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.

Prom and Japan blocks...

My son looked so handsome in the teal suit from Grandpa. I took this picture right before they went into prom. There Prom was at the Galleria Ballroom. He had a lovely time and danced the entire night.

When they came back they were exhausted. It is hard to believe that my little boy is all grown up.

On Monday night I recieved 2 completed quilt tops, a bolt of fabric, and lots and lots of mixed scraps. 2 ladies picked up kits and I recieved 50 more rail fence blocks. I also recieved 12 1/2"Japan quilt blocks from a lady at the guild. These were made very simply:

Center- 6 1/2" pinwheel

sides (2) 3 1/2"x 6 1/2"

Top and bottom - (2) 3 1/2" x 12 1/2"

I might just use this pattern for community service blocks.

Bonnie also sent me her blocks. I have enough to complete one quilt and the start of a second.

I found a place to make a block that says Japan. You can find the pattern Here http://ayumills.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-04-07T22%3A39%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=5 I hope to make one to add to the quilt blocks as well.

Well, I have spent the past 3 days sorting and repacking the scraps. These range from larger pieces to strings to even 1 1/2" squares. I packaged the strings in a large cardboard box, I just layed them flat and will iron them later. Some still are donating the stuffing for the Hospital Heart pillows in the mix of other scraps. Hopefully next month will become easier. Last month I divided scraps and it is being stored in the trunk of my car. The Mess is driving my hubby crazy.

I'm also going to plan a quilt as you go workshop to stitch through the Mountain of strings. Mabye this will help churn through the fabric. That's it for now...
Tanya

Happenings of Easter and before Prom

I recieved new blocks for my Japan quilt. Thanks Ladies. Carmie sent me a backing fabric too. I am very happy about the response and hope I can get a few more.

Friday before Easter, my daughter and I dyed eggs. She started the process by arranging all the cups in color order. Nestle decided to take a nap.

My son recently took a trip with the band to Disney World. The band played a concert and then spent 2 days exploring. I'm so glad he had a great time. I am so thankful to have a really great kid. Here is a picture he took with Donald Duck. Funny because his name is Donald too.
Yesterday I took him, his girlfriend, and my daughter to the mall to choose a tie and shirt to wear for Prom. I don't really know if it is a real good idea to bring 3 females all with different opinions to shop for a young man. Needless to say the experience was stressful and enjoyable all at the same time. My son is going to wear a suit that was his Grandfather's. It is a dark shade of teal and his girfriend's dress was several shades of teal. His girlfriend picked out a tie that had colors of her dress and the suit. I thought it looked very nice. But it seemed that everyone had opinions about the color of the shirt. He tried on black,light teal and white. I thought he looked the best in white. Thank goodness the others did too, Whew.


There is the suit, you get a peek.I couldn't figure out how to rotate the photo. I'll need to put that on my to-do list. We did a pre-prom photo shoot and the pictures are wonderful. His girlfriend even trusted me do her hair, "Yea!" I'll post a pic when I get them from my Hubby. He did an awesome job.
With all of this craziness, I worked an extra day, Made a needlecase/sewing kit for the smalltalk group. I modeled mine after a kit I had made for my Dutch Treat block take along. I made this one a few years ago when I started the Dutch Treat quilt. This was a fun challenge. After we signed up we were partnered with someone else who was to make us a kit as well. The challenge started when Kathy had posted several of her needlecases on her blogg and got our juices flowing.

In our swap we were to use Civil War prints and wool. I tried to make the one for the swap a little more primitive and not include the clear plastic pocket or a zipper. I added a scissor pocket and a needlerest.

In the middle of all of these activities I was trying to finish my Civil War Niblets that are due this month. I think they are sweet and I am looking forward to getting these back. I had seen a quilt at an Antique store with tiny 9ptches set with a red Civil war print. I hope to use mine in the same way.

