Weekend Stitching - Vintage Tea Time Finish

It's been a couple of weeks since my last Monday post.  I've been working in my sewing room, but the amount of progress that was post worthy just hasn't been there lately.  It just seemed silly to write about finishing up one block.  Thankfully, I have a finish to blog about today.  

This weekend I finally got around to photographing the McCall's Mystery quilt that was finished Easter weekend.  

Vintage Tea Time (McCall's Mystery Quilt) From McCall's Quilting Magazine
Jan/Feb, April/May issues

This quilt was started in January of 2012 and was my third oldest UFO. So it's nice to have it off the UFO list.  When I saw the pattern in McCall's quilting it seemed like a great way to use up that tea pot print that had been languishing in my stash.  

Usually I have problems coming up with names for my projects, not this one.  My Guy has been referring to it as the "Old Ladies Quilt".  He's not fond of the tea pot focus fabric.  He agreed that "Vintage Tea Time" was an appropriate alternative.  

Trudy used a floral motif in yellow thread for the quilting. 

It's a bright and sunny quilt.  I really like how the blue borders frames and contains all that bright yellow.  Not sure where this quilt is going yet.  It's a bit big for a donation quilt, but hopefully I can find a some place where it will be loved and appreciated.  

Linking up with 
Making Monday
Main Crush Monday 

Weekend Stitching: Completion of One Monthly Goal for March

We had a pretty relaxed Easter weekend.  Drama Teen has one more day off of school, but My Guy and I have to go back to work this morning.  At least my big project at work is winding down, just the report writing is left.  So I'll be spending lots of time at the computer this week.  

Since we ended up staying home for Easter weekend, I was able to get in some significant time in the sewing room.  Enough time that I was able to finish stitching down the binding onto the McCall's Mystery quilt. 

I didn't finish until about 9 PM last night, so there wasn't time to get good pictures.  That probably won't happen till next weekend when I have time to do some staging.  But I was able to get  decent shot of all 4 bound corners.  This is my first finish for 2016 and the third time I've met my one monthly goal. 

Picking one goal a month has been really helpful to me.  It helps me focus on getting at least one project moved ahead.  I tend to work on multiple projects at a time, so the focus on one helps me set priorities in the sewing room when I only have a limited amount of time to stitch.  So far in 2016 that's resulted in finished top and a completed quilt.  I will definitely be picking a goal for April.  

Linking up with 
Red Letter Quilts for One Monthly Goal
Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making
Cooking up Quilts for Main Crush Monday
and 
Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday

Slow Stitching and Stash Management for the 13th week of 2016

It's a rainy morning here at Life in Pieces. No Easter egg hunts for us.  Which is OK, we have no little ones to hide the eggs for anymore.  Though Drama Teen asked last night if the Easter Bunny was still going to visit her.  It's the only day we've ever let her have candy for breakfast and she's still enough of a kid to not want to give that up.

On the stitching front, Friday has been the only day this week I had any significant stitching time in the sewing room out of the last two weeks. But I made do with some hand stitching when we were in Texas.  

  
This project is my "road work" project, it goes along on most of our road trips.  I don't typically work on it at home where time in the sewing room usually wins out.  This afternoon's hand stitching will be finishing up the binding on the McCall's Mystery quilt.  There's just one side left to stitch down. I should have a finish before the end of the day.  

I did get a bit of machine stitching done this week and finished up one of the star blocks for Allietare.  Yesterday evening, I figured out how to fix the error in the second brown vintage dress block, so it's done too.  That was it for fabric usage this week. 

Used last week:  0.21 yards
Used in March:  0.86 yards
Used year to date:  16.98 yards
Purchased this week:  7 yards
Net used for 2016: 9.98 yards

This week's addition to the stash was planned.  There are 4 graduation quilts on my to do list for May 2017.  The stash didn't have the right purple fabric with enough yardage to make the Zombies in Paris quilt.  So these two purples came home with me yesterday. 

As soon as the McCall's Mystery quilt is finished up, I'll start on this quilt.  So these should start going back out soon.  One other fabric made it home, but it's also destined for one of the graduation quilts. 

I have most of the fabrics for the Math Quilt this piece is intended for.  It's probably next in line after Zombies in Paris. So this fabric should start going out before the end of the year.  I'm trying to finish a quilt before I start a new one.  I won't make any headway with the project count, but I'm at least getting some of the UFOs off my list. 

