Out of Control UFO's!!

I've said it once, I've said it twice and I'll probably keep repeating it until I'm on my last breath - I love STARTING a quilt.....I love picking out fabric, desiging the quilt top, I even really like piecing it together.  Usually thats where the love stops..... it stops when its time to quilt sandwich the darn thing and I just feel this huge weight drop on my shoulders (which is sad since I would think that one should be the exact opposite - that I should be embracing and LOVING the finishing aspect of a quilt).  Thats when I usually get sidetracked with more beautiful fabric, a new pattern and go off on my merry way starting yet another project. 

I have decided to pull all my UFOs out of the bins, take picutres of them, and state what I have to accomplish on them and hopfully that will give me the kick in the butt that I need to get these projects done!  I was kind of shocked to see that I have 10  (TEN) UFOs and only two of them are small projects.  Four of them are crib/lap quilts and four are larger thow quilts.  (I had to edit that last sentence three times since I had originally only had 7 UFO's then I kept remembering that I had more WIP's stashed in the basement and one in the closet!).

• First up is the Party Monster Quilt - My SIL started this quilt for her son but fell out of love with quilting and has decided to use her incredible crochet skills more.  This quilt has been sandwhiched and MOSTLY machine quilted in the ditch.  I probably have two hours of machine quilting and then sewing on the binding.  All and all not too hard when I write it down.  Must get to work on this since Mr C would probably LOVE it (and my nephew is too big for this quilt now and its too cute to go unloved), plus its too cute to be sitting in a box! 

 

• Next up - my First Christmas Table Runner.  All I have to do is sew the binding on.  That should take me an hour and It would be good to go for this Christmas.  Time to get started!

• This is the Tumbling Rubies quilt - I started it when I was pregnant with my son but have got to the terrible 'how should I quilt it' stage and have no idea what to do so I just put it away.  I think I might do some stitching in the ditch but I was thinking some echo quilting could be very cool.  I might bring it to my next Guild meeting and see if they have any ideas for me!  

• This is my Dirty Thirties quilt -  I fell in LOVE with the sample at the quilt store and HAD to have it. I made the misake of caluclating how many small cuts/squares there are on my third day of working on it and immediately got overwhelmed and had to put it away.  I still love this quilt I think I just need to make a goal of getting one 4 block done a week. It won't be breakneck pace but it will be some sort of progress and I think thats what I need to help me move forward on this quilt without getting overwhelmed.   My goal of getting it done before I turned 31 is long gone (I just turned 32 this past September) but maybe I can get it done before I'm 35 or something!!  

• Eye Spy - this one isn't fully pieced together, I still have to sew the rows together and then put the outer boarder on the far right and bottom.  Once this gets sandwiched it will be easy peasy to stitch in the ditch and finish quick,  its just hunkering down and doing it! 

• This is the quilt that I started I was pregnant with my oldest (who is now 5). It was my second quilt that I ever made (or almost finished I guess I should say) I got all the way to having the binding finished but I never top quilted the middle section where the giraffe is and couldn't figure out what to do so I put it away.  This one makes me so sad, it was made for my first baby but was never finished and none of my kids got to enjoy it as babies.  Part of me thinks that Baby C is too big for it now,  but I would love for one of my kids to get to play on it and make some memories with something I made for them.

• My other Christmas Table Runner - this top is now complete and hanging on my design wall waiting for me to figure out how I want to quilt it.  I think I am going to FMQ this one and hope for the best.  I would love to have this one done by the middle of November so we can enjoy it for the Christmas season. 

• This would be the Crazy Cat Quilt - sorry about the picture, I totally forgot about this quilt until I was writing this blog and I really didn't want to have to pull it out and assemble it so I grabbed a picture from a previous post (and it was a horribly lit picture, sorry!).  The plan for this quilt was to give it to my Mom and her husband as a housewarming gift for their new house - the problem is they moved into their house THREE years ago.  I messed up on this quilt so many times and it seemed like every time I had it out I was fixing a previous mistake and I got REALLY discouraged and put it away.  I think now that my quilting skills have gotten a little better my mistakes will be mitigated a little and the next time I bring it out I will be able to pece most of the top together which would be SO fanstic!  I know my Mom would love to have this quilt, I just need to get to work on it.  

• This is the Jungle Squares quilt that I gave to my neice last year for Christmas for us to start to work on together but we haven't had any time to make any progress on it.  This is another quilt that makes me sad, I really wanted to have this done with my neice a few months after Christmas last year but with living an hour apart and a CRAZY busy year its been forgotten about.  Part of me wants to just power through this quilt and finish it myself for her and tell her that we can work on something a little less difficult (minky is a total pain in the butt to sew with and its even harder if you are 10!!!) together as her first project. But then part of me desperately wants to spend time with my neice and teach her how to quilt. 

