American Patchwork and Quilting UFO Challenge 2019

 Last year I made a list of twelve UFO's and managed to sew six to completion and one other one made progress.  Considering how little I sewed (until recently) I am fairly impressed with that!  My blog post on that is here.  This year I thought I would make a blog list with pictures to go along with the paper list from the American Patchwork and Quilting UFO Challenge.
 
1. MODERN MEDALLION
This quilt saw a stall when I was at a loss as to what else to add to it.  I am a pattern follower and just am not sure what to do next.  It may just be done as is, we shall see depending on when it gets picked.

2.  CIRCA 2016
I have a whole bunch of little blocks to make for this quilt.  I just have not had time to get back to it!

 3.  MERRY AND BRIGHT TABLERUNNER
This one was the January pick and I pulled out the old stitching and requilted it and got it bound.  DJ originally quilted it and had trouble with the loops.  I am going to send it to my cousin Tara since her Christmas box for Koi hasn't gone out yet.

4.  KALEDISCOPE OF KOLOR
This was the 35th Ave. BOM the first year we participated.  Kathy got hers done and gifted that same year.  Mine has the black borders on (could not find a picture of that) but the last border did not fit right.  At the time I could not figure out what I had done wrong and gave up on it.  I need to pull it out and see what needs to be fixed and make a backing.  Hopefully an easy UFO and I will be glad to get it in the quilting line.

 

5.  ANIMAL BLOCKS FROM BARB

 Barb gave me these cute little blocks awhile back.  I would like to center them in star blocks and make a baby quilt.

6. PACKER MARCH ON

I have made two of these already.  This one needs border fabric (I want to get Packer fabric and need to buy it) and I have another one with the four patches made.  I have no shortage of people who want Packer quilts and I want to do one of these for my Godson Koi and no idea who the other is for at this point, but I know it will find a home.

7. TULA PINK CITY SAMPLER
I got tired of making these blocks a few years ago and so I put them away.  I enjoy making them but have not clear purpose for these so it lost steam.  I should try to do one or two each week so when this gets picked I have a chance to get it done!

 

 

8. EYE SPY HEXAGON

I have this top together already.  I had planned on giving it to Barrett (soon to be born to my brother and his fiance) but they already have one I made at their house!  So I will get a backing and tie this one when its number comes up and it will find a home at some point.  Meanwhile, I think Barrett will wind up with the Betty's Choice and Amy blocks that I just got done with--if I can part with it!

9. BITTY BLOCK SAMPLER

This one stalled because the blocks are not all the same size and so I have no idea how to turn it in to anything.  I need to just dig in my other extra blocks and see what I can do with them or just add the to that bin!

 10. STRAITS OF MACKINAC
I finally have all the blocks done from this long forgotten Rainbow BOM. I was waiting for Bonnie's book to come out to decide if I wanted to complete it the way she did hers.  She added a really pretty sashing between all of her blocks...that seems like a complicated process for me since my quilt it a rainbow of colors.  Not sure that will add anything to it.  I do like how she did her borders where she brings out the star points though.  Just not sure if I should sew the blocks together and attempt the outer border or attempt her sashing and see how it looks. 

 

11. LAUNDRY DAY MINI

Had to do this mini for myself.  It stalled out because I am always afraid of doing the quilting myself.  Barb showed me how to use my walking foot (Kathy got me for Christmas last year) and do a wavy stitch which actually looks pretty decent so I am hoping I can do this one justice!

 12. NINES SURROUNDED
Ditto for this little Bonnie quilt.  I am kind of excited to do this one with the wavy stitch and get it on the wall!

Good Fortune--Clue Six is Done.

 I had plenty of strings in my drawer to get to sewing for clue six of Good Fortune. 

 They are so fun to sew up!  I used a wide variety of fabrics to keep it interesting.

 Then I cut them into the sizes of the clue.  I had sewn too many of these so I have extras which will find a home in some quilt.  Here are all of my clues so far.

 Kathy did navy blues for her neutrals with a lot of help from me so she is all caught up too!

 On Christmas Day we recovered the ironing board too.  So nice to have it looking good again.  As you can see several of my drawers are OVERFLOWING with scraps from Bonnie's Scrap System...I need to keep on sewing with my scraps!

 I cut a bunch more hexagon trivets for gifts next year and a nice set for me too.  I made one, but need to get some more of the heat safe batting for centers to sew some more.

 Linking up with Quiltville for the Mystery Monday Linky for Clue 6!

In the Quilting Studio!

 

I am enjoying my vacation.  Still need to rest nonstop, but I can sew here and there and so far that is about all I have done besides read.  Whipped up a few trivets for Kathy's nieces for Christmas.  We have not been exchanging gifts with them, but her brother in law is dying of cancer so all the kids and their kids are in town for what is likely his last Christmas.  We gave him the Patriots quilt I had quilted for Kathy for Christmas.  She is going to keep her En Provence Patriots quilt instead so it is ready to be longarmed.  Kathy gave me this cool sloth mug for Christmas and I am working on book 53 for this year.  Not nearly enough reading this year for me, but more than the average ready anyway.

 I finished putting the binding on Kathy's On Ringo Lake.  This one will soon be gifted to Sam and Ashley on their wedding next March.  Baby boy Barrett due this March so wedding was delayed a year!

 Ros did a great job quilting it.  I was going to link to it on her blog, but I cannot find the post on it. 

 Since I (and Kathy!) are all caught up on the clue, I sewed, ripped paper, ironed and organized a ton of HST's and other random blocks we had so they might be more usable.