I also track the days where at least 15 minutes of stitching happens.  I count the hand embroidery as stitching so there were a few days during spring break where I got in some stitching time. 

Days with 15 minutes of stitching time this week:  5 days
This month:  18 out of 26 days
This year:  70 out of 86 days

Not bad considering there were two business trips and a family vacation this month.  

You can find more slow stitching over at Kathy's Quilts and more on stash management over at Patchwork Times.  

Mid-Month Progress Report

It's been a busy week, with not a lot of time to stitch.  That's been typical this month.  Looking at the work schedules, I knew that March was going to be lean on stitching time.  But there has been some progress on the four WIPs currently in rotation.  Though I don't have pictures of all of them.  

The McCall's Mystery Quilt is this month's "one monthly goal".  The binding has been sewn to the front and I'm working on getting the hand stitching done.  

I'm still working on the second brown Vintage Dress for last month's color.  This dress has lots of little pieces and it's taking a lot longer to assemble. I haven't picked the fabric for this month's purple and yellow dresses.  Those may not get started until April.  

I have made visible progress on Allietare.  

  Allietare , Bonnie Hunter's 2015 Mystery Quilt

A few more red blocks are finished, just nine more left to make.  All the blue alternate blocks are made, they just aren't up on the design wall at the moment.

Poinsettias is moving along slowly.  Since it is my leaders and enders project, it only moves forward when everything else moves forward.  

So I'm still stitching, just not as much as I would like.  I'm hoping that April will be a much slower month at work and that I can pick up some steam with my stitching.  

I'm linking up with Kelly over at My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday.  

Slow Stitching and Stash Management (Week 11 of 2016)

March has really roared in like a lion.  I'm not talking about the weather at the moment.  One of two business trips is done, though I'm still writing up the report.  Last week was Energy Days.  That's a science program for the local 5th graders.  Volunteers did demos for 900 kids over the course of 3 days.  As the organizer's spouse, I'm part of the set and take down crew.  I'm also the fill in for any slots where My Guy can't get volunteers.  I was ready for an energy transplant once we got all the demos packed and unloaded at the storage facility Thursday afternoon.  There's still one business trip on the horizon, hopefully I can get the report done for the last one before I have to head out for this one.  

I've been catching what time I can in the sewing room working on my one monthly goal for March.  The plan is to finish off the McCall's Mystery quilt.  The label is made, the binding is made and finally on Friday night the binding got stitched to the front of the quilt.  Now I'm working on slow stitching the binding to the back. 

I count the fabric used in the binding as out once it's attached to the quilt.  That's good because that's about all I have to report as outgoing this week. 

Used last week:  0.65 yards
Used in March: 0.65 yards
Used year to date:  16.77 yards
Purchased year to date:  0 yards
Net used for 2016:  16.77 yards

This year I've been trying to get into the sewing room for at least 15 minutes every day.  I did really well in January, fell off the wagon in February, but did pretty well at getting back on the stitching bandwagon this month. 

This week:  7 out of 7 days with 15 minutes of stitching
This month:  9 out of 12 days
This year: 61 out of 72 days

Hopefully I can keep up the momentum now that I've got it back. 

That's it for me this weekend.  You can find more slow stitching over at Kathy's Quilts and more stash management over at Patchwork Times.  

March One Monthly Goal

There's been no Internet at our house since last Tuesday.  Drama Teen broke the wires in the power supply cable for the router. It's taken us a week to find a solution that didn't involve buying a new router (that's another story entirely).  After finding a replacement power supply and buying the proper adapters, we were back on-line this evening.  

Internet is back just in time for me to link up with Red Letter Quilts for March's version of One Monthly Goal.  Work is going to require some travel this month, so there are some days I'm just not going to be home to stitch.  So in consideration of that, I'm needing an easy goal for the month.  The McCall's Mystery quilt was sent out for quilting last month. 

 McCall's Mystery Quilt From McCall's Quilting Magazine  Jan/Feb, April/May 2012 issues

It came back from the being quilted last week.  The plan for March is to bind and label this quilt.  The binding is all cut and is almost assembled.  Hopefully I'll have it sewn to the quilt by the end of the week. 

