UFO Domination 2011

The Confused Quilter has started a flickr group and given me just what I need.

My UFO situation is fairly dire and we got a bill for DS's school fees for 2011 last week.  We're still picking up our jaws off the floor.  Let's just say they're a little more than we expected!

So...I'm guessing quilt classes and fabric shopping will be one of the first things to cut back on.

I'm going to do the odd class and I still need to finish collecting Sandi Henderson FQs for 2 specific quilt but other than that it's stash shopping and UFO finishing!

Click on pic below for more info

I'm not totally certain which UFOs will be targeted or how many.  If I'm not realistic, I'll get all disappointed and discouraged.

Here's what I have so far:
Handbag quilt - needs unquilting, requilting, binding and test washing

Aqua and Chocolate quilt - needs basting, quilting, binding and test washing

Lizzie Mae's Medallion quilt - finish centre applique, piece blocks and assemble top (not
 quilting this as yet) (pic is of original pattern)

Max's Dinosaurs - needs quilting finished, binding and test wash

Max's car quilt - applique blocks finished, assemble top, basting, binding, test washing.  I'm using this pattern by The Country Quilter

My fabrics are quite different.  I first saw this quilt in a magazine made up by Magic Patch Quilting which is where I bought the pattern and mine looks more like theirs.

Max's Monster Trucks Tote Bag - finish cutting fabric and make it! The pic below is the original pattern by Natalie Ross that I'm using.  It will obviously be made up of non-girly fabrics given the recipient!!

 

DaChintzy Code Mystery Quilt - finish piecing (not quilting at this stage) 

Pinwheel Sampler - finish remaining blocks by hand or machine and assemble quilt top (ideally quilt and bind but probably too ambitious!)

Aster Manor Sampler - finish remaining blocks by hand and assemble top (ideally quilt and bind but probably too ambitious!)

Lizzy Mae's Medallion Month 3

I had the class at Quilter's Bazaar yesterday.

The great thing about this quilt is that it doesn't have to be assembled as you go so missing month 2 hasn't made any difference.

I have my fabric pack and some extra instructions from Lorraine.

Month 3 was supposed to happen last month and month 4 is in 2 weeks so it's a very busy month classwise!

We made the double X block which came together much more quickly and easily than I first thought due to Lorraine's piecing and cutting shortcuts!

Due to my still fairly fragile wrist I only made one and a bit blocks in class but I'm psyched to get cracking with them.

I can't believe how small they are!  They will be 5" finished so a bit bigger than Dear Jane and a bit smaller than Nearly Insane!  It's good practice for whenever I get around to these quilts I guess!

I'm getting that slightly overwhelmed feeling.  I want to work on Lizzy Mae, I have one Mystery quilt in progress and another to start shortly yet I have 2 quilts tops that REALLY need basting and quilting!!!!

Changing feet on the machine and lugging it to class every few weeks really interrupts my mojo.

I think I'll indulge in my craving for speed piecing at the moment and try to get Lizzy Mae done asap.  I may leave off doing a few clues of the DaChintzy Code and do them all in one go.

Not sure about Bonnie's Mystery.

I'd like to have one quilt basted and quilting underway by the end of the month.  I wonder if it will happen?

I haven't done any sewing today.  I did lots of cutting and pinning last night but the sewing machine is still rolling around in the boot of the car and I have a thumping headache.

On a more positive note, I'm pretty sure I've collected all my fabrics for Bonnie's Roll Roll Cotton Boll Mystery Quilt!

DaChintzy Code Mystery Clue 5 (spoiler alert)

Clue 5 consisted of 2 steps.

Step 6 (counting from the beginning) looks like this:

 

There are 2 of the top and middle units and only one of the bottom ones (the bottom unit has 4 rectangles but I cut one out of the photo).  At first I thought it might be sashing with cornerstones but the quantities and sizes of the units don't add up for that.

Step 7:

My piecing of the hourglass units id depressively wonky so I hope the quilt will look good enough to donate.

I'm speculating that these units look very like the top and bottom of an ohio star block!  Only half the hourglass units were used in this step so there are enough left for ohio stars...maybe with feature fabric in the centre???

