UFO Challenge - top 12

For 2011 I've decided to join a couple of UFO challenges.

Judy Laquidara's is to finish (or concentrate work on) one a month. Not many photos, I'm afraid, since I'm about a thousand miles away from the stash.

1. Amish Diamonds. Started as a guild challenge, until I realized it would be too big. Needs another round or two, borders, quilting and bound. These photos don't show it as far along as I got it before I had to set it aside.




2. My husband's Christmas quilt. I gave him squares in a box!


3. My black/white/red 9-patch & snowball quilt. This one is for me :)


4. The Karate Kid's chess quilt. Hand quilting is in progress.

5. The Lovely Daughter's cat quilt. Needs enlarging through either borders or more squares, plus cat applique. ALSO needs input from TLD, which is even more difficult.

6. My mother's 9-patch. This is an inherited UFO that dates from about 1957.

7. Love's the Only House. A small art quilt that I just need to work on.

8. Halloween wallhanging. Needs some Timtex on top to make it hang correctly, then finished quilting.

9. Christmas wallhanging. Very cool Laurel Burch panel that needs to be finished.

10. Cat/kitten quilt. Flimsy finished, made in pinks, browns, with cat and kitten pre-printed panels.

11. Memaw's flying geese. I have flying geese blocks my grandmother made that need to be made into something - most likely a wallhanging, based on how many blocks I have.

12. Wonky flannel quilt - something else inherited from my grandmother. I've had the flannel for sashing it for YEARS now.

That's the top 12 that don't have some other deadline :)

Fun in the Florida (chilly) sun

It's been pretty cold here, so no beach play for us :( Looks like swimsuits will go home unworn.

Yesterday, the Lovely Daughter and I went with my mom to the next town over to go thrift store shopping. I scored a major haul of work clothes, with 6 pairs of pants, three vests, and a cardigan. The Lovely Daughter found a couple of really nice sundresses, and of course some other stuff. Also a quilting ruler, of all things!

Today the plan was to go to the Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium. On the way there, TMOTH pointed out that we'd get there about 11, and what would we do about lunch?

I thought about other things to do, so turned into the Manatee Park. This is a little park just outside Ft. Myers whose only claim to fame is that it's next to a canal that picks up the warm wastewater from one of the FPL power plants, which attracts manatees in the cold months. I'd never stopped, but since there's been such a cold snap, I figured we'd stop and maybe see one or two, so we paid our $2 and parked.

Well:


It was amazing. Probably at least a hundred manatees, lots of babies. I think you can see a mother and baby in this next picture:


Kids had fun:


And then we went and had super pizza, were joined by the Brother, and on to the nature center. That was also fun - nature hike:


I love the palmettos:


There were also animals - natives and invasives. These included an albino raccoon, who clearly wasn't happy about being caged :(

The planetarium was actually really good - their fancy computer display wouldn't start, so they used the old-fashioned one narrated by one of the people that run the planetarium, and it was WAY better than the computer one that came after.

Burgers for dinner, and Transformers II on video for the evening. Ah. Life is good.

Merry Christmas, y'all!

Greetings from sunny Florida! We're at my brother's and mom's house.

Pre-Christmas bounty:








And this morning's present-opening frenzy:


The Lovely Daughter in her new rain boots:


She also got some blank canvases that she's supposed to paint:


The Small Man with his stocking:


And with a wolf hat:


The Karate Kid with his Swedish Fish:


And getting ready to open another present:


Brother (in green) and TMOTH:


TMOTH opening something:


and me in my Stitcher Secret Santa gift, a beautiful scarf:


Dinner was great, mostly cooked by the brother, and I got to have a nap today!

Composition book cover

A quick project I made today; a quilted cover for a composition book.

The front (or back, if it was flipped):


Inside:


Open flat to see the whole bit:


I'm really pleased with it, but have a bit of a dilemma. I originally planned to have a button closure - some sort of elastic or bias strip loop to go over a button on the front. BUT. I'm not sure that I don't like it better without a closure.

What do y'all think?

Christmas Sweatshop 2011

Lots still to do here before Christmas.

This is a Secret Santa gift:


It's quilted, and just needs the binding finished and a label before I can mail it off. Yay!

I made a top for a friend that still needs quilting, but don't seem to have a picture of it yet. It may be an after- Christmas gift! It's black and white with blue and teal and green bits.

The Lovely Daughter said that she'd prefer purple and yellow if I made her one:
Front:


Back:


The Karate Kid wanted blue and purple and red:


and Small Man likes "rainbow" colors:


I woke up yesterday with a vicious headache. I didn't go to work, but just laid around on the couch and watched TV all day. Pizza from Julliano's (yummmmm...) for dinner. Work today, and hopefully quilting tonight!