UFOs 2016 Update

 Since I broke my wrist in December of 2015 and it took forever to fully heal due to tendon damage I did not accomplish as much as I would have liked in 2016. Once I had my hand back at about 75% I decided to focus on my UFOs.  I finished a rag baby quilt, which my husband did the snipping on for me. I also finished a strip club top, minus the final border which is cut and ready to attach. next up is to move some things forward.


I have made progress on my Voices of the Past UFO.  It is all laid out and ready for me to put together. I made several small stars to use as sashing between the blocks and will fill in other areas with small strips of fabric.  I think I need to make some small blocks to fill in the spaces between the blocks so there is not a ton of white space.  By small I mean blocks that are 3" in size. I need to look at the patterns and may make a couple of the centers from larger blocks to fill in the spaces.

I also finished several sets of pillow cases as gifts, and potholders, along with making ten wine bags for the wine auction portion of the Arctic Valley Ski Area Silent Auction. People bid on a bottle of wine without knowing what wine they will be getting. Usually they are in paper bags, but I decided that they needed to classed up a little bit, and it gave the winner a nice gift bag for the wine.



The block on the left is my favorite one in the quilt. It is the Lousia May Alcott block. Here is the layout of the quilt Voices of the Past quilt. My friend Jan helped me come up with layout.

I made a deal with myself last year that I could not start anything new until I finished a UFO other than my Paducah classes and any baby quilts that are needed, though I am getting a few baby quilts done in advance to have on hand for when they are needed.   

My Paducah classes included one by Linda Hahn, a New York Beauty called Tottenville Toads and the other by Mary Lou Weidemeyer called Flower Power.  I really enjoyed both classes and now have added two UFOs to my pile.  Though I am planning to move them forward sooner rather than later.

These are blocks I finished in my Mary Lou Weidemeyer  class at Paducah.

These are two blocks I made for the Tottenville Toads quilt in my class at Paducah. The first on is not yet trimmed to size. Of course this quilt is in my UFO pile also.  

 

One other fun thing about going to Paducah this year was that I got to see my on-line quilting friend, Helen Marie, again, and we both got to meet Pat Sloan.  

I received three of the quilts back from my quilter and need to trim and bind them.  I also have a pile of quilts waiting for me to hand stitch down the binding.  I just need time to work on that.

I am moved my Marti Michell Log Cabin from last year's visit to Paducah forward. I  finished the top and added borders. It is about 102" x 102".  I sent it off to the quilter before Christmas and she has it on her list to finish in the near future. I told her there was not rush. We came up with a quilting plan, and I am not in a rush to receive it.

I have a pile of quilts that need binding, so she can take her time with this one. I have another one that will be heading home soon as well. It is a surprise gift for someone.

In August after we returned home from Tennessee I finished another Marti Michell quilt that is also rather large, 102" x 102" and it is also a gift.  It is waiting for me to trim and bind it so I can send it on to the recipient.

I am not posting pictures of either of these quilts as I want to wait until the recipients receives them.

I also made a traveling ironing board to take to classes.

In September I went to the Valdez Quilt Festival with my friend Jan for a week. It was fun, the weather was beautiful, and we enjoyed the experience. We took two classes together and one other class each.  I took Waters of Kauai. I finished top, but am still working on piecing the borders.  I redid one set of blocks three times, in three different fabrics before I was happy with the top.  I now have two sets of twelve blocks waiting to be pieced into two baby quilts.

Jan and I did the mystery quilt class together. I finished one block and am taking apart the other parts and squaring them up before finishing the block as they did not include squaring up the one section and it messed up the piecing because it is off size. I am also changing the pressing directions as they way they said to press it leaves a huge lump to quilt through. The finished quilt is really nice though, so I do plan to complete the top. I can also say that this is a 100% stash quilt.  There is one other color, the gold, used in the alternate block.

Jan and I also took the Iced Saw Blades class and each finished a block and most of a second block.

These are all the blocks from the class, and the individual one is mine.  I am not sure if I will finish this quilt or use this block as an example for a future quilt. I did pull all the fabrics from my stash for this class.

I participated in a color challenge with a group of quilters I know on line. We each were given three colors and could add a background or neutral. My three colors were purple, green and orange and I added a brown as my neutral. I made a table runner, which I need to quilt. 

In October Teri and I went to a quilting retreat in Soldotna to do a mystery.  The mystery was called Tiffany and we made four large blocks in different color ways which confused us as they did not seem to go along with the clue about Tiffany lamps.  

This is one of the blocks in the two different color ways.

This is the other block in the two different color ways.

The blocks were then cut into quarters.

I did not lay my quilt out according to the pattern, I made a minor design change and really like mine better than the original design.

This is the designer / instructor, Brenda Clyde's quilt.

This is my quilt top minus the borders as I still need add them and I decided I wanted a pieced middle border and then my outer border. The picture next to it is the outer border fabric.

Teri and I decided to sign up for the Fancy Forest Block of the Month. It is a pattern by Elizabeth Hartman which has thistles, owls, bunnies, hedge hogs, foxes, owls, and butterflies.  She is doing it in cotton and I am doing it in batiks.  I finished my foxes, and started on the bunnies before the end of 2016. 

I know, I know I started new things, but I also finished several quilts in 2016. I finished a rag flannel baby quilt. I also finished Romantic Get Away. This picture is before I put the binding on, as I did not take one after. I still need to do that. 

I finished my blue Hoffman swap which was from too many years ago to count.  

I finished the binding on three quilts on the drive to and from Valdez, alone.

Split 9-Patch Swap Quilt

Angels Round Robin Quilt from many years ago.

I also made ten wine bags for the Arctic Valley Ski Club Auctions Wine Auction. You bid on a bottle of wine, but you have no idea what the wine is until you win it.

But my favorite finish of 2016 is my Coat of Many Colors.  It started out as a Kitchen Sink Quilt in a class by that name taught by Maria Shell, an Alaskan Quilter.  The idea behind the quilt is to use your orphan blocks to make a quilt, like a scrap quilt.  I chose black and white prints as my neutral and went to work.  I decided that I wanted to make mine into a jacket instead of a quilt and lined it with lime green fleece, and the front placket is lined with lime green flannel.  It is very warm and long to cover my legs when I wear a skirt.  I get stopped often by quilters and others who always ask, "Did you make your jacket?"  They all love it.  I used to jacket as a practice for quilting so it is quilted in different ways all over. I love it and it adds color to the dark, cold, Alaska winter days and nights.

I had a terrible time trying to get things to work today, for some reason my pictures kept jumping all around the blog, so if something seems out of order I apologize. I hope I have it all fixed now.