Completed UFOs Finally

This is the post I wanted to post on January 1, 2011. Today I was finally able to access my photos.

Happy New Year!

Last fall Finn invited all interested parties to participate in a challenge to finish UFOs before the end of 2010. I pledged to finish five UFOs. I actually finished 4.9. I finished the fifth UFO on January 1, 2011 (1-1-11). I sewed until midnight on December 31, 2010, but I did not finish my last UFO. So, I finished it the next day, January 1, 2011. Today I was able to get a picture of it, as well as my green quilt (the last one that I finished in 2010).

I had issues with my last quilt. It is one of Judy Laquidara's designs, Bears in the Farmhouse. When looking back on the pattern, I realized that I started this quilt in February 2009. It was an online activity. At each step we emailed Judy our progress, then she sent us the next step in the pattern. On the last step, my quilt did not measure what Judy had indicated in the pattern. The last step started with sewing together 86 HSTs for a border. Since my quilt did not measure what it should according to Judy's instructions, I did not want to sew the last border together until I could solve the measurement issue. It was a very simple solution, but I think another quilt caught my eye, or else I had another class, and I started another project. I thought I would go back to the bear paw quilt shortly, but I did not.

When Finn's challenge came along I decided the bear paw UFO would be one that I would finish along with the green quilt (my Mandarin Squares quilt). After solving the measurement problem, I sewed together the 86 HSTs and finished the bear paw quilt. I did not have enough yardage to use the stripe for the border as indicated in the pattern, so I made the border one-half an inch narrower, and inserted cornerstones in all four corners. With those changes, I finished my quilt and ended up with about one-quarter of a yard of the border stripe left over!

I am excited to have these two large UFO quilts finished, as well as three other UFOs. I also finished two lap quilts that I have already sent to a machine quilter. I will post pictures of them when they return from the quilter. I also finished a needle case that has been floating around on my sewing table for couple of years. Now I can get two stacks of fabrics back into my stash (hopefully) and off my sewing table. BTW, I made the Bears in the Farmhouse quilt totally from my stash. I was so excited to be able to find all those fabrics in my stash. I don't know yet what I will do about putting together a backing for the bear paw quilt, but at least the top came from stash.

This new year I have started by finishing a UFO on January 1. I feel this will be my motivation to finish more of my UFOs this year. We shall see! LOL!