UFO Challenge 2011

I've decided to join Judy's UFO Challenge for 2011! I'm excited to work on these projects that keep being pushed aside. I don't plan on finishing them all, most of them, some of them I just hope to make significant progress on.

1. This is a BOM by the Garden State Quilters. They only have 5 of the 9 blocks online right now. 

Goal: Complete what blocks have been posted.

2. Dresden Plate Quilt from Material Obsession. I am only going for lap size (4 x4), and I am going to use yellow instead of white for the background. I have already started cutting out the pieces for the dresden plates. 

Goal:  Finish piecing the top. 

3. Glow Happy byhttp://thehappyzombie.com/blog/. I bought the fabric on a Cyber Monday deal. You can get the pattern, here.

Goal: Completely finish.

4. Lantern Bloom. This was in the Spring issue of Fons & Porter's Easy Quilts this year. So far I have only picked fabrics for it.

Goal: Have top pieced and ready for quilting.

5. Snowbound. This was the BOM by Bunny Hill Designs this year. I have 7 more blocks to applique and embroider. The chain blocks are complete.

Goal: Completely finish.

6. Use these fabrics to make a basket quilt for myself. I designed the wallhanging myself since I only have small amounts of some of the fabrics and had to design around them.

Goal: Completely finish.

7. Avalon. Another quilt from Material Obsession. These are fabrics I have selected so far. This quilt may end up being a gift.

Goal: Completely finish.

8. Patchwork Panache. This was a free BOM pattern at Block Central. This quilt is completed, just waiting to be quilted. 

Goal: Completely finish.

9. Rock Mosaic. Use some of my rock fabrics to make the quilt pictured in the center. I've been wanting to make this quilt for awhile and have kept pushing it aside. I can hardly wait to make it.

Goal: Completely finish.

10. Bow-tie Flower Garden. This is a quilt I designed myself. It needs stems and leaves appliqued on, and then quilted. I think it needs a good ironing too.

Goal: Completely finished.

11. Rainbow swap. These are the blocks that I received in the one and only swap I participated in. I have already picked some fabrics to go with them, just need to put them all together.

Goal: Completely finish.

12. String Quilt. I am half way done this quilt. I planned on making 6 more rows. I have all the foundation blocks cut and have most of the strings ready, just need to do it.

Goal: Completely finish.

Thanks for the challenge Judy! I can't wait to get started.

Final Finishes for 2010!

I've discovered that when you stay home for the holidays and you don't get any company, that you can get a LOT of quilting done.

I finished this quilt. The top was my one thing, one week challenge in October. It has been sitting around ever since. I got it finished this week. I'm glad I used winter fabrics and not Christmas fabrics so it can stay out and be used for a few more months.

Close - up of one of the corners. I liked that I fussy cut the snowmen.

The trees took the most time. I don't do many paper piecing projects so I have to relearn how to do it each time. I think they turned out pretty well.

I really like the flying geese blocks too. I also like that I had enough of the main fabric to use it for the border.

The back. I used 4 flannels that were in the remnant bin at JoAnn's.  The pattern for this quilt can be found in the December edition of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting.

I also finished my sweater. I have since washed it (and am actually wearing it right now), and a lot of the stiffness is gone. It's nice and warm. Yarn is on sale this week at JoAnn's so I picked up some yarn for the next project (or 3). The pattern is from a library book - sorry, can't remember which one.

Tree quilt. I was suppose to have this done for us to decorate this year, but I just finished it yesterday. I still need to add buttons that we will hang ornaments from, but I consider this finished. I will probably put the buttons on tonight or tomorrow... but all the quilting is done.

I have been saving the tree fabric at the bottom of the quilt for several years. I absolutely love it and didn't want to cut it up. Glad I will get to enjoy it for many years to come.

The back. You can see some of the quilting. The checkerboard quilting was done on the tree fabric at the bottom. The loopy quilting was done on all the snowflake fabric. I outlined the diamonds in the tree, but it will mainly be "quilted" with buttons. This is loosely based on Esther Aliu's Christmas quilt, which she had offered as a free mystery download for 6 weeks. You can now buy the pattern from her, here.

I also wiped up 2 bags last night too. Again the fabric is from the remnant bin a JoAnn's. This is a work bag to hold current knitting projects. You can see a sock pattern book sticking out the top.

This is a purse for me. I needed something a little bigger, that will be able to hold snacks and a water bottle.

The 2 bags together. the fabric is a light corduroy. I didn't do the embroidery - it came that way - and I couldn't resist it.

4 more sets of mug rugs. These have been done for a week or so, but I kept forgetting to take pictures.

Guess that is all my finishes for 2010. So, how many finishes did I have?  125! Wow, that's a pretty big number. Guess I did do something this year.

What Santa brought me

 Well, not really Santa, my mom. She gave a yard of each of the 3 fabrics above. She had previously given me a fat quarter of the bird fabric in October. The purple and green are also part of the same fabric line (I think it is Northcott).

Here is the panel that goes with it. I have decided what I am going to make with these fabrics so I have washed them and hope to start the project next month.

My month also sent along these 4 fat quarters. Thanks mom. I love them.

In November, I won a giveaway from Jacquie at Tallgrass Prairie Studio. She sent these fabrics but I decided to wait until Christmas to open them. I have been eyeing the owl fabric for some time and was so happy to see it in the stack she sent me. Thank you Jacquie.

