UFO Finish #60!

I'm a believer in celebrating big round numbers (at least the ones that are quilt related) so I'm whoop whooping it up for Pandora's Box in Teal which is my 60th UFO Finish since 10/1/2012 and my 50th finished project during 2103! This quilt was made using the pattern "Pandora's Box" from the book "Jelly Roll Quilts" by Pam & Nicky Lintott. I started with a group of strips from a teal & brown online swap and added to them from my stash.

Using the lines of the blocks as my guide I walking foot quilted this top using teal Essentials thread from Connecting Threads. Mr. Juki seems just as happy sewing with this thread as he does Aurifil so I've been stocking up on their color packages to use for quilting.

The border fabric and binding were a great match from my stash. I'd love to find some more of the border fabric! I did a line of quilting framing the inner border and then quilted the outer border with lines 1.5" apart.

For the backing I had purchased some wide backing fabric which was a nice shortcut vs. piecing a backing! I have enough left for another quilt of this size by cutting it in half along the 2 yard length... I think I'll be on the lookout for backing fabrics on sale in the future.

This quilt will be donated to Project Linus.

I'm linking up to TGIFF@Quilt Matters, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop@Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Link A Finish Friday@Richard and Tanya Quilts, Needle & Thread Thursday@My Quilt Infatuation and Finish it Friday@Crazy Mom Quilts.

WIP Wednesday

Sometimes it seems like things happen in bunches and this is one of those weeks. My uncle had open heart surgery on Monday, my mom is having a knee replacement tomorrow and suddenly all those body parts I take for granted too often are on my mind! So in addition to spending some time in my sewing room today I am going to get out for a long walk feeling grateful that I can and walk some extra steps for those who can't.

What's Hot:

• Pandora's Box in Teal is ready to be trimmed and bound... should be a Friday Finish!
• Thimbleberries Jacob's Ladder is being quilted. I'll have some time to hand sew the binding while I'm helping my mom out.
• RSC13 blocks - This month we are sewing with black and grey so I need to look through my charm and strip bins for those.
• And Sew On blocks - I've got my foundations printed out and want to get one block done this week.

After a stop at the hospital and lunch with family members yesterday a little Target shopping occurred. I so love the Dollar Section there... look at these fun finds! I just want to fill up that cute little notebook with "Big Plans" right now.

The grand cats came home with me too... this is Tucker's look of the day! From the side it looks like he is hiding behind my iPad. When things get too crazy he moves up on top of that quilt over the sofa. Higher = safer in his mind.

I'll catch JMeow and Jax with my camera later - they are busy patrolling the house this morning to see what's new since their last visit.

A Monday Finish

Scrappy Snowball has made it to the Finish Line and I had a lot of fun quilting this one. This quilt is made using the pattern "Snowball" from the book "Quilts from the Heart" by Karin Renauld and it is one of many I have made from this great book! I will be donating this quilt to Project Linus.

I began by grid quilting using the edge of my walking foot along the block edges and the inside edge of the inner border using white Aurifil.

Then I decided on diagonal lines through the middle of each block so I started marking the quilting lines on the snowball blocks with my red Frixion pen. Since the 9 patch squares were 2" finished it was easy to go from corner to corner without marking.

After quilting it was off to the ironing board to remove the Frixion lines with my hot iron. It's really kind of fun to watch those red marks disappear with each press of the iron!

Next up... the outer border. I've been wanting to play around with using the serpentine stitch on my Juki F600 and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I quilted rather dense lines using the edge of the walking foot along the border edge and the outer edge of the previous stitching line. I really like how this turned out!

9 Patches alternating with snowball blocks are one of my favorite layouts.

I've had this pink "Hollywood Star" flannel in my stash forever and I added a strip of little kitties to make it wide enough.

I've decided to add a What I Learned section to each finish post... every since my Year of Blogging anniversary in late September I've been spending a bit of time each day looking back through previous posts. Each quilt has taught me something and I want to add that to the blog while it's fresh in my memory.

What I Learned:

• Be open minded about choosing borders. The pattern called for the white fabric which I didn't have anymore so I tried the stripe which led to the pink. And I love how the stripe adds interest and the pink calms the quilt.
• Use the serpentine stitch again!
• I'm gaining trust in Frixion pens which is allowing me to experiment more with quilting designs.
• Make more quilts using this layout. LOVE it!

