Christmas comes on the 25th of each month ...

On Stashbusters someone, I don't know who, dedicated the 25th of each month to be the day that you work on your forthcoming Christmas list. To date I have never participated in this - today being different. I am working on the Jinny Beyer 2014 Row by Row. This is going to be a Christmas gift for a sibling. Rather than make it into a row, I turned the focal fabric 1/4 turn and made a wall hanger:

 Today I went out a bought the backing and will sandwich it and get started on the quilting tonight. The binding will be plain Kona black.

I was good in this arena too and only bought enough to do the backing, and nada más. This will be, when completed, the first of 4 row by rows that I committed to making on the UFO Challenge as well.

But Christmas really did come today. I picked up my mail and there sat the package with my Jinny Beyer fabrics for her Craftsy BOM (free too). [http://www.craftsy.com/classes/search?query=Jinny%20Beyer] I am doing a challenge for this one with my quilting group in Panama - show and tell to be attended in January, 2016 (which to my way of thinking is not enough time to complete the Dec BOM and get it sandwiched, quilted, and bound before leaving on the 6th of January). 

I also received the fabrics for my mother's cross-stitch quilt for my niece.

 

She has 5 of these horse subject cross-stitch squares, not enough to really make a twin size quilt. So I suggested that she incorporate the squares into a pre-printed panel(s) themed quilt. This is what we came up with... The lower right is a panel, the upper right is the backing and the squares and panel will be framed in the wood-grained fabric. Oh oh, I forgot about the white - guess I need to hit the stash in the storage unit before we leave here. This will be an interesting quilt to do and won't count for any of my SB's challenges - just a helping hand for my mother. I thought about putting the panel in the upper left hand corner and shadow quilting the horses with the cross-stitched squares down the right hand side. Will have to lay it out to see if I like it or not. There is also a panel of smaller blocks I believe in this series which I could use if need be. All of this will be a good chance for me to learn my new EQ7 for Mac.

It is always like Christmas when we go and pick up the mail.

Anyone up for participating in this year's Row by Row shop hop? The theme is water so the rows should be real interesting - in fact a few have already been announced and examples are:

 

Drop a line if you are ...

I have been working on the Granny squares for the coat that I am wanting to make. It is the project that I do while we travel short distances on the RV. This will not be so prolific now as I recently got my learner's permit for the RV and DH will be wanting me to drive this thing - not my favorite thing to do. I am now wondering if I am going to have enough wool in the end - if not, I need to order as it took forever to get what I have.

And last but definitely not least, I finished the flimsy for Blake's quilt. I made it extra long for a growing young man. I am actually holding it up at arm's length and still it bunched on the floor.

 The photo doesn't do it justice but alas, it has gone to the longarmers for finishing. I will bind it with the same blue found in the outer-most border.

I feel prolific and yet when compared to others, I am not. Still I feel a great sense of pride in what I have done. I have a lot of wanna do's but am realistic in managing what I now get started to allow me the luxury of doing what I want, when I want and can.

Stashbusters Numbers Game

Every year I rejoin the Stashbusters UFO Challenge as it invigorates me to finish some of the projects that I have on the go. 2015 is no different. What is different is the addition of a Numbers Game this year. In this challenge 2 numbers are drawn at the beginning of each month and those are then the corresponding UFO projects as listed that you work on for that month. You don't have to necessarily complete them, but you do have to work some on them. What a great incentive for people like me.

January's numbers were give a few days early because of the holidays. These numbers then were #8 and #35. For me this was my Spicy Spiral UFO for #8. This was a revisiting of a UFO that was color coordinated for our previous RV. So I added a coordinating color from the newer RV and renamed it Old Meets New.

As I didn't have a #35 listed, the last number listed takes it place and for me that was #25, the microwave bowls for DGD which she should have had for Christmas. Great way to push me to get her bowls done and sent off to here. They were completed and off within a week of our return from the cruise (with her).

And then came February's numbers, #2 and #64. Again as my UFO list doesn't go as high as this, I was designated to work on the last listed one which is OUR Quilt - a sampler quilt  made out of a red/silver/grey/black medley.

