Week Nine- Second UFO finished!

Today we leave on our trip to Chile.   Since I still have a little time before heading to the airport, I wanted to share my 2nd Finally Finished Object with you.   Some of you may have seen it before the binding was done at the last guild meeting.   Well, I am happy to say that the binding is done and it is safely packed in a suitcase ready to be given to Monica,  my Sister-in-Law.  This project was only about 3 years old, so it was rather new to my UFO stash.  I am glad to be able to cross it off of my list.

Actually, I have the rest of the members of the Finally Finished Challenge to thank for keeping me accountable to my goal of finishing projects.   By agreeing to be UFO chair this year, I became accountable to all of you and am trying to meet my objective of finishing projects.  In this first 9 weeks I have discovered that finishing UFO's has a lot in common with losing weight.   For those of you who don't know me well, in the last 2 years I lost over 50 lbs with Weight Watchers and have so far kept it off for 7 months.  There was a lot of accountability in that for me and now with the challenge I feel it again.  Whenever I blog, it reminds me of my goal of finishing projects and helps keep me focused on the next one.  I may not finish projects quickly, but I am keeping at it.  Sometimes I just get a quilt pinned to the frame.. a little thing, but sometimes I only lost 4 ounces, also a little thing.  But little things add up and accountability to this blog helps me to be accountable to all of you!  And everyone that signed a card for the challenge became accountable to the goal they set.   I hope that you all reach yours.   I will try to post next week from Chile, but until then Chao!--Vicki

Week 8- The Magic of Deadlines

Hi everyone,  I hope this finds you all enjoying the spring weather....I have been using the nice days to get the yard semi-ready for planting, but have been supressing the urge to "dig in the dirt" and plant things until we are back from our trip to Chile.

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been working on a quilt to take to my sister-in-law as a house warming gift.  My deadline for completion was this week, and I am pleased to report that even with a second picked out (but much smaller) ball of thread it is finished! And, a couple days early to boot.  For me, there is something about having a hard deadline to meet that makes me find a little more time in each day to work on my UFO's.  Now I have to decide which project to tackle next.   I guess I will decide while I am on my trip.  Based on my success with deadlines, whichever project I pick to work on will have a deadline for completion....it helps me focus on what needs to be done.  I think I have always been this way, although while in college there were many things done at the last minute to make the deadline. I did less procrastinating on projects in my work life because of potential consequences and now I am a little better at planning ahead, but deadlines still help!

I think that they helped Patti finish one of her UFO's because she needed to send it off somewhere.  So, deadlines are like magic, they help us to create time and get things done.  Give it a try and let me know if it helps you!

I don't know if I will get a chance to post the next 2 weeks or not because of our trip to Chile, but I will try.  Tuesday we got an e-mail from two of my sister-in laws asking me to teach them how to quilt while we are there.  While they knit, weave and do  other things, quilting is something that is not common in Chile (although I did see a quilt shop in Santiago).  They thought it would be nice to learn something completely new.   I am taking them a rotary cutter, mat, ruler, some fabric and a few ideas for a couple of simple projects.  Wish me luck because I speak a little Spanish and they know a little English which will make things interesting!  Hopefully I can post some pictures from our sewing session.

Until next time, happy quilting.  Best, Vicki

Week 7- Time challenges

Hi Everyone, can't believe that this is week 7 already.  We continue to have a great response with another 10-12 folks signing up for the challenge at the last guild meeting.  Folks have started to finish things and we have quite a few entries for the first quarter.   I am making progress on the quilt I plan to take to Chile in a couple of weeks. I have most of the quilting done, just have to take it off the frame and turn it to do the side borders.  Will get to this once I get this post done.   Am also working on some Little Dresses for Africa that I plan to have done by Monday too so I think that I will be sewing a lot this weekend!

Last week took a short trip to Michigan to see my Mom and some other family members.  Has a great time!  While there we had a celebration for my Mom and Step-dad's 31st wedding anniversary.  It was a wonderful day with them. Also got to see my nephew's son play in a basketball game, fun time.  We stayed with my brother Terry and his wife Carol.   Carol is one of my favorite people and we always have fun together.   Carol is a nationally recognized fiber artist and is probably best known for her dolls, but she has many pieces in galleries in Michigan and has been featured in several shows. Last year, one of her dolls made it to the Houston show.  I took photographs of some of her work and in one photo you will see one of a series of mixed media torsos that she has done recently. After spending time with her, I always find myself inspired to try new things.  I hope you enjoy seeing some of her work here.

I also have a photo of a quilt that Sylvia finished on her new quilting machine!  It is beautiful and Sylvia now has a FFO (finally finished object) to be proud of!

My tip this month is to be persistent.  Keep working on project a little at a time, even if the working is just trying to figure out when you will have time to quilt.  I am also trying to re-organize my sewing room so that I am more efficient when I go in there.  It is a work in progress, but then so am I!

Until next time, hope you enjoy the photos, and keep the FFO's coming!-- Best, Vicki

Week Six- Finished Projects

After our last Guild meeting I was quite excited because even more people signed up for the Finally Finished challenge and there have been at least 6 completed projects so far!  We now have 45 people signed up for the challenge who want to finish a combined total of 173 projects....that's a lot of quilting by the end of November!  I am posting a few of the projects that were completed and displayed during Show and Tell.  Can't wait to see what projects are completed by the next meeting!

I have made some good progress on the quilt that is on my machine, although I have to admit that yesterday I spent most of my time working on taxes (Yech!).  Today I hope to get another couple of passes done.  Now that I have the bobbin situation taken care of, it is going much better!  Hopefully this will be added to  the list of completed UFO's soon.  I also have to confess that I still have some things in my sewing room to put back together after my trip to Bethelwoods..right now I am walking around the piles!

I won't get much done this week as I will be going to visit my Mom in MI for a few days.  Look forward to getting back at it in earnest next week.  Will take some hand work along in the meantime.  My tip for the week, when you are quilting, turn on some music in the background.  I find that the music helps me focus on the work at hand and when I am on my quilting machine helps me to get into a rhythm.

Until next time...keep quilting!   Best, Vicki