Spring Cleaning

First of all, pictures as promised!  Here are my UFO’s that I completed while retreating.

This is the one that was that was the Joann’s block of the month.  You can see in the center block that it was a little tricky.  I got to practice template cutting and some y-seams with that block.  That was the nice thing about this block of the month.  Each month had something a little different and was good for a skill builder exercise.  There were some partial seams, machine appliqué, the y-seams, paying attention to color placement, and making/using templates.  I still had the same issues with the precut pieces not necessarily being of the correct size.  All in all, it went together okay and I was able to assemble the top with minimal issues.

 

This is the quilt I was making for my brother.  He had asked for a super warm  heavy quilt with our father’s military wool blankets for batting.  So, I made a huge flannel quilt top and debated on using those old boiled wool blankets for batting and decided to pass on the blanket batting.  Also, because I wasn’t happy with how the top turned out (and it’s not quilted yet) I decided I needed to make a different quilt for him because I just didn’t care for the first one.  I’ll probably quilt that first one at some time or another, but I know I’ll manage to quilt this one first.  It’s the Northwind block and the hardest part about this quilt was deciding on a layout.  These blocks are fun and you can lay them out in similar ways to log cabin blocks to create different looks.

 

This isn’t really a UFO, but it is the next block in the stained glass block of the month.  It was really fun to work on this block with other quilters sewing the same block.  Anyway, I am caught up and the month isn’t even over yet!

This is the last quilt I put borders on.  It is for my mother who wanted something blue and yellow to put on her guest room bed.  I happened to have this top that just needed borders and she liked the fabric.  It really is the fabric that does most of the work rather than piecing and color placement.  Either way, I mitered the corners because of the striped border fabric and it is now ready for me to find some backing fabric and get it quilted.

I am glad to get those out of my sewing room and somewhat ready for the long arm.  They all need backings but I do have the binding ready for one of them.  At least that is something.

As far as spring cleaning goes, I’ve taken my free time (what little I was using to work on UFO’s) to really start working on cleaning up my sewing room again.  I did have it cleared out at one point but then I lost a family member who crafted and I inherited all of her supplies.  I don’t quite have room for them all, but I don’t really want to part with them either.  Slowly but surely I’ve been going through them and reorganizing them and getting them put away in my room, but I do still have a long way to go.  It would be helpful to get some more projects done.  Anyway, I *think* I have given up my dream of that long workbench.  I don’t think that I really have room for it as much I have wanted to have it.  So, I took the wheeled kitchen cart to my sewing room and purged a table that I don’t really use (except to store stuff) and I now have a dedicated cutting platform.  Currently it only fits my smaller mats, but I’m hoping that soon the dear husband will build my frame for the top of the cart to house my larger mat.  I have a feeling that once it is on there I won’t really want to take it off.  I am having him make two, so that I can turn the second one into a large pressing surface.  I’m looking forward to that as well.  No more fighting quilt tops or backs or large border yardage over an ironing board.  Yahoo!

I hope you are finding success in your own crafting endeavors.  For the rest of this month, I am going to rest on my laurels, although I do feel some of my UFO’s calling to me…one is an appliqué project and the other is a hand quilting project.  I wonder which one will win out?