You can check out other goals for March over at Red Letter Quilts. 

One Monthly Goal - January's Completed

I don't normally draft blog posts this late, but the head cold that materialized out of nowhere this morning isn't letting me sleep. I might as well do something to keep my mind off the fact I'm not sleeping.   That's why I was sewing this evening, I was tired of sitting in the recliner trying to nap.  At least stitching took my mind off the worst of the cold symptoms.  (I don't usually get sick this often, this winter has been very unkind to my immune system).  

Part of my 2016 goals is to finish 8 quilts this year.  The most I've ever finished is 7, so it's going to take extraordinary measures to be successful this year.  So I decided to join Heidi of Red Letter Quilts in picking One Monthly Goal. January's goal was to finish piecing the McCall's Mystery Quilt and piece a back.  The mystery quilt was a finished flimsy on January 16th. 

McCall's Mystery Quilt, From McCall's Quilting Magazine
Jan/Feb, April/May, June/July 2012 issues

The plan was to use the focus fabric as the backing.  But this was a much bigger quilt than I expected and there wasn't enough of the yellow and blue teapot fabric to make the whole back.  An old tone on tone pink was the best option to fill out the backing.  After a few problems with the quilt math, the back was finally finished this evening.  

There are still 2 days in January, so I finished my goal just a tad early.  After a bit of pressing and de-threading this quilt will be ready to go out for quilting. But that's on next month's list of things to do.  

I'm linking up with Heidi's end of the month One Monthly Goal linky party.  You can hop over there to check out all the other finished goals.   

WIPS - Lots of Yellow with a touch of Blue

Drama Teen is going to be disappointed this morning.  We had freezing fog and rain last night, so she was hoping for a day out of school.  No such luck, the roads are dry. But we apparently have another opportunity for nasty weather tonight.  She may get her wish for a snow day tomorrow. 

The colder weather has meant there's not much to do but stay indoors, so it's perfect stitching weather.  Over the weekend the last border was pieced and stitched to the McCall's Mystery Quilt.  It's outgrown the design wall, so it took me a couple of days to get it photographed.  

McCall's Mystery Quilt, From McCall's Quilting Magazine
Jan/Feb, April/May, June/July 2012 issues

The bright blue border does a lot to balance out all the bright yellow in the center of the quilt.  The focus fabric looks better in person, the pink just swamps the blocks in the photographs.  But overall I like how it turned out.  

The finished flimsy is half of my One Monthly Goal for January.  The other half of the goal is to get the back pieced.  That's been started but hit a snag when I realized there wasn't enough of the focus fabric to make a complete backing.  There's not enough left over of any of the other fabrics to use on the back, I have enough blue or yellow to make a binding (actually it's a bit iffy on the yellow).  After a search through the stash, I came up with a pale pink that looks good with the focus fabric.  It's been in the stash for at least 10 years, so it's on the cutting table waiting to be ironed.  I should be able to get the back pieced by the end of the weekend.  It feels nice to be on top of this month's goal.  

Linking up with 
Let's be Social at Sew Fresh Quilts
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced
Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

WIPs - Progress on the January Goal

We are 6 days into the new year, almost a week in already.  So how are you doing on this year's goals so far?  I'm doing pretty well with mine at the moment.  I'm trying something new this year.  I'm participating in the One Monthly Goal over at Red Letter Quilts in hopes that it will help me focus on one project and move it closer to a finish.  Whatever that project is, will probably be the subject of each week's WIP update. 

This month's goal is to get the McCall's Mystery Quilt ready to go out for quilting.  Last night I added the second pieced border. 

McCall's Mystery Quilt, From McCall's Quilting Magazine
Jan/Feb, April/May, June/July 2012 issues

It's a huge quilt, much larger than my design wall and there are still two borders left to add.  I like the bright blue borders. They do a lot to calm down all that yellow in the center of the quilt.  If I keep up the pace, this should be a finished flimsy this weekend. 

I'm still working on Allietare.  

 Allietare
 Bonnie Hunter's 2015 Mystery Quilt

There's one more completed alternate block up on the design wall, plus three other blocks that need to be sewn together.  I need to rotate the bottom row of that middle block before it gets stitched down that way.    

