UFO Finished!

Here is the black and red quilt that I finished yesterday. I'm quite happy with the results. This top was made as part of a challenge I did a couple of years ago with Bren. We both received the same quilting calendar for Christmas and decided to do some challenges. We would pick a pattern and both do it, but not talk about our fabrics, etc, then get together and show our tops that had the same pattern but our own fabric choices. We sometimes did a second top that we didn't speak about at all. During the course of that year, I made 20 quilt tops, 7 table runner tops and 4 placemat tops. That was 2006 and since then many of them have been quilted. Part of the challenge for me was to make them without buying fabric and, other than having to buy muslin for background, I was able to meet that challenge.

I'm only a few leaves away from finishing the first topper so that's first up today. I also hope to mark, baste and begin the quilting on this one. I'm also anxious to continue the quilting on the quilt I just moved to my hoop. It had been started on the frame, but I was finding it hard to sit there and work this time. With the weather being cold, I was enjoying moving to a more comfortable place to sit and having a nice warm quilt in my lap, so the frame came down for now and will probably come back out in the summer time, when it's uncomfortable to have a big quilt in my lap.

I'm going to try piecing at least a few bowties each day in an effort to get those finished as well. Some days I might get on a roll and do more, but if I commit to 5 a day eventually those will be done, too. Along the same vein, I think I'll also commit to basting to freezer paper 10 leaves for the Bay Leaf Quilt as I'd like to get the applique going on that one, too, but the leaves are scrappy and I need to have quite a few done before I can start to applique to get good distribution of the colors.

Finally, thanks to Bren, I'm going to do something I very rarely do and post a picture of me with Ruthie. I hate pictures of myself, I'm not photogenic at all, but with some of the weight off and my little dolly in my lap I'll take the leap. I'm ready to get started on what I hope is a very quilty day!

Happy Quilting!

Sue and Ruthie