DaChintzy Code Mystery Clues 3 and 4 (spoiler alert)

On Monday night I was so keen to get on with the mystery that I marked up all my squares for Clue 3.

Clue 3 consisted of 2 steps - making HSTs with the fabric 4 paired with fabrics 2 and 3.

When I woke up this morning I felt so sore and swollen.  The plaster is rubbing against a particularly irritating spot and I'm all out of strong painkillers.  At least DH got me more Diet Coke so I forced myself to proceed, knowing I'd feel better once I got my fingers moving and I did.

Clue 3, steps 4A and 4B:

Since sewing them together was so quick i proceeded directly onto Clue 4. 

This involved pairing up the 2 units above and doing the same thing as before to make little hourglass units. I tried to keep the seam allowance as scant as possible but I have grave concerns for the health of this quilt.  My units are not even close to square and the seam allowances wander somewhat.

Clue 4, Step 5:

I spose it's not bad considering how plastered I am. :-P

I must say I love how it's all coming together so far!  This quilt will be a charity quilt but it'll be hard to give it up.  I've wanted a lovely pink girly lap quilt to snuggle up with for a while and been on the lookout for the perfect pattern or fabric.  Lucky for me (and the recipient of this charity quilt!!), my Block Swap friends have taken care of my "ME" quilt so provided this one doesn't look too sloppy it'll go to a good home.

I have a few tops for charity waiting to be quilted but I'm not sure when this will happen.  It will depend on what happens after my plaster comes off.

Clue 5 comes out in about a week.  That's probably a good thing since I need to finish off my table mat and bind my french braid runner and work more on Lizzy Mae!

The DaChintzy Code Mystery Clue 2 (spoiler alert)

Yesterday I worked on Clue 2.   I really don't know what I expected when starting this quilt but certainly not these clues!

I never expected the pieces to come together in the way that they have been and haven't the feintest idea how they will all come together but I do like the way fabrics 2 and 3 are looking with fabric 4.

Clue 2 had two steps which involved thin strips, big triangles and bias edges!  I was more than a little nervous to tackle it and was all out of Diet Coke so I had to tackle it stone cold "sober".

Step 2, Clue 2

Step 3, Clue 2

Only 2 more clues til I've caugh up to everyone else.  I'm not sure how many clues there are in total but they come out fortnightly.  Clue #5 is due late october I think.

The DaChintzy Code Mystery Clue 1 (spoiler alert)

I've spent the weekend cutting up the pieces according to the instructions and finally on Sunday night I opened the first clue and completed it!

I was so pleased that I was able to machine piece that I wanted to do some more!

It was only a small step and simple enough although fiddly to do in plaster.  I was eager to get on with the mystery and catch up to the other girls who are onto Clue 4.

Step 1 involved stitching a small square onto the corner of a larger one.  As usual (in the true hoarding quilting spirit I like to save as much fabric as possible) when I make units like these I stitch a second line 1/2" from the first and chop between them getting bonus HSTs.

These ones are teeny tiny ones!  I stitched them together into very wonky pinwheels.  They have a cute charm about about them because of the severity of misplaced points, uneven seam allowances etc.

The pinwheel blocks are about 2" raw edge to raw edge and that's after using a 1/8" seam allowance!!  SO fiddly to handle but I couldn't bear throwing them away.

I hope to get onto Clue 2 later today!

Not quite as planned...

Last night I didn't end up going to Gisborne Quilters.  My left underarm is really sore.  I have no idea why!  The anaesthetist did mention something about arm block anaesthetics having temporary or permanent complications.  Maybe it's to do with that but after 3 weeks?  Anyway I'll give it a few days.  It's just annoying more than anything.

Then this morning I got an email from Hawthorne Threads saying the fabric I thought I just managed to get enough of is VERY short.  I had to change my order a little but no big deal.  I got a few extra pieces just to be SURE I can get the fabrics to all play together nicely ;-P

I highly recommend Hawthorne Threads.  Wonderful friendly service and great prices too compared to other online stores.  I can't wait til my fabics arrive!!

