UFO Busting for October

October was a better month in the studio for Sue.  She could actually make a list of projects she worked on, and finished, though none were actually from the UFO list.  That's OK, she is feeling better about being more creative and productive and hopes to keep the momentum going.

One thing she worked on is a wedding signature quilt for her niece.  The top is finished, so quilting is on the agenda for November. (This picture was taken before the borders were added.)

Last week she decided to take some time to contribute to the charity efforts of the local guild, and completed a preemie quilt.  A bundle of children's print fat quarters were the starting point.  Squares for 4 more have been cut.

And this week, she worked on screen printing some tote bags, getting ready for a December Open House at Artistic Artifacts. 

So even though there's nothing to cross off the UFO list this month, its a win from her point of view in that she spent more time in the studio and got some work accomplished, and feels on track for the trend to continue.  This is the last month that Vick is asking participants to report results.  Check out her blog to see what others have accomplished in October at Colorways by Vicki Welsh.

So the stats for October are:
Starting UFO count: 11
New projects started this month: 2
Projects finished this month: 2
UFO count at end of month:11

UFO Busting in March

We're a few days behind with the UFO Busting report for March.  Vicki forgot to post last Friday (April Fool?), so did her post Monday.  Which is fine, we were at the Creative Arts Business Summit so would not have had time to post anyway.  Now getting back in the swing of things, so we're really only a day behind.  How did Sue in the month of March? 

She claims 2 finishes (or maybe 1 1/2?) for the month.  The first is the completion of her 3 block lotto blocks that were featured in the recent tutorial.  (counting all 3 as one project)  Since these get turned in as blocks, there is no sewing them together into a finished quilt (unless we win a set of blocks!)  Here's one of the 3.

The second finish Sue claims is the mock mola hand stitching from last month.  All the hand stitching is now finished.  True, it's not been made into a completed project yet, but finishing the stitching is an accomplishment, so she's counting it.  (or maybe its a 1/2 finish) Maybe by the end of April she'll have decided what to do with it.

April is the month for finishing Sue's Celebration challenge quilt, so there will be something to report next month.  Here's the link to Vicki Welsh's blog so you can check out what everyone else is doing.

Starting UFO count: 12
New projects started this month: 1
Projects finished this month: 2
UFO count at end of month:11

From Sue's beginning of the year UFO list: "Two are hand stitching projects, one of which is almost done, and then will need machine quilting."  She has now finished the hand stitching on both of these projects!  

UFO Busting

It's time for my (Sue's) monthly UFO busting report for February and a link to Vicki Welsh's page.  Again this month I did not complete any UFOs.  Sewing time was in short supply as I was busy with other things like income tax, retreat/meeting planning, purchases for bathroom renovation and spending several days at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival.  However I do have one new start and made progress on another hand stitching project.  I won't share the new start just yet - it's my challenge entry for our retreat at the end of April - but I can show the almost finished "mock mola" that I've been working on. 

This is from a workshop I took in March of 2015.  You can see I'm almost finished filling the background.  Then I just have to decide what I'm going to do with it!  It could become part of a quilt, a piece of wall art, a pillow top - who knows.  Fits right in with the "slow stitching" movement and has given me something to work on when I go to my church quilt group, where we do only hand stitching, or knitting, or cross stitch


March will probably be another month with no finishes, though I may get the challenge project done.  I have another piece to make for my art bee group for the beginning of April, so if I find time to do it, that will be another new start. 

Starting UFO count: 11
New projects started this month: 1
Projects finished this month:0
UFO count at end of month:12

May UFO Busting

It's time to link up with Vicki Welsh of Field Trips in Fiber again for May's UFO Busting report  in our quest to get some UFO's out of the studio.  Click on her badge on the sidebar for a direct link to her post about it.  At the end of every month Sue is doing a post about what she's accomplished that month, and linking it to Vicki's.

Sue's report:
I do have to say I feel like I am accomplishing things, because every month I have finishes.  They just aren't the things in the UFO pile!  It seems that something new crops up every month, so most of what I am doing is new start projects.  But they are small so I am also able to finish them.  I'm finding it good practice and a help in defining my "style".  As noted in a post several days ago about a class Elizabeth took with Jane Davila, it's not quality, but quantity (practice) that helps your work improve.  So, my report for May.

For my end of month count, this is where things stand:

• Projects in progress May 1 - 8
• Projects completed -3
• New projects started -2
• UFO's trashed - 0
• Projects in progress May 31 -7

The new starts/finishes are:

May Flowers, made for a local art quilt group challenge.  More in this blog post.