So now I need to get these in the mail and mabye do some laundry too.
Tanya

Advise

Just nod and smile was the advise a dear friend gave me for my most recent visit from my Mother. Visits from Mom have never seemed to be comfortable. There is always some underlying agenda or duty. As much as I love her and I do, I feel there is always a misunderstanding of what a Parent-Grandparent relationship should be. Needless to say the visit left me feeling as though I wanted to shave my head.
I guess what I learned the most was what I do not want to be as a parent.
I want to be involved in my kids/and future grandchildrens lives. I want to treat them as though they are special and precious. I want to make the effort to make sure they know this.
I may not always like the decisions they make but I will always love and cherish them. I will try very hard not to judge them, they will have enough of that from piers and co-workers .
I'm so glad I have 2 wonderful kids who constantly make me proud. C & D, you are a Joy and a Treasure and I love you both very much.
Mom-e

Happenings for the week

It's so nice to get little packages in the mail, I recieved blocks from Maryellen and Kathryn. Thank you ladies, your blocks are lovely. I will add them to the others I have so far. I also recieved the unwashed signature blocks from the Small talk group. Now I'm waiting on the washed blocks to arrive.

At the GCQG guild meeting last week my good friend Patsie gave me some blocks that once belonged to Gladys. There were 14 blocks and many of them were pieced with a dome in the middle. I decided to cut the blocks apart, true them up and reset them. I guess I just couldn't think of accepting another UFO. In the baggie with the blocks was more fabric to make more blocks and the border fabric. I was able to cut the sashing from the leftover background and the navy print worked just great for the cornerstones.

I wanted to finish these before the next guild meeting. I am hoping to inspire the quilters in my guild to make string pieced blocks. I just love string quilts and they are a great way to use up your scraps.

I Here is a sweet picture of my Angel playing with and her hamster. I just love how they seem to have the same cute smirk on their face.

I just completed my first block from the King George III SAL quilt from http://cartulinas.wordpress.com/ . The blocks can be done in 6" or 4". I paperpieced the block but the patterns are written so you could hand piece them. The original quilt was made with 4" blocks. I cannot wait to start the next block.

I'm not too happy with the contrast but if I make a few more I just might.

I made this Little Lone Star Qult as a challenge a while back. It's just the right size for a centerpiece. It is also the same pattern for the center of my borders quilt pattern. I thought I would share it today. I'm in a yahoo group that loves the 30's . I'm gonna share it with them too. We are doing a challenge where we make a block each month. So far everyone likes butterflies. Several of our members have designed blocks for the group it is really neat.

I'll share more blocks as they arrive or get completed.

Tanya

Yes you can make a quilt for Japan

See what Dianne did. How inspiring. I know I can find 8" squares in my stash. http://www.theinspiredhousewife.com/2011/03/my-quilt-for-japan/

What's happening now...more Japan blocks

This week I recieved 3 more blocks from local Guild members. Thanks Lisa and Tracy.

I am the new Community Service person for our guild. I started this month. In the past we have made Pillowcases and collected stuffing for heart pillows for Heart patients. I thought I could inspire members to do something for the Wounded worriors. So I asked members via e-mail to make rail fence blocks. I was hoping to recieve only enough for 1 quilt or 80 blocks and I recieved over 280 Wow. We will continue to make these blocks for the rest of the year. I'm going to put these into kits for members to sew.

I brought my string spiderweb quilt to Guild too, hopefully to inspire members to make Heartstrings quilts. I havea collection of string I am willing to part with and I would like to see members interesed in using their leftovers for Charity. I am planning a quilt as you go Workshop in May. Several members seemed interested and my frinds at my local church are helping me with the date.

Keep those red and white blocks comming ladies. I will post items as I recieve them. I also need border and backing fabric to complete these quilts. I don't mind piecing the backs. Thanks so much.

Tanya

Quilts for Japan..a start

Inspired by the beautiful quilts at the New York museum I decided to make a quilt or 2 for Japan. I'm the new Community Service person though our local Guild and I think this is a great cause. The Japanese Magazine said they are accepting any colored quilt from child size to adult . I think the theme of Red and White is simple and are the colors of the Japan flag. Almost everyone has a red and white fabric in their stash and making it scrappy red will tie the blocks together. Here are the first 2 blocks.

If you are interested in making a red and white 12 1/2" unfinished block to and mailing it to me to add to my quilt. Please leave me your e-mail in your post. I will only be accepting blocks untill July 31 ,2011. I will be more than happy to e-mail you my Address.

Tanya

Siggie blocks and other swap block adventures...