I have also decided to participate in Bonnie Hunter's newest Mystery Quilt!  Her mysteries lend themselves to stashbusting and scrappiness which I need if I'm going to avoid buying more fabric.

It needs 4 colours and a neutral/background.  I've picked the background which is white with some basic daisy print in various colours.  I'll pick the 4 colours from this print and use it to tie them all together.  I'll work out to be semi-scrappy in that the background will be the same but the rest scrappy.

She will post fabric requirements and yardages on 1 November so my only concern is that I have enough of my background fabric.  There is a good chance I wont and it will mean I have to change my fabric choices.

Meanwhile I really should start my DaChintzy Mystery.  I haven't been peeking at the clues posted on About.com so I should get up-to-date in no time. I haven't been brave enough to try machine piecing with my plaster yet but tomorrow is FNSI and I plan to try then! :-O

Goodbye August, Hello September!

I'm farewelling August with a little sadness since I didn't achieve my 3 UFOs before 31 Aug Challenge on About.com.

It's not all bad, though.  We've almost certainly figured out why the Nemesis is misbehaving, I've started my Lizzy Mae and done 2 block swaps.

September is going to be frightfully busy though!  I didn't realise just how many quilty commitments I have coming up!

1 Sept - Table Runner Class
1 Sept - DaChintzy Code Clue 1
14 Sept - Lizzy Mae's Medallion Class 2
15 Sept - DaChintzy Code Clue 2
17 Sept - Friday Night Sew In 
29 Sept - DaChintzy Code Clue 3


Plus I have TWO Block Swaps PLUS Gisborne Quilters every Wednesday!  YIKES!!

At least for Lizzy Mae it isn't necessary to finish the applique before going onto the next step.

I've also decided to ditch the boy version of the DaChintzy Mystery.  I really want to use more than just 3 other fabrics to bring out all the lovely colours of the guitars so that will free me up a little.  I'm very happy clues are fortnightly!

I still need to wash and cut my DaChintzy fabrics and pre-cut my table runner fabrics.  I now know what I'm doing for one block swap but not the second.


Meanwhile here is a pic of Lizzy - hasn't she grown?

New Fabric Choices...

I've changed my mind about my DaChintzy fabrics in consultation with the mystery host.

Here are my updated choices.

Boy quilt:















Girl quilt:

I haven't got nearly enough black but Spotlight is having a sale and I know they have a black and white spotty print reduced!!

Some housekeeping

Well I was thinking last night as I drifted off to sleep (and that's usually a dangerous thing)   and thought I'd add an extra section in the left bar = UQOs (unquilted objects).  It's not really fair to classify them as a UFO because a completed quilt top is definitely better than chopped up bits of fabric, stray blocks or an unused stash.

Sometimes I make a quilt "just because" with no particular purpose so quilting it immediately doesn't make sense especially when I have UFOs with a "purpose" waiting to be done.

Having a pile of unquilted tops can be advantageous when a gift is needed in a hurry.

Given my wrist situation, I'm trying to avoid doing any unnecessary quilting so charity quilts will be finished to the top stage only.  I will have a few quilts which need to be fully completed (like the dino quilt) so they need priority.

I've also added a blinkie quilt on the right side bar and a calendar of quilty events at the bottom.

It's motivating me to get more stuff done.  I caught up with a RL friend yesterday who is also a quilter and she wants to join a group and start blogging to get her productivity going again.

We're going to each make a DaChintzy together.  Hopefully we can get together every fortnight and actually make it together...together.

Fabric Choices!

Well I now have fabric for the DaChintzy Mystery...only I bought ALL of it and it's totally different from what I was planning.  More boy than girl for a start! 

In my defense 3 out of 4 of the fabrics were reduced to $7.50 per metre!  The remaining one was $11/m so all in all very reasonable!

They actually look way nicer IRL!  I am still going to do a girl version.  I have rethought my fabric choices and I will only need one additional fabric so I'm hoping I can make 2 quilts simultaneously.  With 2 weeks between each clue, it should be OK.

I'm not 100% sure on the order of #2 and #3 yet.  Will seek the opinion of our Mystery Quilt Hostess!

I can't find pics online anywhere of my feature fabric for a girl but hopefully the camera will be working again soon