UFO Progress in November and into the start of December

Lightening Quick

Well in October a friend issued a challenge to get things done. Finish up those UFOs and I took her challenge to heart as you can see in my previous posts.

OFf KUiLTeR

 The first two quilts were ones that I had quilted a while ago that were waiting on me to make the binding, or as is the case with the second one, figure out what I wanted to bind it with.

Flip Flops of Summer, which also has some embellishing to be done before it is done.

November was a very busy month. I am doing a long term sub job and have not had much time to sew, though I did put what time I had to good use.

Rainbow Stars

Q is for Quilter

 I have finished a ton of pillow cases, and there is another story for a different post about pillow cases.

I also sent five quilts off to the quilter and had them return.  Last weekend I machine stitched the binding to the top of those five and two others so thy are all ready for me to hand stitch down.

Snowman Quilt

I also finished piecing all my Eat Your Fruits and Veggies charm squares and cut them into HSTs (half square triangles) so they are ready to be made into pinwheels.

Here it is December and I am trying to at least finish the binding on a couple of the quilts.  I also need to quilt a couple of baby quilts and get them ready as one baby is due in January, shortly after Christmas Break. And yes I know that the politically correct people refer to it as winter break, but I am old school and it is Christmas Break.

Day Dreamer

I am including pictures of all seven quilts that I have the binding attached to the front and a few of the HST I made.

These are the half square triangles waiting to be made into pinwheels.

I also made this cute little case for my new iPhone to protect it from the cold and scratches when it is in my purse.

More UFOs Moving Along

I have been busy working on moving my UFOs toward topsville and donesville.  I have two quilts at the quilters presently, that I need to make binding for. One I have the fabric for the other I need to figure our what to use for binding. I have cut and pieced binding for two other quilts as well.

I am working on the binding on another quilt and hope to finish it by Thursday, if not before.

I finished several more tops in the last couple weeks. One is called Summer Solstice and is partially paper pieced.  I did not do the full paper pieced border, just the corners.  I decided I was not going to keep paper piecing since it is not my favorite activity, plus I was not sure I had enough of one of the fabrics to finish all the blocks.

Before adding borders

I started with the four blocks put together, then finished paper piecing the corners and bordered it this month.  I decided I just wanted to finish it simply, rather than do a more elaborate border.

After adding borders.

Backing pressed and folded and ready to go.

I finished sewing the rows together for Barbara's Attic which is a Debbie Caffery Mystery I started a long time ago. I had misplaced a set of blocks and could not finish my rows. I finally found them in a box with another UFO and was able to finish my rows earlier this year.  I sewed some of the rows together earlier this year and finished them this month. I am debating putting a black border around the outside or just leaving it as it is and binding in black.

Barbara's Attic with the rows laid out.

I bound this table runner this month.  Here are the before and the after photos.

Before

After finishing the binding.

I completed another two tops as well. One Is made form left over hearts form the Crazy Hearts quilt made for my cousin, Janie, and the other is a second OFF KUiLTeR, using blue as the background this time. Both still need borders added.

This is a pile of the blocks before I started the original quilt. I still have a few left over to make a table runner or dresser cloth. I may use them to make place mats or large hot pads.

Crazy Hearts

Before being sewn into a top.

OFF KUiLTeR

I also finished piecing two baby quilts and bordered them.  The pattern for one is Pick Up Sticks and the other is a modified Pick Up Sticks because I goofed on the angle I was to cut the strips apart so I used them to make a variation of the design. I do not have any pictures of the blocks before I started putting the quilt together.

The smaller one with two of the borders added, though I may add one more outer border once I see if I need to make it larger.

The larger one waiting on outer borders.

Lastly is my favorite quilt. It is called Daisy Days and is one I have been working on slowly for a long, long, long time.  It is hand appliqued and It took me a long time to finish four twenty inch blocks.