 So far I have made 6 blocks out of a total of 16 blocks. Just a few more to go here. This will be a holiday quilt for our bed and as such will be a slightly oversized queen size. Luckily for me it doesn't have to be completed until the end of November.  

#2 on the other hand happened to be a quilt,  Christmas Toys that would be found in the storage unit, not the RV. Lucky for me I knew exactly where it was in the unit and we were already scheduled for a couple of days of cleaning and revamping in it. So I was able to get it out and bring it. Horrors on horrors, I found that it is simply too small to be anything but a baby cuddle quit. I sure didn't realize that was how small it was when I was piecing it in Panama in 2010. Up it went onto my makeshift design wall (hanging from the valence in the main area of the RV) for reviewing, mulling and planning.  And to add insult to injury, not only did I find the flimsy, but I also found 2 more panels each different presentations of the same venue along with the coordinating fabrics. 

 Guess I will simply cut up the coordinating fabrics and make kits out of them and hence they will become UFOs for next year if I don't get them done this year! They will stay here in the RV with me at least until I either start to work on them or they begin to irritate me. Then they will be returned for awhile to the storage unit.

And now, here we are in March and 2 more numbers have presented themselves; #7 and 17. Well, #7 was completed in December (DGS#1s quilt, a Christmas present) and I never took it of my list. So once again I am going to be replacing it, but this time with continuing to work on February's numbers My #17 is my Rainbow Jane, a very longterm project as the blocks are small and often using techniques that I am not overly thrilled with. This is something that I can work a little on but here again, I only have one of the 24 BOM kits that make up this quilt here with me and no trip to the storage unit in the foreseeable future. I think that I have completed maybe 5 or 6 of the 225 in total. Yes, when I looked it up, it was 5 completed blocks, 4 blocks and 1 triangle.  

 This doesn't show the finished triangle so I have to now update the Rainbow Jane blog as well as find the photo of the green "spanish moss" triangle and put it into the template. I will be able to work on the ones that I have here with me and that will work for this part of the challenge. Both surely won't help me finish up a UFO however. 

Interspersed between working on the Numbers Game, I also worked on other UFO's and projects. The Main one for me was to finish up Danny's Request[ed] quilt. He wanted one that wouldn't get too dirty, or at least show that it was dirty when he came in from bicycling and sat on the beige la-z-boy. This one, per request, had to cover the whole chair as well as the foot rest so that he could rest his "sweaty sunscreeny legs" on it. It became a 60x90" Jelly Roll Race, quilt-as-I went, interpretation. As I found the colure rather dull and dreary, I added splashes of brilliant strips in his favorite colors of lime green and pinks. 

 Oddly enough, however, these colors go great in our bedroom. This is good as I still have 2 jelly rolls of the same colors left and will now plan an everyday quilt for the bed.

After having completed DHs quilt,  my main focus in the UFO Challenge turned to DGS#2s quilt. Today I got it to the flimsy stage and will get it off to the longarmer in the morning, as it is way too big for me to tackle on my Miss Betsy easily. It is 52x88" as DGS#2 is now 6'4" and still growing at 16y/o. (Way too long for me to hold up and show the true length of it - me at 5'6").  The original pattern was called Bohemian Quilt by Joanie Holton & Melanie Greseth of Tailormade by Design (found in Quiltersworld, Winter 2014). I am unsure yet as to what I will call it, but it has to be something that suits both the style of the quilt and my DGS#2.

As I go along, working on the not identified numbers but listed UFOs, I find other quilts in some state of having been worked on in the past and keep adding them to the list. And so it goes, working towards the end result in the Numbers Game and UFO Challenge and that is to reduce the numbers of UFOs and subsequently the stash. 

As a no-buy rule does not apply in this household, I am sure that I will accumulate more stash before the year is out, even though I try to pick a project that is stash oriented first. Think that I will have to start keeping tract of the "in vs out" and see if I am reducing any at all.