ufos I don't want to admit I have...

I wasn't sure if I could keep up with the Very Vintage Christmas sew-along, but so far, so good!  Each block has its challenges (and I'll share the next batch later in the post), but I'm enjoying it.

While I'm sewing these blocks, I pulled out an OLD batch of project leftovers.  When making my Garden Variety quilt (which apparently I haven't blogged about actually finishing - like quilted and everything finished), I had a LOT of lost corners.  So I saved them.  I stuffed them in a bag with the extra fabric from the kit and then...the end.  I had pressed them, but never did anything else.  So I decided I would trim a few at a time and use these as leader-enders for sewing the Christmas blocks.

They live in the little set of drawers on my cutting table right now.  And I only have enough half-square triangles to make two more pinwheels!  I think I'll have 42 pinwheels when I'm done and already have an idea to make a little bag with them.  They finish 5", so they're a good size and the bag pattern I think might work uses charm squares!  More seams, yes, but I think...I think...it might work!

As you can see, though, there is still a bag of other fabrics in there.  I'll see what I can use up for bag parts and then decide what to do with these fabrics.  I have this urge today to just give a bunch of bits and pieces away instead of having them in my sewing room any longer.  We'll see how that goes...

So that's ONE UFO I didn't want to admit I had when I made my list for 2018.

And here's another...

Back at the end of 2012, I decided to try to make the block of the day provided by Quilt Pro via e-mail.  Some of the blocks were actually quilting diagrams or applique, but many were not.  I decided to pull some fabric and make blocks with it until it was gone.  Add in colors as needed and get myself into the sewing room every day.  It lasted a little while...maybe a month or so.  And I ended up with a fair number of 12" blocks.  Twenty-four, to be exact, and they were turned into two quilts that were donated to the local VA hospital in 2014.  But there were fewer 10" blocks to be had and I petered out with just 5 blocks.  I chose lighter colors, planning to make a smaller baby quilt to donate, but these got stuck in a corner and "forgotten" for quite a while.

Earlier this week, they started hollering at me from their neglected corner.  Why couldn't I make a few more, sash and border them and have another quilt (top!) for Jack's Basket?

So, once the Christmas blocks (they're coming, I promise!) for the week were done, I was free to play.  I went to Quilter's Cache, knowing I could find a list of blocks sorted by size, and looked until I found four that didn't seem too difficult.  (The goal here was to finish, not challenge myself further!)  The first five block patterns were from Quilt Pro - those pictured above.

While I was pulling fabric for the Christmas quilt, I decided I would find these fabrics, or fabrics that would play well with them to keep the color scheme going.  I found the green and peach, but no blue.  That's okay - my stash of blues is the biggest...well...maybe greens are bigger right now?  Anyways, they sat there, staring angrily at me while I sewed away on the UFO for the month and the Christmas blocks, but their turn was coming!

Yesterday I made two.  Today I made another two.

Please pardon the slice of sunlight in the corner, but I am NOT going to complain.  Sunshine in the winter here is wonderful, even when it's so bright in your sewing room you consider finding some sunglasses!  (And the colors here are more true than the first photo.)  I think the new blue plays well and was running low on the peach, so I added that stripe.  I think it's fun (and wish I had enough to use it for binding, but I don't) and adds a little punch.

Next up was to add sashing and borders.

I put this strip on the floor to make sure I was lining up the upper half of the quilt correctly (making sure the upper border was on top and the cornerstones inside) and Gabby came tearing into my sewing room from who-knows-where and flopped here.  This is the second quilt this week she has done that with...

...my stack of blocks that conclude the Arcadia Avenue adventure (well, the block part) after I finished the last one - the UFO for the month...

...you see, this quilt is obviously hers.  (I have about three more shots of her on this stack from different days.)  (You can also see big sister Emma's shadow on her rear end!)

And you can see her short tail in that first photo.  The fur is growing back, but it does look a little goofy.  But she continues to do well and doesn't seem to mind it at all.  But it's funny because usually you see a cat gracefully flipping their tail around.  Gabby has a stump that she wildly flips and it kinda reminds me of someone flipping me the finger!  You know she's gracefully waving her tail at me in her head and I'm not going to tell her it's anything else.

Okay, Katie, back to the quilt.

In no time at all, I had the top finished!

I even made binding!  (With one of the selected blues that will play nicely because I didn't have enough of ANY of the fabrics for it - not even the white!  Yay stash reduction!)

So this top is the second UFO I didn't want to admit I had when making that list.  And this one is finished...well...a top!  And I plan to get it quilted sooner rather than later.

Okay, on to the Christmas blocks!

#9

(this one looks kinda plain...might add bead-ornaments or something later)

#10

(smoke has been embroidered in a darker grey)

These are the end of last week's assignment.  On to this week!

#11

(this one feels very spring-y to me!)

#12

#13

(I am glad I don't have to many any more of these!)

#14

(this one still needs the laces embroidered)

#15

And that's it for this week!  More will be assigned on Friday and I'm hoping to get the skate laces done before then.  It's not easy to trace the lines onto the fabric and I probably should have done it earlier while the sun was shining brighter, but maybe I'll ask the hubby to help me?  (Ha ha, that will be amusing...)

And we can't have a post without an actual photo of Emma, right?  (Shadow Emma doesn't quite show how helpful she is...)

This day she followed me.  If I was sewing, she sat here.  If I was cutting, she tried to sit in the middle of that.  If I was ironing, she walked across the ironing board.  Wherever I went, she was there.  I tried to pet and love her, but that wasn't what she wanted.  I tried to get her to sit on my lap while I sewed.  That was not what she wanted.  I never did figure it out, but finally I finished sewing, so she quit being a pest.  (Maybe she just didn't want me to sew?)  And she looks angrier here that she was.  She usually looks pretty angry with me when I take her photo (unless she's sleeping), but she's not usually that angry.  Just hungry.  All. The. Time.  Oh, Emma...

Time to go make dinner and the requested apple pie.  (Spoiled hubby...maybe he WILL have to help me hold that book to the window so I can see through the page to trace?!)

Happy quilting,

Katie