My gift to myself. I have been waiting for the right time to buy a charm pack and jelly roll of these fabrics. I bought them from Green Fairy Quilts on Cyber Monday but made myself wait until Christmas to "open" them since I knew I would play with them instead of finishing other projects. Thank you me.

Come back tomorrow when I will be posting my final finishes for 2010 and give a grand total of OPAM projects. I am still undecided whether I will join OPAM 2011. I will be joining Judy's UFO challenge for 2011, so I will posting that list tomorrow too, I hope.

Sneak Peak revealed

 Remember this challenge fabric I showed you this fall? My sister had bought a yard, split it in half and challenged each of us to do something with it. That was over a year ago. I refound the fabric this fall while reorganizing and decided I would try to make my sister something for Christmas with it... and I did but wasn't able to show the finished product since she reads this blog.

 So, here it is. This table runner pattern was in the July/August (2010) Fons & Porter magazine. I only added the black fabric. I gave the runner a hanging sleeve in case she wanted to hang it on the wall instead. Go back to this post for closer pics.

I have also finished my sweater and am almost done a lap quilt - just a little quilting left to do in the border and the binding. Hope to post pics of those this week.

Hope everyone had a good holiday. I'll take some pictures of what Santa left me under the tree (fabrics!). Hope he brought some goodies to your house too.

Knitting Progress

Front of my sweater - Done!

First sleeve - Done!

Second sleeve - Started!

I've been focusing on finishing my sweater for Christmas but I have been able to add to the scarf a little bit. Once I finish the sweater I'll be focusing on finishing this scarf and making myself another pair of socks before starting the socks for my sister. Next year I will be knitting more for others than for myself; although I have really enjoyed treating myself. I think one of my favourite presents each Christmas was opening the sweater my grandmother knit me. Each grandchild received a sweater until they were a teenager. It definitely felt like something was missing when I no longer opened sweaters from her. I'm glad she was able to knit baby sweaters for both my kids when they were born.

Christmas is coming!

 Our gnomes are watching over all the gifts that have arrived from our family.

 But with the gifts she sent, my sister added some gifts for to play with a little early. First was this quilt top. I think she said she won it last year but hasn't done anything with it yet. It's baby quilt size and it came with binding. However, looking through my stash I found 3 fabrics that I could use to add another border. Hmmm... we'll see.

 She also sent along this one that she put together. My son claimed this one by lying on top of it when I laid it down. I let him go through my stash with me and decided to add some other fabrics to it. It is wide enough for a twin but would need to be a little longer to fit his bed. He's pretty excited about it being his... one day.

 She also included this extra fabric from the quilt. Pillowcase?

 A couple more goodies were included. Sarah bought some sock yarn. But it's not really for me. I am suppose to knit her a pair of socks for her birthday in February. She was kind enough to include a pattern too.

Thank you Sarah! I'll get started on your socks in the new year.

Friday Night Sew-In Results

 I had a lap quilt basted and ready to go for Friday night sew-in, but I got distracted by these snowmen blocks. They are part of Bunny Hill Designs BOM Snowbound quilt. This is number 4 and 5, which I finished last night.

 I did the first 3 blocks this summer while we were driving from Michigan to Idaho. Blocks 4 and 5 will be squared up and added to row 2 today and then I can put rows 1 and 2 together.

Here are blocks 6 and & ready for all the handstitching.

 I also started this scarf for myself. The yarn is incredibly soft. I'll be working on this over the next week while watching holiday movies with the kids. You can find the pattern here.

Go check out Heidi's blog to see what everyone else was up to last night.

Giveaway Winners!

Winners of the Sew, Mama, Sew! Giveaway Day giveaway's are:

Baby Quilt winner - #88 kerrykatiecakeskeb43 said...

I would love to win the baby quilt - It looks so sweet and cuddly!

Hugs,

Kerry

Fat Quarters/ selvages winner - #99 Jenny said...

comment 2: would love FQs and selvage...ive been saving selvage for a very short time, your pile would double my stash of them!

I have sent Kerry and Jenny emails. Please send me your addresses so I can mail your prizes to you.

Thank you to everyone who left a comment. I am humbled by your kind words.

Now, back to Friday Night Sew-In. Come back tomorrow to see what I was able to accomplish tonight. 

Giveaway Day!

COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED.

It's finally here - Sew, Mama, Sew's Giveaway Day! Welcome to Rachel's Quilts. Today I have not 1 but 2 giveaways for you. 

First up, is this baby quilt. Made with cotton fabrics and cotton batting. It measures roughly 35 inches square.

Closer look. The binding is a vintage fabric.

Here is the back. A lovely bird print with some vintage fabric at the top and bottom.

Second giveaway is, 2 holiday fat quarters that have been in my stash too long and need to go to a new home and a bunch of selvages. Some selvages are about 12 inches, while others are a yard or more.

To enter just leave a comment. Please leave 1 comment for each giveaway that you are interested in, or leave 2 comments if you are interested in both (i.e. leave 1 comment about the quilt, and another about the fabrics/selvages).  I will leave comments open until midnight (EST), December 17th,  when I will use a random number generator to pick 2 winners. Good luck. I am willing to ship internationally so everyone is welcome to comment.

I'm off to look at the other giveaways! Leave a comment here and then you should go to!