I'm linking up to Linky Tuesday@Freemotion by the River, I Quilt@Pretty Bobbins, TGIFF/OctoberQuest 2@Quilter in the Closet and Fabric Tuesday@Quilt Story.

Sunday Stash and Tools Too

These happy little packets of fun arrived in the mail this week. An email from Pink Chalk Fabrics got me clicking a while back... it's hard to resist a Scrap Bundle of fabrics (according to their website 3 to 3.5 yards) on sale for $9.95. Looking at their site today, I obviously wasn't the only buyer as their scrap bags are sold out!

I've been wanting to add some solids to my stash for my paper piecing BoM and to start mixing them in on my new projects. I'm still more into prints but my appreciation for solids is growing. Here are the contents of one scrap bag... a really nice mix of colors. Some are 1/4 yard cuts, some pieces are large rectangles just shy of FQ size and a few smaller lengths. Perfect for my intended use!

And a nice mix of prints in one of the other bags too. It will be fun to throw some new scraps into the mix when I start my next scrappy project. The other bags are just as yummy- I can recommend these without hesitation! Once they are back in stock of course.

I also had a large box arrive this week (I'm catching up on UFO Reward shopping) and I have to say my heart sank because I knew it wasn't large enough to ship the contents flat. Please excuse my crappy photo but I was in documenting shipping damage mode vs. pretty blog photo mode when taking it!

After about 36 hours of this treatment...

and another day of sitting on my cutting table underneath my old cutting mat it is thankfully flat, oh so pretty and I can't wait to cut some dark fabrics with ease on the yellow side of this Martelli mat. My eyes just aren't what they used to be!

I'm also going to give the Martelli rotary cutter a try. And since I was taking advantage of a sale I added a couple of my favorite Creative Grids rulers in sizes I don't have to the order. I have to say... I just LOVE the redesign since I last bought rulers! I've included an old one in the lower left for comparison. The new markings are so easy to read (do I sound like I'm getting older by the minute?). 

I just might have to replace a few of my most used rulers now too... kudos to a company for taking a product I already love using to a new level of WOW!

So that's what's new in my quilting room this week (lucky, lucky me!) and here is a peek at what I'm working on today. Scrappy Snowball is next on the UFO Finish list. As much as I'd rather be playing with my new tools it's time to quilt.

Happy Sunday sewing everyone! I'm linking up to Sunday Stash@Sew ET.

1st Finish of Q4

I just love starting the first Friday of the month (and the quarter) with a FINISH! Mod Art jumped into the quilting queue in front of Thimbleberries Jacob's Ladder this week because the weather has turned gloomy and I needed a lift. Good choice right?

I'm getting ready for a Project Linus drop off so I put this one into the wash pile... I guess I have a habit of taking pictures right after the quilts are done for the blog (sometimes minutes after!). I am a big fan of the texture quilts get after they are washed. And of course I don't want to send any extra Tucker fluff to kids in the hospital so I wash my donation quilts with a few Color Catchers, roll them up and store them in a plastic bag to keep them clean.

I quilted this using white Aurifil to let the colors of these charms pop. I just love the mix of brights against the black & white prints in this quilt!  This is a good example of a UFO improving with age... had I not seen so many pretty projects with black & white fabrics in the last year I'd have never ended up with this.

I had the perfect backing for this top in my stash... this crazy print I bought a few yards of on year end clearance from eQuilter. Hearts & peace signs on a zebra background = fun backing for a fun quilt.

Meanwhile Tucker is wondering who wouldn't want some fluff as he power naps through these grey days.

And, a sneak peek at something new - I finally splurged on a new Martelli cutting mat! I'll share more on Sunday as there are also some fabrics hiding under the books. It was shipped folded over which made me cringe but it has flattened out nicely and I can't wait to use it.

I'm also linking up to TGIFF@Quokkaquilts, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop@Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Link A Finish Friday@Richard and Tanya Quilts, Needle & Thread Thursday@My Quilt Infatuation and Finish it Friday@Crazy Mom Quilts.

