UFO Challenge

Happy New Year!  I'm not even going to start by making any promises of keeping this blog up better than I have, let's be realistic here.  So my first resolution is more of an anti-resolution, that of not making a promise about the blog.   BUT.  I am jumping on board with the project below, and had actually started to do this with dedication in November.

All People Quilt has started a 2016 UFO Challenge on Instagram, and the link on their name will take you to that  page.  I'm jumping on board!

My traditional guild, Great Lakes Heritage Quilters,  had UFO's as a theme at their Holiday Bazaar and auction this year, and I went through some of my boxes to see what I had.  Now, I do check on these each year to see what's there.  But it did shock me this year to see some of the amazing things I had in the works that were stalled out.  NONE went to the auction, as I liked all of them.  I thought, wow, there's some beautiful stuff here that I'd really like to finish.

One, started in the fall of 2012, I got out in this November, finished the hand applique on the two borders, machine quilted it, put on a sleeve, and hung it up for Christmas!  It's the Sue Spargo "Crimson Tweed", and it was a Block of the Month kit at Mabelena's Quilt Shop in Ortonville. 

Then, I completed two projects started within the past year.  I sort of feel that's not really OLD enough to be called a UFO.  But.  They were unfinished & sitting there.  This one was started around February or March, machine quilting and some hand-quilting on it began around August, then it too, languished.  The machine quilting not being always my favorite part.  Once you get into 'machine quilting mode' it's not too bad, and sometimes best to just keep on going and quilt some other tops too!

Actually, this was a lot of fun to quilt, as I had a variety of designs all over it, and handquilting with perle cotton in the middle sections.  It also has a sleeve and is ready to hang on the wall.  In fact, Crimson Tweed is coming down today, and Aerial Grove is going up!

 Pattern is by Carolyn Friedlander, and those 'squircles' are hand appliqued, needle-turn.

Next up, a good friend was celebrating the same big birthday I had occasion to celebrate in October, and I got a quilt from my friends The Chickens, that greatly eased that pain, so I thought Deb should have one too.  This was started in August at a workshop with Mary Elizabeth Kinch at AQS Grand Rapids.  String piecing is so addicting and fun, and I just couldn't stop.  The top was completed around October, and then it sat, waiting for the machine quilting.  Deb's birthday is Dec.29.  So by Dec. 20, 2015, it was quilted, binding and label on, and given to her on her birthday.  Deb is not a quilter herself, but she totally gets it, and loves them, and she was so moved and appreciative.  I think it really did ease the pain of one of those decade-numbers!

So, off to a good start, I think!