April First Friday UFO

Happy First Friday in April! For my March UFO, I got the two rows of my All Star Quilt sewn together. It's fun to slowly see this quilt coming together, after some of the blocks have sat in my armoire for so many years.

 

Happy stitching!

March First Friday UFO

Happy First Friday of March!

 

Last night I finished my last block for my All Star UFO, and I didn't have to stay up til midnight! I machine-appliqued a heart onto the center of the star. The center fabric is different than the outer background fabric, although it's hard to tell that in this photo.

 

I considered hand-appliqueing the heart, but then I decided I didn't want to put that much time into one block of a quilt that will be used in the family room, where the kids and their friends hang out.

 

Now that I've made my 12 blocks, I'm going to start assembling the quilt top. When I first started making these blocks 12 years ago, I was going to do a traditional setting with sashing and corner blocks. Now, though, I'm not feeling the love for that. I'm going to go with a slightly more modern setting with more "negative space". I'm still making my final decision of what that's going to look like, so stay tuned to see how this turns out!

 

Happy stitching!



First Friday UFO - February

Happy First Friday of February! That means that it is time for another "First Friday UFO" post. If you recall, I started doing these posts back in August. I was contemplating doing an "Almost Free BOM" at a local quilt shop when I realized that I've got PLENTY of UFOs sitting in the armoire, so I could do my own little Block of the Month program. Each month, I make one block for my UFO and show it on the first Friday of the next month. Right now I'm working on my All Star quilt.

Here's the block I made in January. Does that center look familiar? When I was making my New Year's Day QOV from Judy's pattern, I had an extra 6 1/2 " piece of a red-cream-red subset. Since these stars finish at 12 inches, that piece was perfect for the center of this star. I also thought it was cool to put a bit of my first QOV into this All Star quilt. I will be keeping this quilt for my family room.

Here's a closeup of the blue fireworks fabric that makes up the star points. You probably can't see it real well in the photo, but there are silver streaks in the fireworks.

With this block, I've made 12 blocks for this quilt, and 12 was my goal. I made this little collage in Photoshop to show you all 12 together. Believe it or not, every block has the same cream background fabric! Depending on the lighting when I took each of the photos, it looks different in different blocks. I don't think this is how I will eventually set the quilt; I just made the collage to show all 12 blocks together.

I just have one problem. "One of these things is not like the others." Raise your hand if you remember that song from "Sesame Street"!

The block up in the top right corner doesn't work for me. For one thing, it's only two fabrics (the cream background and the blue print), while all the other blocks have at least three fabrics (the cream background, one or more red, and one or more blue). Also, this block is not a sawtooth base and it has the blue fabric in the four corners. I really like the block on its own; I made it in a class at a quilt shop. But I don't like it in this quilt.

My plan is to make this one block into a throw pillow and I'll make one more block this month so I have 12 for the quilt. This month as I work on that last block, I'm also going to be thinking about how I want to set the quilt.

Happy Stitching!

January First Friday UFO and QOV photos

Well, after not having any success the past few days getting my photos to upload onto blogger using internet explorer, I tried installing google chrome as an internet browser. It finally worked. Here's the latest block I made for my All Star UFO. When I first saw the white background fabric with the eagle, I knew I wanted to fussy cut an eagle and frame it for one of these blocks.

 Here's a closeup of the eagle.

Some progress on my Quilts of Valor quilt, using the free pattern that Judy generously gave on her blog. You'll notice the small pieces of paper in the upper left corner of each row. Before I started sewing together the rows, I laid out all the blocks on the floor in the great room to make sure I didn't have a large cluster of the same fabric. I'm sewing one row together at a time, marking the rows as I go. I simply write "Row 1" (or whichever number it is) then safety pin it to the fabric.

I haven't had any more time to work on this. My extended family came over last night for our Christmas  celebration, so I've been busy this weekend cleaning and cooking. I'm hoping to finish the last few rows today, in between loads of laundry. Maybe even get the rows all sewn together? Sadly, today is my last day of break before we head back to school tomorrow. That of course means less time for me to sew. I'll have to make the best of my day :)

Edited January 7: I'm linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday.

Happy stitching!

First Friday UFO...maybe

Happy First Friday of January. I was hoping to show you the block I made for my All Star UFO and my progress on the quilt I'm making for Quilts of Valor, but Blogger is acting up. It won't let me upload any photos from my computer!

So I'll just tell you that in all the excitement of Easy Street, I was able to make another block for the All Star quilt. If you're new here, I'll give you the background of the "First Friday UFO" posts. A few months ago, a local quilt shop was hosting an "almost free" Block-Of-the-Month (BOM). To participate, you had to buy the fabrics for the first month's block. Then if you brought the completed 1st block back to the store during the next month, you got the 2nd block's fabrics for free. I was thinking of joining, because one of the colorways was patriotic, and I love patriotic quilts. Then I remembered that I had a patriotic UFO sitting in my armoire. So instead of joining that quilt shop's BOM, I decided to do my own BOM and make one block in my All Star quilt per month. On the first Friday of each month, I'm posting photos of the blocks. To see the other blocks in this quilt, click on the "All Star" label at the end of this post or on the left sidebar of the blog.