I Quilt

Gemma who blogs over at Pretty Bobbins is starting up a new weekly linky party and I'm just going to share her words about it:

This linky is for you if you like to quilt, if you love to quilt, if you’re just dipping your toe into the (quilting) water, if you have a domestic or long arm machine and if you want to learn and share your quilting journey.  I want to emphasize that there is no need to share a finished project and please don’t be scared to join in if you’re a total newbie.  All I ask is that you talk about your quilting process.

I think that covers most of us! So I am definitely going to be checking out the links each Thursday and I hope that you will too if you are interested in learning more about about quilting. And some weeks I hope to share what I've learned about about quilting too.

I can honestly say that I LOVE to walking foot quilt on my Juki 2010Q aka Mr. Juki. This machine is designed for quilting with a large throat. Look at how much more room there is (especially heightwise!)

 than there is on my Pfaff Quiltstyle.

The largest UFO I finished on my Pfaff was Pink, White & Black Strings. It measured 48" by 72" and literally got stuck in my machine twice - so stuck that I had to clip my threads and work it out through the back of the machine! And I can't tell you how many times I would catch the quilt top on the presser foot lever which lifted towards the throat.

But what do I love about walking foot quilting itself? I love how it accents the quilt but allows the fabrics to shine.

I also love how it can echo a design element to add a little bit of interest and emphasize some details of the pattern.

I love making waves with my walking foot too!

Or just lines of pretty thread.

But maybe most of all, I love my walking foot because it helps me get quilts DONE!

I look forward to adding FMQ to my skill set as well as hand quilting during 2014. I would love to be able to choose the quilting style that best suits each quilt and the time I have available to finish it. But I'll always be in awe of my walking foot for getting me through my Year of FINISH!

QIP Wednesday

Welcome to Quarter In Progress Wednesday where I'm laying out my goals for Q4 of Leann's Finish-A-Long. This challenge has worked so well for me over the year... it really helps me to pick a subset of UFOs to work on each quarter and then chose from that group for my monthly challenges. I keep track of my progress each quarter using the page at the top of my blog - I love having one place to monitor where I'm at.

I have two big goals for 2013:

1) Average one UFO finish a week. Yes... I want to finish 52 UFOs this year! And, I'm challenging myself to donate 50 quilts to Project Linus along with some other quilters from the Yahoo! Stashbusters group.

2) Learn to FMQ. This is a goal I carried over from fall 2012.

I'm right on pace to meet goal #1 with 41 UFO Finishes through Q3. I've got my heart set on having 25 UFOs or less at year end... so I'm going to have to pick up the pace in Q4 to get there!

With that in mind I'm putting goal #2 on permanent back burner status until 2014. I believe that for me to be successful at learning to FMQ I'll have to make it a #1 goal... and I think I have a pretty good plan shaping up to do so.

For Q4 I've chosen 20 UFOs from my Collection - 3 of these are projects I want to have finished before Christmas, 2 are projects for my home (Thimbleberries Jacob's Ladder & Blue & Yellow Strings) and the rest are donation quilts for Project Linus or Quilts of Valor. I want to finish up as many of these as I can!

1-2. Finish Christmas Fantasy/Christmas Rail Fence Swap (my 2 for 1 quilt!).

3. Finish Christmas Strings.

4. Finish Blue & Yellow Strings.

5. Finish Thimbleberries Jacob's Ladder.

6. Finish Bright Hopes.

7. Finish Arkansas Crossing.

8. Finish Pandora's Box in Teal.

9. Finish Mod Art.

10. Finish Scrappy Chevron.

11. Finish Cool Sparkles.

12. Finish Scrappy Snowball.

13. Finish Charmed Pinwheels.

14. Finish Primary D9P.

15. Finish Warm 16 Patches.

16. Finish Batik Noodle Recipe 1.

17. Finish Batik Noodle Recipe 2.

18. Finish Batik Noodle Recipe 3.

19. Finish Bouncing Balls.

20. Finish QOV Nine Patch

Yes, it's an ambitious list! But the only way to less than 25 UFOs is to quilt my way there... and then I can play a LOT more in 2014. I'm going to give it my best shot!