 I dug out this long ago given to me "Buttermilk" UFO.  Someone else made the cute little nine patches and I put them together in this little quilt.

 I really want to do a New Year's Eve or New Year's Day mystery, but so far none have caught my eye.  I may just work on UFO's or something instead.  Kathy has to work.  I am planning on joining in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge again this year on SuperScrappy's blog.  I was trying to decide between these two patterns but think I have opted for the easier one so I am able to actually get it done each month. 

Bonnie has posted clue six for Good Fortune, so now it is time to get to it!

Clue Four Done--Clue Five in Progress!

I wound up making about two thirds of clue four for Kathy (and all mine) as she has been even more under the weather than me.  It was made easy because this clue we are both using the same color for. Rather fun!  Friday morning I did not have to be to work until 8 AM (no kids and we only stay til 1 PM) so I managed to get the right size strips sorted and out to take to Barb's which is where I finished clue four.  She let me go through her purples and add strips--that was SUPER fun!

I got my clue cut and then Kathy's clue cut but the picture of hers is not on my phone!  I also got this ginormous cup (Pioneer Woman) with a lid from my Winter Wonder Pal and I love it for huge cups of tea (and coffee too!). 

I always pull however many clips I need for the clue and then clip them as I go in sets of ten.  I get so tired of always recounting and that really cuts it down.  These are the fun clips that Marguerite gave me at our Quiltville Mystery Kickoff Party.

I have roughly half of clue five done as of tonight...may get to it early in the AM and finish it off before going to my brother's place but depends.  

Here are all my parts so far in a bit of a messy state.  I am SEW excited to see how Bonnie puts all of these together this year!  Linking up to Quiltvillehttp://quiltville.blogspot.com/2018/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-5.html?m=1 in the morning!

Crafty Sewing of Last Minute Gifts

My Winter Wonder Pal (Secret Santa) at work saw that I had always wanted a sewing room Christmas tree so she made me a kit to put one together.  Super thoughtful gift!  Then after work Friday I went to sew with Barb and she gave me one she had from a guild tabletopper.  I took off a few of the things on it (they had paper quilts that didn't do well with time) and started throwing a few things on it.  I plan to get out the hot glue and really do it up right, but most likely not this year.

Barb also made and gifted me these cool handtowels.  I buy a few each year at the craft sale so I am well stocked now.  I brought over the two cool, old red buttons (and some others for the other towels she was making) and she put them on.

Today I woke up and thought I should whip up some of the Simple Bags for Suli's twins who are now three!  I love my little tool for making the handles.  I have lots of tools and gadgets that I never seem to use, but this one has helped me alot!

 The pattern for this bag is in this book. It is my favorite go to bag and I put crayons, color book, and a deck of cards in the bag and it makes a good gift.

 Ollie (twins' older brother) already has a bag so I made him (and Colton) a pillowcase with hot wheels and flames on it.  They are folded up here but you get the idea.

 We are going to my brother Sam's tomorrow for the Christmas Eve festivities.  I made a TON of chex mix for us to eat and to gift to everyone today.  I overdid it a bit as I am still easily tired.  We had to go to Costco and Fry's Grocery so it was more walking and standing then I am good with now.  By four-ish I was in bed and planning to take it easy tomorrow. 
Every year Kathy and I bring a puzzle to work on at Christmas...my family winds up stopping over to help and eventually they all get really into it.  This year my sister was all excited to tell me she found a Packer puzzle for us to do.  Then a week later my mom said she found a puzzle with three different size pieces to the kids can help too.  Cannot wait to see which one we wind up doing!  I sent Coleman and his family in Ohio a puzzle with a camping theme so he can continue our puzzle tradition.  He called to thank me and seemed excited about it. 

Good Fortune--On to Clue Four!

This week was crazy so no sewing happened in spite of our best intentions!   We had hoped to sew yesterday but that did not happen either.  We did stop at a Goodwill for half off day and found a ton of this fabric which we got for a total of four bucks!

Also, we did go out on my very first party bus with our MoeFoe friends to see the Christmas lights.  We did not realize we were not just driving through the lights, but were parking and walking in the various areas--I most likely would not have gone had I known.  My Epstein Barr just lets me do so much and Friday my high school students caroled around the school which meant I got 8000 steps (which is nothing I know, but for me anything over 5000 or so means I need a day of recovery in bed!) so I was already tired and wound up walking 7000 steps Saturday.  Too much...today all I did was sew--it was hard to stay out of bed all day but I did it!  One more week of work and then vacation so I am hoping I have not pushed myself too far!

So today I started out by cleaning up my strings...I have them all stored and sorted by color but in the last year or two I just kept piling in the new ones without sorting...so today I sorted and found larger bags for those that needed it and such.  I picked out the correct shade of purple as Bonnie's oranges are purple for both Kathy and I.  I also finished cutting Kathy's clue and later helped her iron them all.

Clue Three

All the clue colors so far.

Kathy's Clue Three

 We both sewed away on clue three until it was done!  I even made seven of clue four so it is in progress!  Hoping to make a quarter of them each night this week so we will really be caught up when clue five comes out Friday.  I know it is not a race, but for me the motivation is best when the mystery is live!  Linking up with Quiltville!   Barb and I Skype sewed most of the day.  She has not started the mystery, but was working on cool towels for Christmas gifts.

Start of Clue Four!

I also sewed a quick tissue holder and two hexagon trivets with orange for my Winter Wonder Pal at work.  The gal I got is someone I do not know...so I got some of her favorite candy, soda, made those two items and got her thank you cards which she had on her list.  Hopefully she will like her stuff!