January UFO Finished!

Yay, finished the first UFO of 2016!  It will take a while for this to be quilted because Caroline has a long list of reservations, but it's nice to have the top completed and ready to go.

Tomorrow is February 1st which means a new UFO number, I'm looking forward to seeing which number is selected as the UFO project for this month.

Also something new for the blog, you can now sign up and receive email notices when there's a new posting ready to view.  As I have about 3 readers, I'm sure you'll all want to make sure you catch the latest.   Just put your email address into the field on the right where it says "Subscribe to FIBTP by Email" and click Submit... and you'll never miss another post.

One Week To Go!

Only one week left in January so I'm really focused on finishing this first UFO of the year.  Turns out my quilt math was a little off in my last post, I actually needed:

Small blocks: 160
Medium blocks: 96
Large blocks: 15

Here are all the blocks, (finally) completed and ready to go.

Today I spent some time laying out the blocks on Klara's design wall.  On reviewing the photo below I can see a few changes that need to be made but I'll start sewing together the rows to make the quilt top this week.  With input from my quilty pals, I've decided to leave just one orange block in the quilt.  It looks busy with all of those wonky blocks!  Probably best not to look at it if you're feeling dizzy.

The green painter's tape on the right side of the wall is where the quilt exceeded the space on Klara's design wall.  The quilt will be about 90" x 90" which is a good-sized quilt.  Here's a close-up of the layout surrounding the orange block:

One more week to finish and then on to February's UFO - hope next month's UFO leaves me a little more time to get some other projects done.

I wore a new t-shirt today and no one laughed as hard as I did about it - I think it's funny as hell but no one else seemed terribly amused.  What do you think?

Modern Crosses - Blocks Coming Along... Slowly

I can see now why this project was in the UFO pile.  It's surprisingly time consuming!  I guess if I were following the pattern exactly it might be going more quickly, but I decided to make a larger version and there are a lot of the little 3.5" blocks.

Here's a view on progress to date - many, many more blocks to come.  At about 10 blocks a day, it's going to take me about ten days to get the blocks finished.  Good thing I have all of January to work on this UFO.   To complete the quilt, I will need about 6 large blocks (none done so far), about 35 medium blocks (16 done), and around 60 small blocks (26 done).

Take a look at this adorable little elephant block!  Can't get enough of this fabric, wish I had more of it.  I bought it a few years ago to make the Tokyo Subway quilt (another UFO - maybe for 2017?).  Too cute.

In other news, I put up some new pictures this week.  Cute cat and dog advertisement prints (a Christmas gift from Sam and Daisy) in the hallway:

And a vintage-ish American flag in the sitting room.  I bought the flag on Etsy - who knows if it really is old but it interesting to look at.  Note the gorgeous blue bowl on loan from Bonster below the flag.

Modern Crosses - In Progress

If you're following along, this is the January project (number 2 in my list of UFOs) for the quilt challenge.  I thought I had the project largely cut out but it seems not, so today started with taking a look at all of the fabric on Klara's large table.

Lots of pretty blue fabrics to include in the blocks and I have chosen one orange print to add a little interest to the overall quilt.

The cutting is now done, so sewing will commence tomorrow at Klara's!

January UFO Challenge - Number 2

And we're off!  Today the APQ people posted the first challenge for January - it's the number 2, so the second project on my 2016 UFO list.  Quilters all over the world will be looking at their UFO Challenge lists and starting work on project number 2.

Number 2 means it's time to work on "Modern Blue Crosses" from a class I took in 2012.  It was an online course so I quickly took it again this evening and I'm ready to start tomorrow.  I was also able to pick out a few new fabrics to add to the mix, so it will be a lively blue and white quilt.

Tomorrow I'll be at Klara's to start work on this quilt and will post pictures along the way.