This quilt has been on my UFO list for almost 4 years.  All it needed was the binding put on.  I procrastinated for such a long time and finally IT IS DONE!!! Did you notice the binding clips?  I started using these about 6 months ago and I absolutely love them!  No more pins poking me, no more snags in my sweaters and oh did I say no more pins poking me!!!! 

Binding is a great thing to work on while watching television and I  received Homeland, Season 1 on DVD for Christmas and I wanted to start watching it. It has won so many awards and I wanted to see what all the hype was about.  I can't say that it is one of my absolute favorites, but I am enjoying it.  It is leaving me wondering if Sgt. Brody is really the "bad" guy.  I love to sew and I love to watch movies and tv drama series! I always feel guilty to just sit in front of the tv, so this was a great way to keep my hands busy while watching tv and get something off of my UFO list. 

The top is done! Next stop for this quilt is the Quilter.  It is a little to large for me to do myself on my home sewing machine and I still consider myself a novice at the quilting stage of a quilt.  So it has jumped off the train and into the hands of the Quilter!  I used fabric and a layer cake from the Cinnamon Spice collection by Moda.  I love these fabrics and this pattern works great with it.  The pattern is now available on my website, www.quiltessentialsonline.com! 

I still have a very long list of UFO's to work on, but it does feel great when one gets "done".  Last night I took the night off from quilting, but I was watching the new season of Project Runway.  It's all sewing related! I noticed that quite a few of the designers this season liked to put quilting elements into their fashion designs! The whole garment wasn't quilted, just small pieces were used as embellishments.  Interesting!  Where can this lead?  Well I can't start thinking about that too much because I have to get this other stuff done.  Maybe I will just cut back on sleep... Well, back to the sewing machine. 

Yesterday I wanted to spend some time putting some fabric and my Diamonds pattern on the website and I thought it would be a fairly easy thing to accomplish.  Boy was I wrong!  It started out good, it took me an hour and a half to upload some pictures, get the descriptions and details lined up with the fabrics and then KAPOW!!!!!! I could do nothing!  Okay, it doesn't help that I am a little computer challenged.  But I just don't understand how things can work one minute and not the next.  It turns out that after 2 hours of trying to figure out the problem (and yes I did power down and up again) the problem was solved.  The browser (Firefox) no longer wanted to cooperate, so all I had to do was open the program up in another browser! Ugh!  I wouldn't have been able to figure that out without the help of my 19 year old daughter.  Good thing she is still on break!!!

So this morning I decide to open up the program in Firefox and what do you know, it worked!  UGH!  So before anything else happened, I listed my "Diamonds in Springtime" on the website and it is now available for purchase.  Below is another quilt made using this pattern.

I think I have had enough of the computer today and I will settle for a nice cup of tea to relax my nerves!  Then it's back to the UFO train, sew much to do!

I am not finished with the miniature quilt from my last post, but I did get all the pieces cut out!  I didn't have enough of the black fabric, so I had to substitute from what I had available.  Hopefully it will work.  The pieces are so small that I decided to risk it.  In my defense, I did say it would take awhile.  In the meantime, as we all do when we are bored with a project, I picked up another UFO to finish.

I don't know if this can really be classified as a UFO since I had not actually started sewing anything together, but it was something that I absolutely had to get done!  And it WAS in a pile waiting for me to make a shop sample.  I had the pattern all picked out and at the last minute I decided I was going to do something else with it.  The fabric is Cinnamon Spice by Blackbird Designs for Moda Fabric.  Sew....what did I decide to do with it?  Well.....

I decided to use my own design, "Diamonds in Springtime"!  This is  great pattern to use with Layer Cakes.  I got all the pieces cut out and sewn back together.  I have to add the sashing and borders yet, but I think it looks spectacular!  It was 11pm when I took this picture, so it is not reflect the colors as well.  I will have to take a better picture during the day.  Maybe by then I will have top completely done!

The pattern will be available at my online store in the next couple of days (if you are interested!).

I took a workshop led by George Siciliano in November 2009.  George is a master mini quilt maker/designer!  I actually finished the quilt that we started during that workshop (pictured above) and I was so inspired (or crazy!) to buy two more of his patterns/fabric.  I started the one to the left in the fall of 2010.  I only completed 4 blocks and I put it away.  Well it is back out!  I am cutting all the pieces and I have completed 2 blocks.  There are 30 pieces in this 5" block.  It is paper pieced and it is quite the challenge to follow the pattern because the individual pieces are just slivers.  One block took me over an hour to complete.  I am hoping that is because I had to get back into the groove of how this block is constructed.  I have 26 more blocks to complete before I can begin assembly!  So I will just keep "chugging" along with this project so that I can unload it from the UFO Train! 

Do you have a project that you have set aside because of the complicated nature of the pattern?

Project One is completed and I have moved on to the next!  Yes, this is a Christmas table runner!  Some of you may think I am really far behind, but I like to think I am on the ball for Christmas 2013.  Maybe I should start my Christmas Cards now and they may get done for the 2013 season! That is a little bit too organized for me. 

I still have lots of UFO's to complete, so stay tuned to see what is next!  How many projects to you have waiting to be completed?  Join me on the UFO train and send me pictures of your completed projects.  I love to see what everyone is working on!

Over the Christmas Holiday I took one look (actually many looks!) into my sewing room and decided it was time to go in there and do some organizing.  It took me 4 whole days to get the room in order!  I went through every book, pattern, fabric, and kit to decide what could stay and what had to go.  All unstarted projects were put into a plastic bin (okay, many plastic bins) and unfinished projects were put into another.  Twenty nine projects were in some state of near doneness (I don't think that's a word, but it best describes the projects).  So, since the new year was fast approaching and everyone was talking about New Years Resolution, I decided to jump on the UFO Train and start finishing up my projects.  I am sure I will find many friends on this train!  This was a project that needed to be quilted. Done! Check that off the list! All it needs now is binding.  That will be done this evening, maybe.  After all it is Friday and that means date night with the hubby!