October 2018 OMG Completion

Why do I so often set tough or impossible goals? It might have been easier to just say I will make one block. My October OMG  was to post about 15 unfinished quilts that I had not ever posted about before. I thought I had written up most of the 15 posts back in June but, alas, I had far more work to do than I had realized. I looked up 7 ufos and photographed them. A couple were still awol but eventually found. 

At the beginning of the month, my Sweet Farmer went away for 5 days to a big cattle show in Madison Wisconsin. Kind of nice to see one of the cows he sold a couple of years ago. She placed well in her age class.
The little girls were at their mom's and I was home alone most of the day so I took the whole day and got the posts completed and even scheduled them to post throughout the month. Now if I can only put this kind of effort into writing my book or doing school work. 

I finally figured out how to schedule a post. 

• write up the post 
• save it
• find schedule option on right under post setting
• click it open
• choose set date and time
• pick a date  (Oct 24)
• looks like we can pick a time also
• click done
• click save 
• not done yet
• now click publish 
• if you go back and edit the post you have to click save and publish again
• now it is sitting in posts scheduled 

My intent for this was not to actually start working on any of them, but to chronicle part of my life journey through some of my quilt starts and why they did not get done. Fact is, I am way ahead of the game for next year's ufo challenges.  Gretchen tells me to pick the one closest to completion to work on. Good advice. But I will be leaving for India in 12 days. My plan will be to take along a few blocks for hand applique. 

Blessings,
Chris

UFOs #26 Midget Blocks 2012

Since I was all finished school, I thought I had lots of time to play. I discovered the Midget Blocks at sentimental stitches in 2012. I was still trying to figure out the on-line free block of the week and month process. I bought the first 50 patterns then started saving the free weekly ones and any that had already been available prior to that. I also bought the  midget applique blocks .  Then I found the extra 4 1/2 inch blocks over at dearjane.com/bom. So I have them all. A lot of them. Maybe 250 or so. Somewhere along the way, I printed off ALL the patterns and put them into a binder. Then I started printing the foundation patterns onto foundation paper. I was on a roll with my preparations. 

Years earlier I had started collecting 1930's reproduction fabrics in anticipation of making an old fashioned Double Wedding Ring Quilt. But, I found an original top in excellent condition so never actually started it but had hundreds of small fabrics. I even bought a bunch of solids. I thought I would use these for the Midget Blocks when I ever got around to making them.

I had completed my Master's degree and had not yet jumped into the doctorate so I spent a lot of time on the computer downloading patterns, printing them off and filing them away to make up some day. I was now retired and no longer milking cows but still drove tractor. A lot. Because I could. I did not start blogging until a whole year later.

This brings to an end the ufo's in my quilt cupboard that I have been writing about. All my other ufos have been chronicled here on my blog that I started in 2013. I have at least a dozen kits I bought and did not make. Yet. I also have piles of fabric I bought for specific quilts not yet started. I had intended to eventually make scrap quilts, but I do not really have scraps left over from quilts that are not finished. So I have not actually started this one but am ready. One of these days. 

What I do have now is a great recollection of memories through some difficult years in my life that will be very helpful for the second book that I am writing. It is about menopause and anger and depression. Spoiler alert! It ends well because I am still here to tell about it.

Blessings,
Chris

UFO # 25 Farmer's Wife 2012

I did not actually start this quilt. What I did do was buy the book. Then read it. After that, I considered making it. There were no applique blocks and I was okay with that. But the patterns were a nightmare of some 80 templates that had to be printed off the CD, sized correctly, then created out of something. 
However, I was in possession of EQ6 at the time so I found many of the patterns in the library and drafted out all the rest. The one smart thing I did was to print off all the patterns. Then my laptop crashed. Yup.

But, the laptop still had 2 weeks of warranty and they put in a new hard drive. It almost appeared that I had lost 5 years of research papers, 10 thousand photos and a lot of other stuff. Then I remembered that I had backed up everything the end of March so everything was on my fancy-dancy external hard drive. All I really lost were the 120 Farmer's Wife patterns. But I did print them all off so I was good. And the one research paper that was not backed up, well I had emailed a copy to my doctoral facilitator so I was able to retrieve a copy. Then didn't I misplace my external hard drive a couple of years later but eventually found it in a box of left over bits marked Dear Jane leftovers. That thing had my entire  Denine manuscript on it. Good thing  I had a floppy disc with it from ten years earlier that we got put into a jump drive. But I digress.  

