A finished UFO and What Came Out of the Rest

 It's early Easter Monday morning. I've had my breakfast and brewed coffee. I love early mornings; enjoying the first cuppa of the day, the quietness (hubby still sleeping) and the best of all; reading latest blog posts to see what dear quilters have been up to lately. You all are so creative and especially I love the RSC challenge many of you participate in. Lots of great projects!

What have I been up to the last weeks? Busy sewing, of course! The best of all, I have a FINISHED UFO; kitchen wall organizer! 

It became a UFO because I dreaded the inside out pockets. IMO; I never get the corners right. I spent quite some time trying to figure out if it could be done different. That failed too, so I decided to go for it! In the end, it didn't turn out that bad? I added Prairie Points to one side of each pockets and it has a sleeve for easy hanging. A fun project to make! Measures 16.50 x 32.50" / 42 x 82.50 cm. Pockets are 8.25" / 21 cm deep and 7.50" / 19 cm wide. For the back I used a floral white on cream.

Here's the second one

This is how I wanted to make the first one, but could not figure out how to add the pockets since they have different placements. It has the same pocket panels as the above one. Measures 12.75" x 34.25" / 32.50 x 87 cm. 

A large table runner

This is approximately 3/4 of the runner - LOL. I was too lazy to empty the sewing table (which is big enough) to take a proper photo. You get the idea; it's the same pattern at both ends. Measures 18.25" x 52.25" / 46.50 x 133 cm

In my previous post I had prepped for some place mats, which is done

Four round place mats, 13.75" / 35 cm diameter

Set of two square place mats, 13.50" / 34.50 cm

...and another set, 13.50" / 34.50 cm

Thank you for your suggestions to turn the small tomato piece into a trivet

I listened, and here it is, 10.75" / 27 cm square

As I've mentioned earlier, one of my goals this year is to use up fabrics from my stash. After finishing the above items, I had some bits and pieces left. A bit too big to be cut into squares and strips, so I made...

...four round trivets / pot holders, 7.25" / 18 cm diameter. As you can see, there's not four, but three. How come? 'Of course' I ran out of bobbin thread on the last one! More on the way, should get it by next week. 

Two square trivets / pot holders, 9.50" / 24 cm

I need the same bobbin thread (green) to finish this rectangle trivet (plus the round one).

Do you keep records (invoices) of fabrics/notions you buy? I do, and just for fun I had a look in the files to see when I purchased these fabrics. Surprise! Purchased February 2012! My goodness! I didn't realize it's that long ago! Well, you know, some fabrics are too beautiful to be cut or I didn't know what to make.

Fabric purchased; 2 yards of the text fabric and 1 yard each of the others. 

   I didn't use all. There's about 7/8 yards left of the cream, used it only for the table runner. 1/4 yard left of the green, one 2.25" strip will be used for binding the rectangle trivet and there's about 0.15 yards left of the red. The green as well as the cream for backing are from my stash too. 

Small bits and pieces are cut into 1.5", 2", 2.5", 3" squares and a few 1.5" strips. 

I forgot to take a photo of the strips. Nothing to show really; a couple of strips from the text fabric, the vegetable/fruit one and the green fabric. 

Now to wait patiently for the thread to arrive to finish the last two items. 

What's up next? I'm not sure... I have some non-quilting related projects coming up, but not sure when I'll get to it. It needs some planning! I've finished a cross stitch project and currently doing a small cross stitched Easter bunny, but that will be for another post. 

HAPPY QUILTING!

 

Sunday, Torrential Rain and Progess on a UFO

 It's the end of the rainy- and cyclone season, or 'summer' as the locals call it. We have had a couple of cyclones that came pretty close (the eye). Fortunate not much damage to our property, except some banana trees that went down and a huge branch off a tree in our garden. Lots of rain which is very good for the water reservoirs. At the second half of March we got some sunny days and we were able to spend four days doing some long overdue yard work, before it started raining again! Since Thursday we've had heavy / torrential rain, which has caused floods and roads closed in some areas. One place recorded 241.8 mm / 9.5 inches in 24 hours. Not so much where we live, but still a lot. Right now (Sunday morning) it looks like it's going to clear up a bit, but heavy showers are still expected. Just read we've got one months rain in two days. 