I started these four blocks and and added sashing, and four borders, one of which is pieced.  I am thinking I may do some more applique on the borders with the vines.  I am also trying to decide if I want to have it machine basted so I can hand quilt it or have it machine quilted.
Here is the finished top, though I am not sure if I like the outer border.  I may need to add one more border or change it out out. What do you all think?

Finishing Class October 2013 and more...

This weekend was a finishing class.  I was busy on Friday night at my Snowman quilt class, where I worked on the trees.  I had the three snowmen and fourteen stars done already.

snowflake

snowman

On Saturday morning I finished the five sections of the Snowman quilt, as my goal was to finish that quilt that day.  I was able to accomplish my goal at the finishing class Saturday afternoon, and I also finished the backing, which was a fabric I found in my stash with snowmen and snowflakes on it.  It is already to send off to the quilter.

two panels put together, three more to go.

 

 

 

The top and bottom halves of the snowman quilt with borders.

Add caption

On Sunday, the second day of the finishing class, I finished borders on my Day Dreamer mystery, and cut the borders and attached two to the Flip Flops of Summer quilt.  I also made backings for Q is for Quilter, Flip Flops of Summer, the Day Dreamer mystery, Simply An Illusion mystery, and the Rainbow Stars with piano keys border.

Q is for Quilter Mystery before borders

 

After adding borders

Flip Flops of Summer.  Once it is quilted I will add the ribbons back on and permanently attach them.

Borders Added!

Day Dreamer Mystery before adding last two borders.

Day Dreamer Mystery after adding the final two borders. The borders are purple not blue.

Six backs pieced, pressed, and ready to go

The two tops that were done that I also made backs for are Simply An Illusion and Bright Stars with Piano Key border.

It was a very productive weekend.  All are ready to mail off to the quilter so I can move them to the next phase.

Next up is cutting and sewing the bindings so they are ready when the quilts return home from the quilter.

I also finished the bindings on these three quilts in the last few weeks.

Finished binding this one in September. One More Time Mystery

 

Finished Binding this one this month. I thought I was done and realized and I had skipped a section because I started binding twice in two different places and missed the in between section. 2010 New Year's Mystery.

I finished binding this one today.  2011 New Year's Mystery.

I have one more quilts with the binding ready for hand stitching and at least four more waiting for me to make the bindings, plus at least one table runner that needs binding, and probably more.

Now I have to go figure out which of the one on the list of UFOs I need to get to work on next....There are at least 15 of those, and that does not include the ones in need of borders or my applique projects. Yikes!  I need more UFOber!

The Second Ruffled Purse from Beginning to End

I cut out the 64 squares of fabric after deciding on what fabric to use for the purse for my niece.

I traced 32 ruffles and sewed the outside edge of all 32 with very tiny, 1.5 stitch length.  I started cutting out the ruffles, so I can flip, press, and top stitch.

 

I finished cutting out the ruffles, flipping them and pressing them.

 I  top stitched all the ruffles so they are now ready to pin once I get the background strips cutout. I really hope my niece likes this purse.  I am loving it and all I have done at this point are the ruffles.

I have slowly been pinning and stitching ruffles to the strips that form the outside body of the purse. I love the look of the ruffles on the  green background, which I had to change to when I realized that I miss cut the blue because no one had any of the blue in town.  I like the green background also, so no big deal and will use the blue for pockets on the inside. I do not waste fabric.

 I added the inside with pockets and then attached the tube for the cording.  The fabric shown in two different views as it was part of the print.

I braided the cording because I could not find cording that was the right size or color. Being a quilter I made my own.

Here is a view of the purse out in the sunshine, though the colors are not clear.

This is a view that shows the colors better and you can see how well the colors in the cording match the colors in the purse.

Still need to get this in the mail, but am really hoping that my niece likes her gift.

I has fun making this purse and am thinking that I may make another one or two.  I am wondering if I could do more ruffles to make the bag deeper. It would be great for carrying shoes in this winter, or even as a lunch bag.