Apparently I didn’t listen when I told myself I couldn’t work on this month’s UFO Challenge or the Just Takes 2 blocks before I finished up the purse and frog quilt.

The top block is the ‘Red and Gold” Ohio Star from the Christmas BOM.  I still have the Bells to appliqué to finish this month’s challenge.

The strings of flying geese are blocks # 20 and 22 of the Just Takes 2 quilt.  Here not only did I work on the new blocks I worked on them out of order.  I still have 3 more leaves to applique from the February 15th block set and now I’ve jumped ahead to the March 1st block set and skipped the Feathered STAR and Square in a Square block.  It was a case of wanting some mindless piecing and instant gratification. Sshh, don’t tell, but I didn’t paper piece my geese. I used the Quilt in a Day flying geese ruler.

Well, perhaps tomorrow I’ll fall back into line.

February’s official UFO challenge was to complete the Visions of Sugarplums and Hole in the Barn Door from my Christmas BOM quilt which has been languishing since 2003.  I finished up Sugarplums Monday.

Unofficially, I’ve also decided to quilt at least one ring on my Double Wedding Ring and two blocks from Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler.  After last month’s tremendous progress on the DWR, I just eked out this month’s quilting.

I did however finish the SBS blocks at the last minute.

So, what’s up for next month?  Judy has picked Block #8 as the challenge for March.  For me that is Bells & Red and Gold Ohio Star.  Plus two more SBS blocks, at least one ring on the DWR (I really would like to get 5 done, but that’s probably pushing it).

Also up on the agenda for March  finishing the Bellenca Bag, the frog quilt, the 4th section of Ocean Waves and staying caught up on the Just Takes Two blocks.  Good thing my challenge is only the Christmas BOM blocks.  I don’t know if I’ll get all of this done.  But I’m going to give it a shot.

Hop over to Patchwork Times to check out how others did on their February UFO.

With one day to spare, I have completed my February UFO Challenge — both official and unofficial.  I picked G-3 Bear’s Paw and I-8 Birds in the Air for this month’s Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler blocks because they were the first two in the book which I hadn’t already made.  That and I thought they would be easy. After working on the Ocean Waves and the Just  Takes Two blocks, those 2″ finished HST Squares in “Birds”were HUGE.  And, because of the paper piecing I’ve been doing on the JT2 blocks, I was able to let go and cut my pieces “way” oversized for the Bear’s Paws and get it done without having to rip out too much.

Visions of Sugarplums is done.  That completes February’s “official” UFO Challenge.  Now off to work on the unofficial part of my challenge.

There is a mixture of stuff on my design wall this morning.  On the right hand side are the blocks for the last section of the Ocean Waves quilt.  As I was working on the quilt last week, I discovered I was short two blocks.  So I made them.  Last night I discovered them buried under the fabric for the Christmas BOM Visions of Sugarplums.

That’s the block with the dark background.  The pieces are simply fused in place and I still need to get the dots cut and fused.  Once that is done I’ll stitch them down and this month’s official UFO challenge will be done.  I haven’t even looked at the Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler blocks.

The turquoise and grey blocks are the February 15th blocks from Just Takes Two.  I still need to get the rest of the applique done on the top block  I’d like to have it done by the 1st when the next blocks come out. We’ll see.

Finally, the poor frog quilt is still sitting there waiting for it to become a priority.  The purse it tucked under the quilting table also waiting to become a priority again.  I really am not looking forward to those gromments.

Well, I’m all over the place this week.  I think I  need to FOCUS on a single project/task until I get it done.  So, here is this week’s list.

1. Visions of Sugarplums
2. The applique on JT2
3. Two SBS blocks
4. The purse
5. The frog quilt.
6. Quilt one ring of the DWR

Hop over to Patchwork Times for some great design inspiration.

This week I worked on the Ocean Waves and the Just Takes Two blocks.  As I’m working on the final section of Ocean Waves I’m finding that my HST Square are mostly black, so I’ve had to go back and make more.  I have enough for the center, but I’m not sure I have enough for the border, I guess I’ll find out when I get that far.