That's a partially assembled Poinsettia block in the lower right corner.  It's still my current leaders and enders project. I need start this year's Rainbow Scrap Project.  I printed out the paper piecing pattern, but didn't have the printer set right, so I'll have to reprint those before I can start this month's Vintage Dress blocks.  

That's my 4 WIPs at the moment.  I try to keep the WIPs at 4 or less.  Any more and I can't make good progress on any one project. 

Linking up with:

Let's Bee Social
WIPs on Wednesday
WIP Wednesday
and 
Needle and Thread Thursday when it's posted.  

January - One Monthly Goal

One advantage to the extended holiday vacation this year has been having time to explore a new blogs via both end of the year linky parties and checking out the blogs of those who comment on this blog.  That's how I found Heidi of Red Letter Quilts.  Heidi has started One Monthly Goal to fill the hole left by the retirement of A Lovely Year of Finishes. 

The requirement is to select one quilt related goal and finish it by the end of the month.  It doesn't have to be a finish. That's always my problem it's rare that I can finish a quilt in a month.  Since I have 8 quilts and plans to start 7, having a monthly linky where I have to show some accountability usually helps with my motivation.  So I'm going to give it a try. 


So for January, my goal is to get McCall's Mystery ready for to send out for quilting. The center is all assembled. 

McCall's Mystery Quilt, From McCall's Quilting Magazine
Jan/Feb, April/May, June/July 2012 issues

Now it just needs the borders pieced and attached, as well as the backing pieced before it can go out to be quilted.  So that's my one monthly goal for January.  

You can check out the rules, the giveaway and the other one montly goal posts over at Red Letter Quilts.    

Non-Allietare Stitching

Before Christmas I thought that this last week of 2015 would be full of stitching.  That hasn't happened, yet anyway.  The first few days of this week became deep cleaning days (the move furniture and clean behind it kind if cleaning).  We started the process the week of Thanksgiving.  We were having company and expecting new furniture, so in the way of people who typically clean just enough to get buy we realized that there were a few neglected areas in the house.  We targeted the master bedroom and the attic this week.  It's been worth all the effort, 4 bags of trash hauled away and 3 trash bags already delivered to Goodwill. 

There has been some time in the sewing room each day.  Most of the effort has been on getting the binding stitched down on Back to Square One.  That was finished last night.  So that will be my last finish for 2015.  No pictures yet as it was 10 PM when I finished the binding.

Like a lot of quilters, I started Bonnie Hunter's Allietare Mystery.  And of course with all the holiday prep, fell way behind.  So I've done just a bit of stitching in an effort to catch up.  Still a long way to go on that front.  

In the midst of those two projects, slow and steady progress has been made on the McCalls Mystery UFO from 2012.  

McCall's Mystery Quilt, From McCall's Quilting Magazine
Jan/Feb, April/May, June/July 2012 issues

I just need to sew the top three rows to the bottom three rows and then I can start piecing the border blocks.  I haven't decided if I like this quilt or not.  The border blocks have a lot of the dark blue, so it will change the look quite a bit.  So I'm holding judgement till I get that on.  This is a big quilt.  Guess I should have paid more attention to finished size.  My main goal with this project was to find a home for the 6 yards of the focus fabric.  It had been in the stash for a while and I wanted to use it up.  What's left will go on the back.  

My Guy has promised me a break in the deep cleaning today since it's New Year's Eve.  But that's so I can do some laundry and get the Christmas tree down.  Still I hope to have some time for stitching this afternoon and evening as we wait for the ball to drop.

Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday over at My Quilt Infatuation.  Now it's time for that second cup of coffee while I go check out what people have going on this last day of 2015. 

Have a happy New Year!   

WIPS - Other Uses for Rotary Cutters and Cutting Tables

It's been a couple of weeks since I've written a progress report on my WIPs.  It's been harder the last few weeks to find time to sew during the week.  With the holidays coming up, other things have required more attention.  This week especially.  We are hosting Thanksgiving this year with My Guy's family.  That's meant spending some time doing deep cleaning in a few areas of the house.  So there hasn't been much stitching going on this week.  

Even though there's been no stitching, I did use the rotary cutter and my cutting table last night.  Our dining room set is almost 30 years old and the chairs are starting to show it. 