  

• Last but not least I have my Domestic Handbag quilt that I am working on for my SIL - the design is a surprise so I can't post pictures of it.  I was making amazing progress until I had to begin the quilt sandwich then my tape wouldn't stop breaking (to tape it to the floor) or peeling up.  I had to make a quick stop at the store to pick up some duct tape and I'm hoping to get to that quilt tonight.  This quilt is at the top of my 'to be finished' pile and I cannot wait to have it done and give it to my SIL.

So there you have it, my 10 project WIP/UFO projects. Now that I have outed myself on how many projects I have on the go I will be trying my best to get those all finished up before the new year.  That being said  I will be posting lots of "progress made" posts so hang in there because very soon I hope to have a bunch of FINISHED projects to show you!  Few things are more satisfing than a completed quilt! 

Thanks for reading!  Please help keep me accountable by asking how different projects are coming if I havent posted about them in a while!

Got the Fixin's to Finish!

Ok, I'll admit it I have way too many Work In Progresses going on right now.  I just can't help it, I either see something online that I just must do or I find some fabric that I just must have!!!  ;)  It really isn't conducive to actually finishing stuff since I just want to move onto the next awesome project (quilt or otherwise) that I want to tackle.  I'm like a cat that sees something shiny and gets easily distracted!!

Most of my lack of finishing projects stems from the fact that I don't buy the batting and the backing at the same time I buy the fabric for the quilt top.  Since I don't have all the material available I tend to take the 'I can get it later' approach and put the quilt top down and take forever to actually finish it.

Enter Exhibit A:

I got the backing and batting for not one but TWO quilts the other day.  No more excuses to not finish the Crazy Cat Quilt or the Tumbling Rubies Quilt! The black fabric is for the Crazy Cat Quilt.  I wanted something fairly basic since its going to be a wall hanging for my Mom and her Husbands house and no one is really going to see the back.  The red butterfly fabric is for the Tumbling Rubies Quilt.  Its super soft flannel and will be so comfy to cuddle up in and a great accent color for the Ruby fabric top.  I'm debating a pieced back and throw in an extra row or two of tumblers to mix up the back a little.

I know I said I had no more excuses but that wasn't quite true. I still don't have a sewing nook yet and I'm not 100% sure where my pinning table went (its either hiding in the crawl space in the basement or tucked in behind all the toys in the garage, I'm not sure!!) - BUT that should all be taken care of by the end of the week if the stars align correctly this week.  Hopefully once my sewing nook is put together or I find my pinning table (a folding card table that I don't mind if I scratch) whichever comes first, I'll be able to get to work on finishing both of those quilts.

Crazy Cat Quilt - Progress Made!!

I am loathe to admit it but here it goes: I screwed up - and I have been avoiding the Crazy Cat Quilt for MONTHS trying to figure out how to 'fix' my little screw up.   I cut off about a 1/4 inch too much off each cat panel and in turn I needed to figure out how to cut down each and every piece of fabric for the quilt by that much without making the squares on the patchwork pieces look too small on the ends.  Finally after a few days of taking some measurements, laying a few pieces out on the table, measuring some more followed up by a little praying I took a deep breath and tried to square up the first patchwork piece hoping I that I didn't screw it up AGAIN!  It took a few trims to get it to the right size but I would much rather cut not enough off a few times rather than cutting too much off (which got me in this mess in the first place!!) but I finally got it!!

I managed to get the first two columns done before my head started to hurt way too much but I am totally loving the way its turning out.  You can't really tell that the boarders around the cat panels are going to be smaller than they should be - then again I bet if I never mentioned it you never would have known!!

I took the picture below in the fall when I was first working on this blanket, sorry its sideways!!  Just do the head-tilt thing and enjoy the sideways quilt'ness!  ;)

(Disclaimer so I don't get yelled at tonight or tomorrow by those who love me and might be reading this: I wasn't crawling around on the floor getting up and down to lay all the fabric out and then standing on the couch to take the picture TODAY I promise!  I bent down twice to lay out the two strips in the first picture this evening and thats all.... I have been a good girl and have taken it easy this evening!!!)  

I think this is going to be a super awesome quilt when its done.  I still have no idea how I'm going to finish it I think I might just do the 'stitch in the ditch' technique and call it a day.  Its pretty busy so doing too much to the top might take away from all the cute cats!   I don't have backing fabric for this quilt yet but I can probably do some shopping for it once the top is all finished in a little bit

This was supposed to be a house warming gift for my Mom and her Husband when they moved into their new house in July last year.....I think it might be a 'Happy 1 year of being in your new house' gift.....!  Hey, better late than never right?