Year of the UFO's Part 2

Here is the list of my UFO projects that I plan on getting to the flimsy stage.

January: Mood Swings (done/flimsy)

 

February: Tesselated Stars (done/flimsy)

March: Shell We Dance (Put On Hold...for now)

April: High Desert Mystery Quilt (Done/ Flimsy) & Sister's Choice Block Swap Quilt

May: Spring Loaded

June: Gecko Quilt

July: Light & Shadow

August: Desert Nine Patch

September: Stepping Stones

October: Stars Over Medford

November: Snowflakes

If all goes well I think I will also do this in 2012 and every year after that until my UFO's/ projects not quite started yet are finished. I seem to be able to accomplish more if I have a plan or schedule with some deadlines set for me. And of course this is just a small amount of my projects on my "to do list", they seem to multiply like rabbits! 

The year of the UFO's Part 1

 Each year quilter's all over the world make promises to themselves that they will "Beat Down Their Stash", finish those "UFO's" or at least make a dent in them, not buy any new fabric or start a new project etc.., etc...

I am no different from other quilters in this respect, yesterday I went through my stash, UFO's and future projects not yet started (but have the fabric for them set aside) and realized that if I would not buy another piece of fabric or pattern until all of my projects were completed it would be several years before I would be able to shop once more. So sad if you think about it, I mean with each project/fabric/pattern that I bought in the past, I was excited about each and everyone, couldn't wait until I was able to start it, and even more excited about the day it would be finished. So what happened? Why do so many projects fizzle out? After looking through them all yesterday I realized that it wasn't that I lost interest in them, or my tastes changed, or even that I got in way over my head in the skill department. For me I realized it all comes down to time! Making the time each week to plow through the stacks and stacks of UFO's.

So this year I have decided to make a comitment to get some UFO's done (or at least to the "flimsy" (quilts that are in desperate need of quilting and binding) stages. I will work on getting them all quilted next year, LOL. 

I am thinking of doing 1-2 (1 large or 2 small) UFO's per month for all of 2011. I will post pics of all that are on my list to be completed and for which month I plan to have them done. So stay tuned for the 2011 list and pics.

Oh BTW I am making NO promises of not buying anymore fabric until all of my UFO's are finished...that would just be unrealistic for me, LOL!

        

French Braid Quilt Update/ Done!

Last May I posted about a French Braid Quilt I was doing for my room, I didn't realize until tonight that I never posted the update on the quilt when it was finished...yes I am a bad blogger ;0)

Oh well I can post the pics now to tie up this loose end. And to refresh your memory...

This is the fabrics that I used.

The braid strips before the seperator bands. 

The finished quilt after quilting. 

And finally of the quilting, I used the Plumage Pantogragh pattern from Wilow Leaf Studios (I just love that pattern). The thread I used was Superior Threads Lava #285 "Andes"

Mood Swings Quilt

I started this quilt on New Year's Day, what better way to start off the new year than with a new project!

I used the Spumoni Bali Pop then added a few strips of left over 2 1/2" strips from another project to get the size I wanted. 

The quilt pattern is called Mood Swings and it's from the first Strip Therapy book.

And here it is as a "flimsy" (a quilt top in desperate need of quilting and binding). This quilt will be hanging on my dining room wall.

However I won't be quilting this one for a few weeks, must get some customer quilts done first and I also started a new project...so stay tuned!

Let There Be Heat!

As most of you know we converted our one car garage into my quilt studio, by ourselves, because having a contractor do it was going to be too much money. With the help of our friends my DH was able to do the sub floor & lay the indoor/outdoor carpet. We decided to leave the garage door in place for better resale value later on. But did put in insulated panels on the garage door to help keep out the draft. One thing we didn't do however was to run the duct work into the studio. Didn't think we would need it. But after several weeks of very cold nights and several days in which it was too cold to work in my studio we decided to call on our good friend Ralph (who does this sort of thing for a living). Here are some pics from Saturday when they put it in.

This is the before pic

This is the hole in our ceiling they needed to access the other duct work which was in our office area. 

This is one end of the duct that is going into my studio...

and this is the other end.

This is my DH feeding the duct work to Ralph who is in the attic area of the garage.

This is a pic of the duct work after it has been connected to the rest of the house & fed through to my studio.

This is after my DH put back the drywall in my office ceiling, he still has to do the finishing of the texture and then paint it. 

Here's Ralph heading into the studio attic to cut the hole in my studio ceiling and to instal the register cover.

This is the piece that gets conected to the end of the duct and what is visible when the register is removed from the ceiling.

And finally here is the pic of my new register that will allow me to have heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer!  

THANK YOU RALPH!!!!

   

New House in Need of New Quilts

 We have been in our new house for a couple of months now and I am tired of looking at all of the empty walls! 

Notice all of the empty quilt rods/holders? They are just glaring at me day in and day out to put something on them...well I would if I had something to put on them. The thing is all of my old quilts from the other house are too small, that's right too small. In the new house we have larger walls with higher ceilings. I used to make my large wall quilts 60" sq but now I need to make them 75"-80" sq just to fill the space With the exception of 3 smaller areas and the quilts that I do have won't go with the decor in the room. 

So I need to make ALOT of new quilts this year. I have several ideas of what I want to do but some are very time consuming and since this is my busy season those ideas will havce to be put on the back burner until there is more time for them. I do have a few other ideas though that quicker projects and when I say quicker I mean over the course of several weeks, worked in after my customer quilts are done for the week.

Here is a pic of one in progress now...

    

   It is a quilt pattern from one of those Strip Therapy books for the Bali Pops,

You'll have to stay tuned to find out which one and what it will look like when finished. 

Then I made this top right before we moved (still needs to be quilted), was going to hang it in my office, but since then I have found another quilt (which needs to be pieced) that is more fitting for my business...here's a hint, it has geckos on it! 



Don't know what I will end up doing with this one now, it may end up as a charity quilt or a gift for someone.  

Anyways, it's a brand new year and I am going to be very busy making new quilts!, Yea :0)