We use these chairs pretty much every day so it's not a big surprise that they are starting to show some wear. I've been wanting to recover them for a few months now, but My Guy and I couldn't agree on a fabric. But with family coming, we really needed to do something about the cushions that were ripping at the front. So last night Drama Teen and I went to Hobby Lobby to look.  Before we left, I was suggesting we look for brown or dark blue.  My Guy said he wanted beige again, as close as possible to what's on the chairs now. That's not what we came home with. 

We started out looking at the beige offerings, but they were either not the right weight or not in the right price range (I thought quilting fabric was expensive, it's been a while since I've had to buy home decorating fabric.)  Drama Teen picked out this gray with silver and gold.  It's a good neutral, it's not beige, it fits in with the rest of the house pretty well and it was on the lower end of the price scale, so it wasn't hard to convince me.  My Guy didn't like the fabric when I pulled it out of the bag once we got it home.  I talked him into letting me recover just one of the cushions.  I've learned over the years through discussing my quilt ideas with him that he cannot visualize how a fabric will look in the finished project.  After looking at the first finished chair he decided he liked it well enough to let me do the rest.  So though the chairs don't look brand new, they no longer look like thrift store finds.  

I did get in a few minutes in the sewing room earlier in the week.  All the pieces of the McCall's Mystery quilt got laid out on the design wall and I started sewing together the first couple of rows.  

This one may just make it to the finished flimsy stage before the end of the year and will likely be my first finish for 2016. My last finish for 2015 will be Back to Square One.  The binding is all made. Now I need to come up with a name for that one and make the label before I can start stitching down the binding.  

That's my progress for the week.  I'm linking up with

WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced

WOW:  WIPS on Wednesday over at Esther's Quilt Blog

Wishing everyone in the United States a very happy Thanksgiving.

Weekend Stitching - Salvaging an Ugly Quilt

It was a busy weekend.  Since we have family coming for the Thanksgiving holiday, we did a lot of deep cleaning yesterday.  All three of us are off work/school this week, so we'll be back at that today.  By mid afternoon yesterday we were all pretty worn out and decided it to give ourselves a break, so I did get in a nice afternoon of stitching.  

First up, all the snowball blocks for the McCall's Mystery Quilt are now done and up on the design wall.  

McCall's Mystery Quilt, From McCall's Quilting Magazine
Jan/Feb, April/May, June/July 2012 issues

The next step in the mystery is assembly into a flimsy.  I've got all the blocks laid out on the design wall.  No pictures because my camera decided to flake out when I tried to take one.  I might just get this flimsy finished before Christmas.  

The binding was finished on the Layer Cake Quilt Along project (aka Experiments in Paisley) last weekend, but I didn't get pictures till yesterday.  

Moose on the Porch Layer Cake Quilt Along by Konda Luckau
(Experiments in Paisley)  

Sometimes experiments in the lab don't come out as you'd like, but you still learn something from the process.  That's the case with this quilt.  I've never been thrilled with how this one turned out.  The rules of the quilt along were to use very minimal background fabric and use just the layer cakes.  I wished I'd broken that rule, the blocks might have come out better. The real problem I think is that there were two colorways in the layer cake and I don't think they play real well with each other.  

In finishing up this quilt, I made it a goal to use up the the rest of the layer cake.  I did that on the back. 

The back also used up a brown black tone on tone fabric that I'd had problems finding a use for.  It works great with these fabrics.  Truth be told, I like the back much better than I do the front.  This quilt will probably end up in one of the vehicles over the winter. It does get cold enough and icy enough here that it's not a bad idea to keep extra clothes or a blanket in the car during the winter months. So this will be a great utility quilt.  With my luck this will be the only one of my quilts to survive into the next century.  I hate to think what some historian would make of this one.  

That's it for me this week.  There's more stitching stuff to see over at: 

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Monday Design Wall at Patchwork Times
Main Crush Monday at Cooking up Quilts
Design Board Monday at Bits'n Bobs

Weekend Stitching - A Day Off Makes a Difference

It was a beautiful weekend.  A bit cool in the mornings, but warm enough to go out without a coat by lunch time.  The fall foliage is at it's height.  

My Guy and I got in a walk and some photography yesterday morning.  It was cold enough for gloves, but the spectacular effect of the early morning sun on leaves was worth the cool start.  