Last week I completed my blocks for both sets of the washed and unwashed for the Small talk Siggie swap .

I mailed one set of washed blocks to one person, and a set of unwashed to another lady. These are the completed washed.

I also had another swap due the Paducaha 9 patches. I made 2 sets of 6 blocks. These had to be sent to another person. Well, I have this folder that I keep my swap info in. There is over 10 different swaps that I keep in this folder, each swap has it's own sheet protector. Well and I thought I read the right address to ship this swap and it turns out I read the wrong address. I read the address of the page next to the P9P Swap page. Well,long story short, Saturday I recieved an e-mail that my Paducah 9 patches were sent to someone who was not supposed to recieve them. I feel so stupid.

Thank goodness this person is someone who does alot of swapping and I was able to ask her to rerout my blocks. I am sending her some Kaffe Fassett Fat quarters to cover the postage.

My next swap is an unloved fat quarter exchange. These are the fabrics I am sending. We can only send in a max of 4 identical fabrics.

Tanya

Allergies Who knew?

Yesterday my nose started running and my head felt swolen. I never had allergies before. I've gotten sick but not ever been allergic to anything. Got hme from work and hubby got me some Sudafed. That seemed to help but the drippy nose is really annoying.
This was a rather long week for me scince I worked 2 extra days for several ladies at work. Aaachoo. sniff, sniff. sorry that is just how I feel.
I have 2 swaps due at the end of the month. One a paducha 9-patch and the other is for the Smalltalk yahoo group. This swap is a signature pieced elongated 9-patch. I have to make 68. I have most of the pieces all cut out. The other swap I have half of the pieces cut out I'll post the blocks as I complete them. I have tomorrow off and hopefully will get most of them done.
I also have a Makenna Ryan block to make before shop hop. O.K. I'll stop whinning. I'm just glad to vent...
Ooh one more thing I discovered the dots quilt along. OOOh so tempting. I was thinking brights on a pink solid background like the icing on a cupcake. You can check out the place here. http://jovitaspatchwork.blogspot.com/. there she is posting her progress and info on how to download her patterns.
That's all for today,
Tanya

2 Hour Challenge Whew....

The Quiltville Chat Yahoo group challenged several of us to work for 2 hour in our sewing rooms. Either sorting, putting away or creating a pile to give away. For me this was a need. I hadn't gotten in my sewing room for about 3 months. Instead I had been inhabiting other areas of the house, including but not limited to the dining room and family room. I have grabbed fabric from the stash wall and left pile after pile more than once. My ironing space was unable to be seen. Everywhere was covered with fabric. I have a makeshift table for a little extra room in laying out blocks or to audition fabrics and it was a foot deep. My chair had fabric on it. and the floor was starting to accumulate fabrics too. I had taken me sewing machine out of the room and started sewing at the dining room table. So my sewing machine space was nowhere to be seen either.
Around 1:00 I asked DH to set the timer for 1 and a half hours and I started. I piled all of the fabrics into a large standing hamper. After about 30 minites several surfaces were cleared off. When the hamper was full and the sorting surface was clear I started to sort colors and al the small pieces went into the scrap bin.
I am currently working on several civil war quilts so I set a pile aside for those. The blues uncoverd 2 UFO's with lots of fabric with them. I packed those away in open plastic bins and stacked the blues back on the stash wall. I then noticed my 30's box was overflowing and toppling out so I refolded some pieces and was able to make it look very nice.
After the blues were put away I started on the reds. By this time the bottom of the hamper was in sight. Then the timer went off.
I took a short break and then went back and finished putting away the Civil war fabrics and keeping a separate place for the smaller pieces. One thing I noticed is I tend to make several identical storage baggies for like scraps. So mabye this is something I should work on. I need to Realize what type of projects I have and keeping track of them a little better . I also have large storage bins of scraps in CW, 30's, Warm and cool colors.
My room is not yet in workable order but I was able to feel some sense of accomplishment.

Later this evening I updated my Swapping Chart. This is the chart I use to keep track of which swap is due when. Most people are involved in one or two and so this is unnessary. I on the otherhand am invilved in over 8 or 9 different swaps that are due at different times and with different people. Some local and some online. I have been very pleased with the online swaps. I have recieved very good quality fabrics and blocks. Swaps for me is a way to use my fabric and get something new without buying new fabric. In a small way it helps to depleat my stash.