A commission piece I made for a friend to give as a gift. More about this in a blog post here.

And the picture above is a sneak peak of a piece that was accepted for a Quilting Arts magazine reader's challenge, so no more on this one till fall.

That's it for May.  At least I am down to one less project in progress.  But coming up in June - 3 new start/finish deadlines!

April UFO Busting

It's time to link up with Vicki Welsh of Field Trips in Fiber again for April's UFO Busting report  in our quest to get some UFO's out of the studio.  Click on her badge on the sidebar for a direct link to her post about it.  At the end of every month Sue is doing a post about what she's accomplished that month, and linking it to Vicki's.

Sue's report:
April was a better month due in part to a 3 day guild retreat.  I was able to finish the baby quilt and turn it in to the charity quilt collector.  I pulled out a mixed media piece started a few years ago (not counted in the original count of UFOs so it will get added - and subtracted!) and finished it for a mixed media art exhibit.  I also completed another wall art piece.  So that's 3 projects completed!

In new starts, I took a modern quilting class with Jacquie Gering so have a new started project from that, as well as another new project I started at the retreat using up some pre-cut squares and circles.  I plan to make this a table runner.  I also made progress on a 12" square challenge quilt due in May, and sewed 1 more block for the plaid quilt.

Not bad - it helps to see progress by doing these posts!

For my end of month count, this is where things stand:

• Projects in progress April 1 -9
• Projects completed -3
• New projects started -2
• UFO's trashed - 0
• Projects in progress April 30 - 8

Slowly but surely, things are getting done.  If only I could just focus on finishing the UFOs instead of starting new things, I'd get rid of more UFOs!  Oh well, a few more deadlines and new starts are coming up but hopefully I will be able to work in more time on finishing.

March UFO Busting

It's time to link up with Vicki Welsh of Field Trips in Fiber again for March's UFO Busting report  in our quest to get some UFO's out of the studio.  Click on her badge on the sidebar for a direct link to her post about it.  At the end of every month I'll do a post about what I've accomplished that month, and link it to Vicki's.

Unfortunately, March was not a productive month - I'm blaming it on the amount of time I spent working on income tax returns.  Every year, I say I'm going to pay somebody to do this, and every year I still end up doing it myself.  Why does it have to be so complicated?   Oh yeah, and the fact that I spent 5 days visiting my mother in PA, 3 days at a business conference, 2 days on field trips, and 2 days at the VCQ meeting.  That's 12 days (almost 2 weeks!) out of the month that I was not home to work on anything.  The good news is, I won Vicki's drawing for last month and get a yard of fabric from her shop.  Woo hoo!!  Anyway, not a lot to report.  For my end of month count, this is where things stand:

• Projects in progress March 1 -7
• Projects completed - 0
• New projects started -2
• UFO's trashed - 0
• Projects in progress March 31 - 8

I really had good intentions, and mentally I worked on others, but time got away from me.  Hopefully April will be better.  I'm going to a retreat next week, so that should help.   One new start I have this month is a charity baby quilt made with a set of charm squares; our local guild had a Friday night Midnight Madness, and I was able to get the whole top together in one evening.  My goal is to get it quilted next week at the retreat.

The other new start is from the workshop I took at the March VCQ meeting.  It was a class called "Mock Molas" taught by Alice Ridge.  She's developed a method of modifying mola designs using felt that keeps the style of the original but is easier and faster.  This one is a hand project;by the time it is finished the black background will be filled with stitching.

February UFO Busting

It's time to link up with Vicki Welsh of Field Trips in Fiber again for February's UFO Busting report  in our quest to get some UFO's out of the studio.  Click on her badge on the sidebar for a direct link to her post about it.  At the end of every month I'll do a post about what I've accomplished that month, and link it to Vicki's.

February was a fairly productive month, although I've only reduced the UFO list by one. But at least I finished one!  For my end of month count, this is where things stand:

• Projects in progress Feb. 1 -8
• Projects completed - 4
• New projects started - 4
• UFO's trashed - 0
• Projects in progress Feb. 28 -7

First up is the UFO I finished.  It was started two years ago, and after much procrastination is finally finished.  Since I wanted to enter it in a show, it had to get finished - deadlines are a great motivator.

I also made 2 baby ribbon blankets to give as gifts.  These are 15 inch squares with minkie on one side and flannel on the other, and various ribbons stitched into the seam.  Of course, I forgot to take pictures of them before I sent them off, so this pic of a past project will have to do.  This accounts for 2 new projects started and 2 finished.