In such weather, what else to do than hunker down in the sewing area (dining room) working on a UFO, other items and my ODG (one-day-goal). I don't remember if I mentioned it earlier; one of my goals this year is to make one 36-patches quilt block (2.5" squares) each day. 

So far, so good; I have accomplished January 31 blocks, February 28 blocks and March 31 blocks. From earlier I have December 2021 31 blocks. I've already done 4 blocks for April. Did you do the math?? 125 blocks x 36 = 4500 squares pieced together! It HAS made a dent in the boxes; reduced from 5 to 3 and soon there will be 2 boxes only. I have also made two twin quilts using 2.5" squares. I'm beginning to run out of red squares - as if I don't have more uncut! LOL   

Here they are, Dec 2021, Jan, Febr & March 2022.

I drafted the above paragraphs yesterday (already Monday morning). Now I'm going to tell you what I did yesterday; I worked on bindings! Not my favorite thing to do, but it has to be done. The one to the left is the UFO; vegetable wall organizer.

Binding is tread basted to the table runner and the two kitchen organizers. The backing is from my stash.

I love using up fabric (these from the same fabric line), which resulted in eight place mats! 

There will be four round place mats. Isn't this fabric yummy? 

..and four square place mats

How come there's one orphan tomato panel left?!

 

What can I turn it into? I think I know; a small wall hanging? Any other suggestions appreciated.  

Attacking Another UFO

 To those of you set on 'noreply commet'; thank you for your comments on my previous post!

So, I hope I'm on the right track with my UFO's. After finishing the Advent Calendar, I pulled out another UFO. This is #1 on my UFO list; Vegetables Wall Organizer

It was also on my UFO list 2021, but since I was struggling to make it my way and not what the pattern said, it was put aside. 

Bright and colorful fabric I bought.... when? Can't even remember! lol

After almost breaking my brain to figure out how to add pockets (my way!) to a kitchen wall organizer (#1), I gave up and that is why it remained a UFO. 

Working on it again, after more brain work, I gave up and followed the pattern instruction; make the pockets and turn them inside out. Now they have to be quilted before I stitch them to the background.

These are the first pockets I made (wall organizer #2). This is how I wanted to make #1, but with two pockets to the left and one to the right, I couldn't figure out how to do it without messing up the text on the fabric. Perhaps I'm silly?! lol

In addition to the two wall organizers, I made a table runner too. 

Another goal for 2022 is to use up fabric from my stash and only buy fabric I need to finish items. I have more left from this fabric line and I want to use up as much as I can. Not sure what I'm going to make, but I'm leaning towards 2-4 place mats.

The last week has been so hot and humid, hopefully the last scorching days before it gets cooler. Can't wait! Feeling drained just to go grocery shopping down the road and back. We took advantaged of a couple of sunny mornings (no rain during the nights) and did some long overdue yard work. It's way too hot working outside after 11:00 a.m. More needs to be done, but it has to wait, we need to 'recover' a few days. 

Oh, and we have two helpers in the garden; two feral kitties, who are not so feral anymore!

This is Tikk-Tikk

... and here is Tokk-Tokk

Cat mama moved them (they were four) from somewhere to our garden, under some tin sheets (Dec last year). I didn't have the heart not to feed them. Cat mama moved the other two from our garden and I don't know what has happened to them, they may be gone. These curious ones have already explored the kitchen and the lower ground floor! Tokk-Tokk allows me to pet him, while Tikk-Tikk is more shy. We lost our beloved old cat last year and I love having cats again, even if they are outdoor cats.