Fabric Added Last Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 10.583 yards

Fabric Used Last Week: .1.669 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 17.238 yards

Net Used for 6.655 yards

Follow the links over at Patchwork Times to see how others are doing with their fabric usage goals.

Every spring for the past 9 years — has it really been that long? — I go to a quilting retreat with ladies from all over the country.  This year’s retreat starts 8 weeks from today.

Normally by this time, I have listed out in my head all of the projects I plan to work on and have set them aside. Naturally, I take way more than anyone could possibly work on over the 3 1/2 days we are there.  My excuse is I don’t know what I’ll want to work on and I don’t want to be bored.  This year, I’m running behind in my planning.  Or at least I should say I only have two things on my list so far.

1 – Scrappy Irish Chains — this will be a “new start”.  The quotes are because I have all of the 4-patches made. They were made leader/ender style for a couple of quilts that I want to go a different direction on.  The cool part, is I found the background fabric in my stash, so may just need to buy border and binding fabric.

2 – Double Wedding Ring – I have one more melon/arcs section and cornerstones left on the current row and then there is just one more row of 7 full rings (melon/arcs on all sides) to quilt.  Since I’m 8 weeks out from the retreat, I think I’m going to focus on quilting at least one ring a week — significantly more than I committed to in the UFO challenge.  But perhaps, I’ll be able to work on the binding at the retreat.  I think this one is going to have to be hand stitched down.  Here’s an EQ rendering of where I am:

I’m sure that these two projects will keep me busy for the 3 1/2 days, but that’s just a bit more hand stitching than I want to tackle in the time frame.  I have no desire for my wrist to start hurting when I’m supposed to be having fun.  So, I’ll keep thinking about projects that will be easy to carry along.  I wonder if I can get all my Orca Bay parts and pieces made by then…

This was Tuesday’s project.  No, not the quilt, but hanging the quilt.

A while back I purchased a few things to get me started.

• 2 packages of craft magnets — these I got from Harbor Freight.  They are really strong.  Any closer to each other and they connect.
• metal braces.  I’m sure they have a name.  Picked these up from either Lowe’s or Home Depot. They are thin, and about 12″ long and 1 1/4″ wide.  I bought 3 but only used 2
• 1 package of Command Brand Medium Refill Strips — this package contained 9 and I used 4.
• 1 Wide Pocket Rod with Adjustable Clearance — basically, this is a lightweight FLAT curtain rod   Mine is about 2 1/2″ wide and adjusts in length from 28″ – 48″.

I started with a quilt which already had a hanging pocket attached.  I measured the width – in my case 35″ and decided that I only needed two of my metal braces.

Following the package instructions, I attached the 3M strips to the braces and then put them on the wall.  They aren’t perfectly straight, but that’s OK.  I put two magnets on each brace.

I adjusted the rod to length and slid it into my hanging pocket with the flat side of the rod to the wall.

Finally, I hung the quilt, adjusting it as needed.

There’s a little bit of three different projects on my design wall today.  First up on the left is   Hole in the Barn Door, half of my official UFO Challenge for February.  I still need to make Visions of Sugar Plums. The fabric is picked out and it is not buried, so I should get to it before the end of the month.

Next are 3 of the 5 blocks of the February 15th release of JT2.  I still need to figure out how to photograph those two fabrics together.  They really are pretty.  In this picture the turquoise looks pretty good, but the grey is muddy.

Finally on the right are blocks for the Ocean Waves quilt.  This is the 4th section so I’m a head of the game since my goal this month was to finish up the 3rd section.

In addition to these projects, I worked a bit on the purse, and I pieced on Orca Bay Step #4 as leader enders.  I still need 130 wing triangles added to complete this step and who knows what else before Orca Bay is anywhere near becoming a top.

Please check out the links over at Patchwork Times.  There’s always great inspiration to be found.

This week I worked on four different projects, but not much fabric was used as much of it was already counted.

Fabric Added Last Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 10.583 yards

Fabric Used Last Week: .557 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 15.569 yards

Net Used for 4.986 yards

Follow the links over at Patchwork Times to see how others are doing with their fabric usage goals.