It's also been a productive weekend in the sewing room.  It's amazing how much progress can be made with just one extra day off.  Last month's brown Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks were finished.  I showed those off on Saturday's post.  The next clue in the Midnight Mystery quilt was out on Thursday and that was next on my to do list. 

Midnight Mystery Quilt From Meadow Mist Designs

This is how it looks midway through step 2.  Hopefully I'll finish up step 2 today.  

Since Back to Square One is out for quilting and The Layer Cake Quilt Along project is just about bound, it was time to select another UFO from the 2015 Quilt Plan.  The McCall's Mystery quilt just seemed to be begging to be next, so I pulled that project box off the stack.  I had finished clues 1 and 2 back in January of 2012. 

 McCall's Mystery Quilt, From McCall's Quilting Magazine
Jan/Feb, April/May, June/July 2012 issues

So I got started on the final step, clue 3.  

There are 16 of these snowball blocks total in the quilt.  The sunny yellow floral has been in the stash for years and I've got 6 yards of it. What's left over after making the top will be used for the backing.  After the snowball blocks are all finished it will be time to assemble the quilt, so it's possible that I'll have another finished flimsy before the end of the year. 

It was definitely a good week.  You can check out more weekly progress updates at:

Design Board Monday at Bits'n Bobs
Main Crush Monday at Cooking up Quilts
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Monday Design Wall at Patchwork Times

The Stash Report and Some Slow Stitching

It's been a low key weekend so far. This is day three of my four day celebratory weekend for finishing off my big work project this year.   My Guy has proposed that we go photograph the fall foliage as it's not likely to last long now that we've had our first freeze.  So once the sun is up, we'll probably head out with the cameras for a bit.

Spending day one and two of my four day weekend in the sewing room really boosted this week's stash report.  

Used last week:  1.16 yards
Used in November:  1.16 yards
Used year to date:  39.95 yards
Purchased year to date:  24.25 yards
Net used for 2015:  15.17 yards

Fabric going out should increase for a bit as I've finished all the block parts for Poinsettias and am now making the blocks.  I'll count that fabric as out as I finish each block and sashing piece.  Plus November's Midnight Mystery clue has us assembling the pieces into strips, so that fabric will be counted as each strip is finished.  Added to the mix are the 11.5 x 11.5 snow ball blocks for the next UFO on my list, the McCall's Mystery quilt from 2012.  

Part of the yardage out this week was the binding for the Layer Cake Quilt Along project. I've been taking a few minutes each day to work on hand stitching the binding to the back. 

  
I'm just about ready to finish off corner number two.  I doubt I finish stitching it all down today, but hopefully it will be done by the end of Monday. 

It's getting lighter out, so I need to go get some warm clothes on so we can catch the first light on some of the more brilliantly colored trees and maybe catch a bit of frost as well.  

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday and with Patchwork Times for this week's stash report.

UFO Parade

Patchwork Times suggested a UFO parade to take our minds off tax day here in the US.  I haven't really looked at what's on my UFO list in a bit or what stage they are all at.  Back in 2010 I had 9 UFOs on my list.  By the start of 2012, I was down to only 2.  Not bad progress in two years.  But the numbers have crept up again.  I define UFOs as projects that are older than 1 year.  Any thing newer is a WIP.  So what's on my UFO list?  

Scrappy Stars

Pattern is Folk Art Christmas Stars by Robyn Pandolph

Started November 2003

Scrappy Stars still needs 16 star blocks made before I can start setting it together. 

Red, White and Blue Stars

Started April 2005

Another 5 stars, plus 12 nine patch blocks are needed to finish the RWB Stars project.  

Grandmother's Flower Garden

Started in September 2007

I've completely stalled on the GFG quilt.  It was started as a take along project when Drama Teen had 2 hour soccer practices.  I've since rediscovered embroidery and I've been working on that as my travel project. 

Moose on the Porch

Layer Cake Quilt Along

Started November 6, 2010

I held off on sending The Layer Cake Quilt Along flimsy out for quilting so I could use it as a practice piece for learning to quilt on my new frame (which is still in boxes). 

McCall's Mystery QuiltFrom McCall's Quilting Magazine Jan/Feb, April/May issuesStarted 1/20/2012

Only parts 1 and 2 of the mystery were completed, the fabric never got cut for parts 3 and 4.  

