2012 UFO Challenge

I've been in blogland lately and stumbled across a new blog at http://www.patchworktimes.com/2011/12/20/2012-ufo-challenge-participants-list-of-projects/

Where she is hosting a 2012 UFO Challenge. I think this is exactly what I need this year. Accomplishment instead of spinning wheels. So I decided to participate, I have plenty more but these are the ones I want to see if I can complete.

Here is my list of my 12 UFO's

1. Happy Haunting

2. Spider web

3. Christina’s T-shirt
4. Tweedle Dee 9- patch
5. Tweedle Dum 9 – patch
6. Paducha 9-patch

7. Bluebonnet Mystery

8. 1930’s Bow Tie (2008)
9. Black and Pink Lone Star
10. Civil War quilt 2011 by Barbara Brackman

11. Trick or Treat (Cold Wind Blows)
12. 366 Houses the leap year quilt

I'm not too sure of the rules but for me the completed top is a completed UFO. I've had several of these for over 7 years.

So hopefully I'll be posting the progress soon.

Tanya

Christmas Eve Breakfast and House Block 1

This morning DH made breakfast for the family. My future Son in law stayed the night and so did my son's girlfriend. It was nice to have a nice group to share the breakfast table.
After breakfast DD had to go to work ant the rest of us decided to visit several Pawn Shops. Pawn Shopping is like going to an antique store for the new generation. A great place to find some older technology items from Video Games to DVD movies and music players. We came home and waited for my DD to come home. The kids decided to get out their older video games and play with them.

I decided to go to the web and see what trouble I could get in to.So I went over to the http://buildinghousesfromscraps.blogspot.com/ to see what updates were today. She updated the info for the sashing and cornerstones and a couple of photo's of other people's blocks.
All of this inspired me to to get started. I contacted Jantine from the blog Urban Style is going to paper piece her houses. She 's made in EQ7 a PP version of the little house block pattern. She's sharing it for free, isn't that nice of her? So if you want to paper piece too, send a mail to Jantine to ask her for the PDF of the PP-Building Houses from Scraps-block. Now I printed the patten and after I copied 6 pages and cut them apart I realized that the pattern was for a block that will measure 2 7/8" square when finished. This actually does not bother me but I'm letting you know just incase you want to check the pattern pieces and enlarge them to 3" finished before you start making multiple copies.

After cutting the paper pieces apart I sorted them into piles of A, B, C, D sections.

Then I decided look through my little scraps and I found the little tree with a star piece. This piece seemed perfect for the window. Being Christmas Eve and all I decided to use Christmas fabrics and colors too. After auditioning several fabrics I decided to use these. Then went to the sewing table and timed myself to see how long one block would take. I was pleasantly surprised that it only took 1 hour and that included taking off the papers.

Thank you ,Jeanneke this helped to make my Christmas Merry. I cannot wait to start the next one. I'm trying to get a little ahead just incase there is a day or two I cannot get to the machine and piece.

Tanya

Christmas Time

Getting ready for Christmas this year has been quite somber. Life changes quickly when you loose your ability to give the way you always have and live the way you always have. But I can still find a tiny glimpse of joy knowing the kids understand we can no longer afford to provide them with exactly what they want. Time has fown by this year and we were not able to make Gingerbread cookies like we usualy do.

We decided to get a real tree and decorate it with blue lights and blue ornaments and even found some blue candy canes. The kids loved it and wondered why we even keep all of the old christmas decorations. Hmmm, mabye I'll ask them again in another couple of years.

My Angel daughter came home this afternoon from Boston. I was eager to hear about her adventure and the places she went. When I got home from work we went over to a friends house to share a Christmas get together with their family. We went to dinner and then had the ceremony of opening gifts. Everyone seemed pleased with their gifts and I recived a beautiful bracelet with enameled eggs and a ladybug. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed the time we spent there.

I discovered a website that is hosting a sewalong for 2012. Scrappy houses. You can check them out here http://buildinghousesfromscraps.blogspot.com/

I will be trying to make a house a day for a year. I've decided I might cheat a little and not only get started early but mabye make 4 a day and that way if I miss a day or Two I would not be too far behind.

I still need to get back to the Civil War quilt from Barbara Brackman's blog. Along with my Trick or Treat baskets and the Got Dots. This is the year of the take along project.

I was inspired to cut circle templates for Got Dots. I went to the craft store and purchased a circle punch for about $4:50. This allowed me to punch circles out of cardstock for the templates of the Got Dots quilt pattern. I even basted several of the circles. After talking to Marion Woods today I was able to understand the concept of basting the circle.

1. cut a paper circle

2. cut the fabric you woulf like to use as the circle

3. draw a line around the circle using your favorite marking tool.

4. cut the fabric piece out 3/8" bigger than the circle template

5 baste just outside of the circle line.

6. trim away excess fabric from the basted line

7. gather and tie off basting stitches.
8. press using a spray sizing and let the circle dry completely before taking out the template.

I try to keep my spirits up while Hubby is still looking for work after getting laid off from the Space Program. He keeps getting disappointed with the results. I keep praying for him to get a job and to help me be supportive.