UFOVEMBER (a month to focus on UFOs)

 As many of you know, I follow Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts. Well in her Quilter's circle she introduced us to Bobbi Gentili of geekybobbin.com. Bobbi got a bunch of other quilt bloggers together and set up a Blog Hop for the month of November. She called it UFOvember. Each day one of the bloggers writes about UFOs. It started with doing an inventory of your UFOs and then moved on to Resuming work. Then maybe Reworking the UFO instead of finishing it as planned. Either make it smaller or into something else. The last part coming up is Rehome. Basically if you have lost your love of it then pass it on to someone else. It has been a really pleasant experience. I highly recommend you look it up and read the articles.  It all starts on geekybobbin.com.

It's nice to get tips from all of these different quilters.  It has even inspired me to get back to work on my UFOs. So I dug out my Irish chain quilt top.  I love the fabric and colors in this quilt top. But it has been over 2 years since I worked on it. Now is the time to get it done.

As you may or may not recall the quilt is much longer than it is wide. Not very bed friendly to say the least. At first I was just going to finish like it was. Then my friend Cindy suggested that I add something to the sides. Maybe a strip with floral appliques. But I am not into applique.  Plus I didn't have any more of the colored fabric to make it coordinate.  

But as I was browsing on Missouri Star Quilt site a couple of years ago, I found some fabric that would work. So I decided to order a bunch of 1 yard lengths of the different colors.  I had plenty of the white fabric left so I decided to make flying geese side panels to make the quilt wider. I had it all planned out. I was going to put a 2 inch dark green strip on either side of the quilt then the flying geese and then bind it with the dark green. I could picture it so well. But I had never made flying geese. So I procrastinated

Well 2 weeks ago, Fueled with inspiration form the UFOvember blog hop, I got out the quilt and started gathering the fabric to cut the geese. Then I hit a road block.  I can't find the left over white fabric.  I had made a point of setting it aside so I would have it, but it is no where to be found. It was a white tone on tone print that I can't find anywhere. I looked at the yards of white fabrics I do have. I even took the time to audition them. I just don't care for the look of the mismatched fabric. Now I am left with 2 choices. I can finish it as is or I can rip out the rows and rework it to a more square size.

I am going to rip out and do it right. I won't be happy with it if I don't. Since this was pieced on the diagonal I shouldn't have to rip out all of the rows. I should be able to just unstitch to the center diagonals. Then I can adjust them to the right width and sew the sections back together.  I think I will diagram it out first this time though.

Working out the issues with the Irish chain has me rethinking the batik strip quilt.  I am going to make it an 8 blocks wide by 8 rows long quilt instead of 7 blocks wide by 9 rows long quilt.  I think I will like it better that way so I will be ripping out apart a row and attaching blocks to the sides of the other rows.  Fortunately life has kept me from stitching the rows together. I already figured out that I need to take the first row apart and use that to add to the other rows.  

This may sound weird but I am actually looking forward to ripping out these seams.  I guess it helps to know that all these professional type quilters have the same issues.  Thank you Bobbi Gentili for organizing the UFOvember Blog Hop.  It's got me excited about my projects again.

Identifying Frogs (or what is keeping you from finishing that project)

Well, I've been back to work for a week and a half and I am really starting to have more energy. Being caffeine and soda free for a couple of weeks seems to have helped. Don't get me wrong I don't expect to stay that way forever but I am sleeping better.  That being said, I haven't done much in the way of quilting. Oh I did finish cutting the strips for the Simply Squares quilt, but I haven't really jumped onto anything. Plus my UFOs are increasing.  I've decided it's because I am not eating the frogs. There are things I am not doing because I am dreading them. So I procrastinate until I have no choice. So with it being UFOvember, I've decided to figure out what my frogs are.

1. Cleaning the studio.  I can't really get moving on anything until I get things cleaned up and put away. I need to be able to move around my machine in order to use it. There are things in there that I need moved out and things I need a place for.  This is a daunting task to me and I am probably going to need some help to do it.

2. Machine Maintenance. I need to give Millie a WD-40 bath and I've never done it before. So I need to get the manual out and read up on that. 

3. Quilt Path Upgrade. I've not used Millie since the Quilt Path upgrade. In one of my face book groups I have heard about all sorts of problems. So I am rather nervous about firing it up and using it. I need to read up on that as well.

4. Making Backing.  It's not that I find it difficult to make backings, I just struggle to make sure they are square.  I've watched some videos on it and I am doing it correctly. I just could really use a bigger surface to do it on.

I think these are my top three Frogs and I think I have them pretty much in order of size. Now I just need to decide when and how I am going to eat them.  

I am hoping to pull Perigrine and Killian into helping me with the studio. I think that Frog is the size of an elephant and will need to be eaten in a few settings. So while it's my biggest Frog, I am not going to be able to get it done before I work on anything else. I do need to sew after all.

Once the Studio is cleaned up and I have things in place, I will give Millie a bath.  She needs one.  I think that this Frog is doable in one day. That is once I've gotten the studio straight. 

In the mean time, I need to do some reading.  I also can complete the Cobble Stones and Windmill quilt top and the Batik Strip quilt top. Maybe I'll even get the backs put together.

What are your frogs?