That summer I started my doctorate in Christian counseling and finally changed internet servers so I could stream lectures and I took a team to India. I had no idea how much time is involved equipping 10 people to join me on one of my adventurous ministry trips. Also, that summer another nephew was getting married so I made them a 10 day quilt with 2 dislocated ribs and how in the world a massage therapist's business card ended up on my desk I have no idea, but she was amazing. Too bad she moved away.  

So, in case I forget what other things I am not working on, I am ready to start this one. I love being a farmer's wife.

Blessings,
Chris 

UFO # 24 GO Not So Fast 2012

May 2012 I graduated with a Masters in Theological Studies. It took me 4 years. I had taken a year off for health reasons. In May of that year, I flew out to New Brunswick to visit my daughter and this time  took my new toy - a GO Baby cutter and a couple of dies and some fabric named Bread and Butter. We were going to make a quilt quickly. Well, we got 16 twelve inch squares cut and sewn together. I brought them home in my carry on bag and put them in a box. We talked about the possibilities often. But that is all. 

It was much later that I found the Winterthur panels for my Morrell and thought they might just play nicely here. However, the panels are all rectangular not square. Until I put these all up on the big design wall, I had no idea how good they looked. Much different than in a box in the closet with a pile of other fabrics. Now to calculate how to make that middle section square.

Blessings,
Chris 

UFOs #23 Blue and White $10 Quilt 2009

My local quilt shop has been running a $10 Quilt Class for quite a few years. The rules are simple. 

• To join you pay $10
• If you miss a class you pay $10 
• If you are late you pay $10 
• If your block is not done you pay $10

I participated for five years. The best I ever did was pay $20 and the most was $30. We met once month for half an hour. There would be choice of a hard or easy block and often two different colourways to choose from. 

It wasn't that I did not get one of the blocks done. I missed a month and the block was not done so I never finished it. So often I would be sitting up late the night before to get it done. I did  not always get it pressed. On the final month, we were given our pattern and fabric packet, but there was no pressure to get it made since the next year's class began the following month. I did complete two. And why did I stop going to the class? I joined  just-takes-2 block of the month with Sentimental Stitches and Dear Jane. 

Blessings,
Chris

UFOs #22 Sense and Sensibilities 2007

I had often read about quilt challenges and when one was offered at a local quilt shop I could not resist joining the fun. That year there were several fabric collections from the Jane Austin Era. I bought fat quarters, fat eighths and a bit of yardages. Radiant Stars were popular in the early 1800's so I decided to use that as a starting place. This was to be a mini sized quilt and I started sewing up one inch diamonds. 

In the summer of 2007 I was doing 2 distance ed courses for school, mentoring a couple of 20 somethings, doing peer counseling at a pregnancy and resource center and of course, milking cows. And, I had started no less than 6 quilts that year. I did not get it done in time for the challenge deadline so into a box it went.  I have a whole bin of Jane Austin reproduction fabrics. Maybe I could pull these out for Mrs Billings to keep the historicity of the era. The quilt shop closed. 

Blessings,
Chris 

UFO #21 Reminiscence 2007

In August 2005 my Sweet Farmer and I went to the Ohio State Fair. He went to see Guernsey Cows and I went to see quilts. Two quilts caught my attention. One of them was Reminiscence by The Rabbit Factory. A couple of years later, I found the pattern and entire quilt kit for half price at a closeout sale at a local quilt shop. I did not need to think twice about buying the thing.

I had just enough of a white tone on tone fabric for the background. I started it Dec 2007.

I was in the final year of my undergrad and I was doing an internship, 2 distance ed courses, individual counseling, I was still milking cows every day AND my first grand baby came into my life. I started spending a lot more time with my son who was not willing to give up all his nights playing yet and his wife went back to work waitressing 3-4-5 nights a week.  So, I started Reminiscence. All those little freezer paper bits in the box. I found a portable lamp and spent many evenings tracing and cutting. This was the fifth quilt I started that year. I completed one 2 years later. 

I even took one block with me to India Feb 2009. That was the last block I worked on. How I hated pushing the needle through all that dried glue with the freezer paper still inside, and tone on tone fabric is not so easy to hand stitch through. This was before I discovered needle turned hand applique. But then, I started my first Dear Jane quilt and this changed the direction of my quilting journey.  Machine applique just might be the solution here. 

Blessings,
Chris