Scrappy Coffee Cups
Block patterns from Karen F. Srebro and Janet McCarroll
published in Block Magic and Block Magic Too by Nancy Johnson-Srebro
Started 2/27/2012

Scrappy Coffee Cups was last year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge project.  I need to pick fabrics for the sashing and borders.  

Just 6 projects on my current UFO list, so the upward creep isn't too bad.  The oldest is approaching the 10 year mark.  I'd been working on it as a leaders and enders project, but then this year I set myself a May deadline on a few quilts, so it got put away.  My goal this year was to finish it (Scrappy Stars) and the RWB Stars as they are the two oldest on the list.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the Grandmother's Flower Garden Blocks.  I'm not sure I like how that project is turning out.  It will probably sit on the back burner till next year when it becomes the oldest quilt on the list.  

That's my parade of UFOs.  Check out all the links over at Patchwork Times for more UFO displays.  

2012 New FO Challenge - January

Barbara over at Cat Patches found herself UFOless at the beginning of 2012 and decided to create at least 12 more (one per month) so she could enjoy all the UFO challenges in 2013.  Hence the 2012 New FO Challenge.  I wasn't as brave as Barbara, my New FO plan only includes 4 new quilts in 2012. 

The Mystery Quilt published in the Dec/Jan edition of McCall's Quilting Magazine caught my eye and I decided to make that my first new project for 2012.  I had fun picking out fabrics from my stash and starting on the first clue.  

I picked the yellow floral fabric as my theme fabric and pulled the other 3 to go with it.  I've finished the first clue and am about half way finished with clue #2.

So far, no instructions for fabrics A and D.  I'm curious to see how this quilt is going to come together, but I have to wait till March for the next (last) clue! 

Check out all the New FO projects over at Cat Patches. 

Design Wall Monday - January 30th

January is almost over.  For some reason this month out of all the others seems to move the slowest.  I noticed that last year.  It just seemed like January drifted by, while the other 11 months just flew.  Maybe it's just me. 

Today is the last Design Wall of January.  It hasn't been a bad month, there are 3 projects up on the two design walls.  The Fat Quarter Stars Quilt along hasn't changed from last  week, so I'm not posting a picture of it.  I spent a lot of time cutting out the new lighter backgrounds for the Scrappy Stars quilt (UFO #5) and not as much time sewing on it, but I did finish one block. 

The March/April issue of McCall's Quilting Magazine showed up this week with clue #2 for the Mystery quilt. Most of clue #2 is cutting the fabric, but I did get the yellow bricks cut and added to the half hourglass blocks. 

Next I have to add the bricks to the hourglass blocks.  I'll start on that today. 

So nothing terribly exciting on the design wall this week, just bits and pieces of progress.  What's up on your design wall?  I'm going to check out what everyone has been up too over at Judy's Patchwork Times.  But first I'm going to get my second cup of coffee so I can just hang out there a while. 

Design Wall Monday - January 23rd

It was a productive weekend in the sewing room for a change.  A little laundry and housework was worked in as well.  Drama Teen was allowed to sleep in till 10 AM, which had been her most fervent wish for the weekend.  My Guy got in a bike ride in spite of the strong winds.  So overall a very relaxing weekend here at Life in Pieces. 

So what's up on the design wall?  Blocks 8 and 9 of Moose on the Porch's Fat Quarter Stars have been completed and are up on the big design wall.

I'm enjoying playing with the red, white and black palette.  Just 3 more blocks and it will be time to figure out how to set this one together.  

Progress was also made on UFO #5, the Scrappy Stars quilt. 

After mocking this one up in EQ, several of the original patterned backgrounds have been removed and replaced with lighter tone on tone tans and beiges.   I may need to pull one or two other lighter neutrals to go with the lightest neutral.  It looks a little out of place all by itself and the EQ mock up clearly showed that lighter backgrounds make the quilt look less busy. 

The McCall's Quilting Mystery Quilt was started during Friday Night Sew In.  Last night I finished up all the blocks from clue #1. 

Now I have to wait for the March/April issue of McCall's Quilting  to do anymore on this project.  And since I'm caught up with the Fat Quarter Stars blocks, that leaves UFO #5 as the only ongoing project for the rest of January that I can make additional progress with. 

That's it for my design wall.  If you haven't yet, check out the other design walls over at Patchwork Times.