A Friday Flimsy Finish!

Day 12 of Blogtoberfest.

The rest did me good yesterday.  I read a bit, napped a bit and sewed a bit.  And...  Yippee!  I finished this strippy quilt top that I have been working on since, well, I really don't know when.  A long time, that's for sure.

It was the first strip quilt I ever started and I didn't know too much about sewing strips together and ending up with bias edges.  So I decided to sew them onto pieces of muslin.  It worked, but the quilt top alone, is very heavy.  I don't think I will have to put a batting in it.  Maybe a very thin, light batting.  But I could probably just add a backing and quilt it.  Now I sew the strips to paper and that seems to work better.

I also started something new.  I know, I know.  Shouldn't be starting new stuff when I am buried in UFOs, but I couldn't help myself.  I saw this quilt-along and tutorial posted by Jennifer on Ellison Lane Quilts.  I am already several days behind, but I can catch up.  Only have to make 4 a day for a few days.  Yeah, like that's going to happen.  I really like this quilt though and I will work away on it, using my scraps, which I have tons of, until it is done.   Here is my first purple block.

.

I Finished My UFO for May, but is it Mimi's Quilt?

I don't think I have ever finished a UFO so early in the month. I guess Mimi was sort of encouraging me to get it done. She can be very persuasive you know! This quilt was supposed to be for a friend and co-worker who was having a baby. I started it in 2004, but my friend ran into some maternity problems and decided to go home and stay with her Mom. I think her Mom lived in Prince Edward Island or Newfoundland. To make a long story short no one at my school knew where she was or when she would return. I put the unfinished top away so that I could finish it when she came back, but she never did. And she left no forwarding address, so there it sat in my UFO bin, for years. But now it is done! Yippee!
I'm not sure if it should become Mimi's quilt now that it is finished, although many of you thought that she should have it. She was very flattered by all the attention she received! And she really does love it!
But Felix likes it too. Only he prefers to sleep under things.


And then there is Oscar. He is happy in the cat bed I crocheted for him. I know he would love to sleep on the quilt too, but when Mimi claims something for her own, no one else will be able to get near it. Ever!

Bear Baby Quilt - A UFO Finish

I promised to show you my 'Bear' baby quilt. It's a Debbie Mumm pattern. I started it many years ago. Most of it was done by hand. I finally finished it thanks to Nancy's UFO Challenge. I thought a photo taken outside would show the true colours in the quilt. But it was so windy today that I could not get a picture before it started to blow away.
So I asked my DH to hold it for me when he got home from work. It was starting to get dark by then, so the automatic flash went off. The colours aren't as true, but you can see the entire quilt much better. I still want to do a bit more quilting - on the border and on the bear blocks. I am sort of at a loss as to how to quilt the bears. I have outline quilted them, but that leaves a large area without any quilting in it. I don't really want to quilt through their faces. Does anybody have any ideas? I'm open to suggestions.

While I was outside I noticed that my daffodils are beginning to open. We are supposed to get rain and much colder weather in the coming week. I hope my daffodils will keep until after the rains.
My violets are blooming too. This is very early for them. Hopefully they will survive the rains too.

The temperature was about 23C (73F) today. The sun was shining and the solarium became quite warm. I had to open windows and turn on the fan. Mimi, on the other hand, likes being warm. She just stretches out and continues to nap the afternoon away.

Chicken Soup - A Finish for February

I finished my UFO for the month of February - on Sunday - just in time! I would have shown it to you earlier, but I have not been able to post anything or send and receive emails for the past few days. Sometimes my computer works for a few minutes and then it shuts down. It keeps telling me that I have to download a program for my cable service. But I don't have one. The cable guy did all that when he installed the cable. I think my computer just likes to make life difficult for me. It is working at the moment and I am taking full advantage of that!So, drum roll please! Presenting for you viewing pleasure, "Chicken Soup"! A Finish! I used buttons for eyes, since this will be a wall hanging. It measures 46" x 40". Soooooo glad to get this one done. It's been in my UFO bin for many years. I had actually hand appliqued the whole thing. And had even hand sewn the sashing and borders. I guess it dates back to pre-sewing machine days. I machine quilted it though, to get it done.

A Finish!

I joined the UFO challenge that Nancy from the Patchwork Penguin is hosting. I had wanted to finish this quilt before the end of last year, but things just didn't work out. So here it is - the end of January and I am finally finished my Christmas Table Cover/Wallhanging. (It's having a bit of an identity crisis since I am not sure what I will do with it - wall or table - but at least it's finished.) It's about 4feet square. I found the pattern in a Fons and Porter magazine.

I didn't have enough of a Christmas fabric for the back and because I had originally thought of hanging it on the wall, I decided to use a light blue fabric that I didn't particularly like. But there was not enough of that fabric either so I brought out some old blocks I had made a long time ago. I pieced them together and put them into the back. Voila! Back art!


But perhaps the most exciting thing that I have finished this month is the swag lamp that I made several years ago. It is hanging above my work table in the solarium, thanks to my DH! Now I have light and I can even cut fabric at night. I have strict orders not to become a night hawk though! But I just love to stay up and quilt when the house is quiet. Maybe I can sneak a bit of time in.


This lamp was done in stained glass using the copper foil method. I made it several years ago, but never got the electrical stuff to wire it. On a recent trip to the Home Depot, I decided it was time to hang this thing before it got knocked off my workbench! I apologize about the photo. It doesn't show the colour because it was already starting to get dark when I took it. The colours are really soft and pretty. I will try to get a better photo tomorrow.