Chocolate and Cherries Block Swap

What a suprise I had today when I opened the mailbox. Here are the blocks I recieved from my Swap of Chocolate and Cherries with the Historical Bock Swap Yahoo group . The challenge was to make a historical block using Civil War reproduction fabrics in browns and pinks. We had 4 months to complete the challenge but I choose to shorten that to 2 weeks.

The backgrounds of the blocks must have pink or brown on them..The lone star baskets I posted earlier were the ones I traded for these. I also made a set of 5 Lily of the valley blocks (in the upper left corner) .

The block in the lower left corner was hand pieced. The one above that was appliqued the old fashioned way with a running stitch next to the edge. Several ladies labeled their blocks with the block names and even the fabric lines they used. I think they are lovely..

The Dinner Table

Tonight my daughter invited me to attend the Dinner Table Opening at the U of H Clear Lake. She had 2 friends who are graduate students and who helped get the exhibit to the University. I didn't know what to expect in a Feminist Art Exhibit. Well I have to say it was very interesting and was pleased that my daughter invited me to attend.

The exhibit hosted the original concept drawings of the plates and several test plates. Each plate was a concept of the power of the woman it represented.

The University was the first place the original art exhibit was hosted at over 30 years ago. They stated that several local Art museums would not host that type of artwork. It was very interesting that this little University opened doors to this type of Art.

Check out it's permenant exhibit here:

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/dinner_party/

Finished..Catch Me If You Can Block

I just completed Block 1 on the Civil War blogg by Barbarbra Brackman. You can find the pattern here http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/ She is offering a block a week this year for 52 weeks. I'm a little behind but that's OK. They are easy to follow and if you have a laptop you do not need to print out the pattern just bring your computer to your cutting table. I cannot wait to start the next one.

Mailing and Drafting

Lataly it seems as though I am doing alot of mail quilting. I'm waiting for some pink and brown hourglass blocks to arrive. Today I mailed 60 blocks for the pink and yellow 9-patches for a swap due on the 28th. Next month the swaps I have are a Paducha 9-patch, scrappy niblets, and a swap for Kathy Tracy's Small talk group.

I'm in a 30's yahoo group we are having a year long block challenge. We are going to be making a different block each month. .I drafted a 6" 1930's butterfly pattern from an old photo for the group. Click on the photo and you should be able to save and print it.

Enjoy,

Tanya

Dabbling into Baltimore

Over the past year I took a Baltimore class from Georganne Wrinkle. She is an excellent teacher. I enjoyed the class very much including the bits of history. I started several blocks. 2 baskets and a House block. The house block was the most fun with all of the special things that make you think of home.

Sue just Pubished her new Friends of Baltimore and I have purchased block sets 1 and 2 and the background. I am also rummaging through my stash for fabrics suitable for that quilt. I don't think I want to start it really soon though.

Red and White Niblets

Here are the red and white "Niblets "I recived from January's trade. I immediately arranged them in this configuration when I took them out of the mailing envelope. I saw something similar but I likethis one better. I originally wanted to put them into a Christmas quilt but I think they look really cute this way.

Cake Stands

Over the past 9 or 10 months I participated in a cake stand exchange. It ended in November and I was glad it was over. The blocks are sweet but you had to piece very accurately or your points would get cut off.

Chocolate and cherries swap...

I am participating in several swaps. One, I just mailed 11 (12 1/2") block swap. This swap was part of the Historical block swap yahoo group. We challenged ourselves to use CW pinks andBrowns in a 12" block. I made 2 different blocks one was a block I have been wanting to make for a while is the Lone Star Basket. I had seen several patterns but I had to redraft it to a 12" block. The other block was a lilly of the valley block. That block was originally a 16" block with hand pieced inset seams. I decided to reduce the original size and paperpiece the tulip flowers. I then Appliqued them in place after stitching down the stems. I mailed them Saturday and I cannot wait to see the others decided to make.

Time....

Over the past few months I have been involved in several trades. Tonight I was working on a pink and yellow niblet. Niblets are 3 1/2" unfinished 9 patches. I am in a Yahoo group that exchanges a different colorway of niblets each month.