UFO Challenge - December

As predicted, no movement on my November UFO :(  But the good news is that our guild's quilt show was a hit!  I was able to get sleeves and labels on all 6 of my quilts phew...so I guess I'll give ya a little quilt show & tell since I am ashamed of the UFO progress (un-progress, de-progress, no-progress??!?!) this month.

Guild members

My quilts displayed

For December, and the last UFO challenge, Judy chose #4...this is my red/white/blue swap quilt.  This one is actually a quilt made from blocks exchanged during a squishie swap a few years ago over at Quilts Your Way forum which has since disbanded.  (Oh how I miss that group of ladies, but I digress...)  The quilt is a nice throw size and already sewn together into a top, but it's about to be taken apart again.  I didn't like the setting once it was done, so back into the closet it went.  I f I ever get this quilt done, it will go to my mother-in-law as she loves this color scheme and it's nice and feminine florals.  Hopefully I'll be able to give it to her for her birthday next year (August)...so that's the plan!

My 2012 UFO list:

1. Jean Picnic Quilt for Kayla (February)
2. Heart Quilt (May)
3. Thai 'Ostrich Quilt' (July)
4. RWB Swap Quilt (December)
5. Jean Picnic Quilt for Larissa (January)
6. Spring Flower Wallhanging (October) 
7. Fan Quilt (August)
8. China Scrapbook (March)
9. School & Family Scrapbooks (November) 
10. Recipe Card Scrapbooks (April)
11. Military Scrapbook (September)
12. Quilt Scrapbook (June)

And...Judy has announced a change up for next year in the UFO challenge.  It will be a monthly list of 4 items, a "Get It Done!" list, instead of a year-long list.  This could make things more do-able...we'll have to wait and see...  

Anyway, be sure to check over at Patchwork Times to see the progress others have made for this month!

Finish It Up Friday - 30 November 2012

I managed to get my Calendar Quilt top finished just this week:

Calendar Quilt

This has been a Block of the Month for our guild this year.  Since we do not have a December meeting, the block criteria for December was given early and that gave me a chance to jump ahead and get it all done.

Unfortunately, I'm not very happy with the setting and colors I chose for the sashing and borders, but I refuse to take it all apart again.  If I had it to do over again, I think I would have bordered each block with a dark from the block and sewed them all together without sashings.  I think that would have given it a more scrappy homey look.  At this rate, I may be donating this one to a kindergarten classroom!  Oh well....done is done...now onto the quilting!

Holiday Charity Quilts

On Monday night, we had our last quilt guild meeting of the year.  Instead of exchanging gifts for each other, we decided to give what we could to one of the charities our guild supports.

Several years ago, while my daughter was still working towards her GS Gold Award project, she and a friend pieced together the quilt tops above from blocks and fabric donated to the cause.  This weekend, these UFOs finally came out of hiding and I quickly layered, quilted and bound them.   We finally donated these quilts, this year, along with other items from the charity's wish list.

Easy Street

Following tradition, Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville fame, has posted the first clue to the 2012 quilt mystery entitled Easy Street!  Bonnie posts a new mystery each year on the Friday morning following Thanksgiving.  Then, for 6-8 weeks following, Bonnie posts a new clue each and every Friday until the mystery is solved.  Woohoo!

Easy Street - Intro

I couldn't wait to get started!  As soon as the fabric selections were posted, I began to pull as many fabrics from my stash that I could come up with to meet the criteria.  This year, I was determined to follow BH's color scheme...why not?  She IS the expert and don't we all love her quilts?  That IS why we all play along, after all!

The only variation I really have to that scheme is that my grey is really a grey floral printed on a more light aqua-greyish background.  I hope it works!

Easy Street - Part 1

And at long last...and amid all the anticipation...the first part was posted...ahh....  In Part 1, we made 192 black on white & grey 4-patches!  I'm keeping up so far...bring on part 2!