Fallen Off the Wagon....

  I fell off the wagon, or should I say space ship. At the beginning of the year, the UFO challenge sounded like a wonderful idea. I still think it is. I know far too well that life happens and other deadlines get in the way. What I'm saying is this whole idea is flexible. I am sure many of you have been making progress on projects and probably even completing items off your list. I haven't totally abandoned the UFO idea. Since the last time I posted about my UFO list, I have been on a few retreats. Fun sewing days with my bestie and weekend sewing retreats at my mom's. Instead of bringing shiny new projects to start, I have been forcing myself to bring my UFO's along. I'm happy to announce I got one of my UFO's done! Woot! Woot! Happy dance!!!! But it's not what I should have been working on. I'm supposed to have my garden quilt done. Whoopsies.... worked on the wrong project. But I'm thrilled to share with you that I have the top for my 'Just Takes Two' red and white quilt done. I have been working on this quilt since 2012... it's such an accomplishment to get this done to this point. This quilt challenged me. I learned how to do needle turn applique. I worked on my skills for sewing inset curves. I drafted quilt patterns for some of the blocks. I also challenged myself to only use fabric from my stash. So all of the red and white fabrics are bits and pieces left over from other quilts. I plan on quilting it myself. Would love to have it done for Christmas, but while looking at the calendar it seems that may be unrealistic with all of the other things I need to get done between now and then. If I get it quilted for Christmas you will hear me scream in delight! I'm hoping to transform my bedroom into a red and white winter wonderland for the holidays. I think this would also be a great quilt to display at my guilds annual quilt show in March.

I plan on putting a plain white border on the quilt and red binding to finish it off. One thing that really surprised me was I expected to be super excited when I got the last block pieced. I stayed up super late to get it done. But my feelings were mixed. I was thrilled to have completed the quilt top but sad it was done. This quilt has traveled with me to many retreats. It represents a lot of fond memories and time spent with family and friends. The boxes that this quilt filled are now empty and waiting for the next big adventure! Or maybe I will grab the Garden Party quilt box and it will travel next time with me to retreat. Whatever the project, I know it will also be stitched with stories and fond memories too!

Back to my UFO list.... I got to cross off the red and white quilt. I won't be rolling the dice like I would normally do. I will get back to my Garden Party quilt and work on that.... If you would like to start a UFO challenge just pop on over to the Quilt Doodle website and download the 'My List of UFO's'. Fill it out with six of your unfinished projects ad roll the dice....

Happy quilting,

Cindy and Belvedere