Since I've been off school this week, I was able to continue working on my quilt for Quilts of Valor. I was hoping to finish it on New Year's Day, but that didn't happen. My kids and husband wanted to eat! LOL. I have finished piecing all the blocks, and I got 4 rows sewn together.

I'll try to upload those photos later today.

Happy stitching!

December First Friday UFO

Happy First Friday of December! Can you believe 2012 is almost at its end?

This is the block I made in November for my All Stars UFO quilt. The block will finish at 12" square. For the center, I used a pattern from the August 2001 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. This was one of the borders in a quilt called "Working my Way Around," designed by Jill Reber.

To see all the blocks I've made for this quilt so far, click the "All Star quilt" label at the end of this post.

I'm off to work on clue 3 of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt, Easy Street.

Happy stitching!

November First Friday UFO

Happy First Friday of November! This month, I made another block for my All Star (UFO) quilt. This one has a nine-patch in the center of it. I love nine-patch quilts. In fact, one of my other UFO projects is a red and white double-nine-patch quilt :)

 Here's a close-up of the white-background "USA" fabric.

In this picture, you can just barely see that the red fabric has "fireworks" in the background of the white stars.

For those hit by Hurricane Sandy, I am praying for you.

Happy stitching!

First Friday UFO: another All Star block

Happy 1^st Friday of October!

This month I made another block for my All Star UFO quilt. I got the directions for this pinwheel variable star from the April 1997 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. It’s part of a quilt called “Rainbow Swirl,” designed by Marti Michell.

If you want to see all my blocks in the All Star quilt, click on the “All Star Quilt” label at the bottom of this post.

Happy stitching!

First Friday UFO: progress on All Star Quilt

Happy 1^st Friday of September!

If you recall, last month when I started my series, “First Friday UFOs,” I was considering joining an “almost free” block of the month program from a local quilt shop, until I remembered all the UFOs (UnFinished Objects) that are sitting in my armoire. Instead of joining that program, I’m challenging myself to make at least one block of a UFO quilt per month.

In August, I worked on another block for my All Star Quilt. This block has the “Amish bars” pattern inside the star. Since the middle square is 6” square, I simply made each of the six stripes 1” X 6” (finished).

You can see the two different blue fabrics, each has small stars on it.

Have you been working on any UFOs lately? I’d love to see them.

Happy stitching!

First Friday UFOs

Earlier this week, I got the fall newsletter from a local quilt shop. They are starting an “Almost Free” Block of the Month club in September that intrigued me. You pay $8.00 for the first month’s fabric. If you bring that finished block the next month, you get block 2 for free, etc. One of the colorways being offered is patriotic, which I love.

I was seriously considering joining this, but then I thought of all the UnFinished Objects (UFOs) that I have sitting in the armoire in my studio. Almost all of them have all the fabric already purchased for at least the quilt tops. If I made just one block per month for a UFO, I’d be able to finish up a few in the next year.

One appealing thing about doing the BOM with the quilt shop is the accountability of getting a block done each month.  I’m going to use this blog to help with accountability. On the first Friday of each month, I’m planning on posting about the UFO that I’m working on. For my purposes, a UFO is a project that I started at least 5 years ago. If I started it more recently than that, I’ll consider it a WISP (Work In Slow Progress).

The first UFO I’m going to work on is my “All Star” quilt. I was inspired by the All Stars quilt shown in the book Quilts! Quilts!! Quilts!!! by Diana McClun and Laura Nownes. This was one of the first quilting references I bought when I started my first quilt back in about 1993. I’m not using most of the blocks that they did, but I loved the idea of using patriotic fabrics and a variety of different star blocks.

According to my documentation, I started piecing this in March of 2001. (I was pregnant at the time, so I have a good excuse for why I didn’t finish this quilt sooner – babies take up a lot of time, and it doesn’t stop as they get older!) Each block is a 12” square. My plan is to have twelve blocks total. So far I have made six:



 I saw the idea for this flag star in a magazine.

 Log Cabin star

 I took a class at a local quilt shop and made this. The little triangle-squares were made with "Thangles" paper. I'm still not sure if I'm going to use this in the All Star quilt, since it's not the same type of stars as the others and it's all one fabric. I may decide to make it into a pillow, instead.

 String-pieced star

 Star with 4-patch

Rising Star

That's what I have so far. On the first Friday of September, I'll show you the new block(s) I've made for this UFO.

Happy stitching!