Then I also started and finished a 12 inch quilt for a bee challenge, which accounts for another new start and finish.

And finally, I have another new start.  This is from a class I took at Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival with Frieda Anderson called Duluth Trees.  It is just the top, so counts only as a start, not a finish.

And there you have it, my count for February.  One less UFO, 3 additional completions, and 1 new start.  If I finish 1 UFO a month, I'll have all 7 done by the end of the year!  We'll see how that goes.

Winter Oaks Almost Done

I've spent some time since my last post working to finish this quilt.  The first thing I had to do was block it, which I don't often do.  But after finishing the quilting I noticed that the bottom edge was kind of ripply.  Turned out it was about a half inch wider at the bottom.  I'm pretty sure this happened because the background piecing is off grain and could easily have stretched.  In order for it to hang flat, and since I'm planning to submit it to a show, I knew that blocking was necessary.  I followed Vicki Welsh's blocking instructions here, with a few changes.  I didn't want to wash it, since it has some Transfer Artist Paper and tyvec on it that I didn't want to put through the washing machine.  Instead, I took a water bottle and sprayed the back to wet it, just enough to penetrate all the layers.  I put an old bath towel on the floor first, and then the quilt and pinned it through to the padding of the carpet, stretching and squaring it up as I went.  I let it dry for 24 hours before removing the pins.

I've also added the label, made the sleeve, and attached the binding.  I'm in the process of hand stitching the back side of the binding, and then have to add the sleeve.  Looks like I will meet my goals of finishing in time for the show deadline, and completing one of my UFO's in February!

Progress on UFO

Last week I got back to working on my Winter Oaks piece.  I want to submit it for the Sacred Threads exhibit, and the deadline is coming up in exactly a month, so time to get it done!  I've finished all the background quilting.  All that's left is a little corner of tree, and the border.  Then all the finishing details - binding, sleeve, label.  The end is in sight.

UFO Busting

This is a little late, but better late than never, right?  We're linking up with Vicki Welsh of Field Trips in Fiber in her quest to get some UFO's out of the studio.  Click on her badge on the sidebar for a direct link to her post about it.  At the end of every month I'll do a post about what I've accomplished that month, and link it to Vicki's. 

I (Sue) started out January with 8 projects in process - at least, that's 8 that are the most recent that I want to finish!  Of course there are more, but they have been packed away in the archives so long that I won't pull them out just yet.  If I finish these 8 this year it will be a major accomplishment!

Three of these are tops that need to be quilted, 2 are piecing projects in progress, one is getting some hand embroidery, and the one with the cardinal is up next for finishing (I am in the process of machine quilting it).  There's one missing from the picture which is a table runner also ready for quilting.

So for Vicki's end of month count, this is where things stand:

• Projects in progress Jan. 1 - 8
• Projects completed - 2
• New projects started - 2
• UFO's trashed - 0
• Projects in progress Jan. 31 - 8

As you can see, I didn't make any progress on the UFO's, but I did complete 2 new projects!  Both are 10 inch square quilts that I submitted to a reader's challenge which was due Feb. 1, so had to be finished.  And good news!  Both were selected as finalists!  (No pictures just yet.)  The piece that I plan to finish next is another I want to submit to a show with an entry deadline, so that will definitely get finished in February.  And I have another new one I need to do for March (just 12" square) so it looks like I'll at least come out even.  Hopefully I'll make progress on some of the others as well.

Happpy New Year!

It's that time again - the end of one year and the beginning of the new - 2015.  I have been reflecting as most of us do on the year just ending and goals for the next.  One goal we have as PG Fiber2Art is to clarify our business expectations and work to build on the successes of 2014.  To that end we will be participating in the Creative Arts Business Summit this spring, as well as a "business boot camp" for the first 3 months of 2015.  Hopefully that will help us clarify where we want to go with PG Fiber2Art and fabric surface design!

Another thing I have determined to do in the new year is to get some UFO's off the "to do" list.  Vicki Welsh of Field Trips in Fiber is hosting a UFO Bust on her blog for 2015, where you can link up to join her in this pursuit.  The extra accountability is always a motivator for me, so I will likely be doing this, as well as nagging my partner Elizabeth to join up and finish a piece called Forest Floor.  For me I have actually gotten a start on this by pulling out a project that's been waiting to be finished.  I call it Winter Oaks, and would like to submit it for a show, so that's another motivator there - nothing like a deadline to get things moving.   I'm thinking that a realistic goal would be to promise myself that I have to finish one project for every new one I start.  We'll see how that goes!

Here are a couple of shots of quilting progress on Winter Oaks.