join us throughout the week.  Craftapalooza is my favorite week of the year!!

In preparation, I have been pulling fabric from my stash and cutting like a mad woman.  Today I am cutting squares for the Scrap Jar Stars quilt.  We will each be making our own version of this one.  I chose red, teal, aqua and gray and am debating about a background.  I bought a solid gray but I think it may not be enough contrast from some of the grays I pulled, so I may end up using a white or off-white for my background.  Here is a pic of the cutting in progress.

I am also continuing to work on the fish quilt for my dad.  I am sewing the completed blocks together and then will decide if it is big enough.  I still have fabric left, so I could make more blocks....not sure why I have been so indecisive with this quilt!  No matter how big it ends up, it is going to look great and be perfect for my dad.

It is cool and rainy today and football is on.  My favorite kind of day for quilting!

Prepping

Not a lot of quilting going on lately, but that's about to change.  I will be spending the next few weeks collecting fabric and cutting for some new projects because October 19th is the start of Craftapalooza!  Twice a year my crafty friends and I get together for a week and craft our guts out.  There are two rules of Craftapalooza: 1) no boys and 2) no kids!  We spend the week quilting, sewing, fusing glass, knitting and crocheting.  The week is also filled with 80's music and movies, chick flicks, yummy food and awesome together time.  These are friends from college 20 years ago and it gives us a great opportunity to catch up with each other, relax and leave our stress behind and have giggly girl time.  Craftapalooza is my favorite time of year!

We always pick a quilt pattern that we will all make and this year we have chosen Scrap Jar Stars from the A Little Bit Biased blog.  I am also planning to make the Starry-Eyed Quilt from Moda Bake Shop (I seem to have a star theme going!)

So, I have a lot of cutting in my future.  I will keep you posted on my progress!