Whoo Hoo

I really actually feel like I need a whoop whoop for this one.  At the beginning of this month I discovered the great One Monthly Goal linky party at Elm Street Quilts.  The timing was apt because I'd just got my dreaded box of UFOs out of the basement, sorted through them and decided to make myself accountable for actually finishing a few.

I chose to set the goal of finishing a scrap quilt top that I began making for my nephews around 4 years ago and despite having been super busy clearing out the basement and the garage and fitting sewing sessions in between child minding and trips to the thrift store and garbage dump I have done it.  Here it is, I am really pleased with how it's looking.

Anyone who saw the previous post will notice that the design has undergone a bit of a change, before there were puffs of smoke where now there are trees.  Basically I decided that the smoke was too hard (sad I know) but also I remembered another UFO lurking at the bottom of the box and decided to kill two birds with one stone.  I deconstructed this even older project

I made these trees around six years ago, I think they were inspired by this Anna Maria Horner 'Feather Bed' pattern.  I'm very happy with how they turned out as background, I like the feeling of the deep, dark woods that they give, maybe there's a Gruffalo in there.  Also the train has changed direction!  This is because when I looked at the pictures of the design my kids originally came up with it was this way around.

I used lots of fairly haphazard techniques for the different blocks.  The train is appliqued with blanket stitch, mostly by machine with a bit of handwork.  The sleepers are strips that were sewn together then sliced length ways and flipped with the background inserted to represent the tracks.

So what of the smoke puffs?  Never fear, I think I will use them on the back for a stepping stone type effect.  I'm thinking something like this.

I'm really hoping to get the back finished over the weekend and the whole thing quilted and bound by next Friday.  If I do I can get it in the mail and with a lot of luck it may reach England in time for Christmas.  Fingers and toes crossed for that one.

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict and One Monthly Goal (OMG) at Elm Street Quilts.

One Finished Top and a UFO Inventory

If you read any other posts on this blog you will notice that there isn't a whole lot of sewing going on.  This is because Mrs Parker's Blog is a motivational exercise for me as I try to clear out my house.  So far it's working quite well.  I post twice a week; on Tuesdays and Fridays and for each post I must have cleared out and organised something (be it big or small) in my house.

Today's organisational challenge is my big box of UFOs.  I have decided to get them all out, post them here and set myself a time limit for finishing them, so here goes.

Here is a top I finished around 5 years ago and this is my Finish it up Friday.  It's made from a batik jelly roll I bought because I loved the earthiness of the colour pallet and is supposed to be a sort of abstract representation of satellite images of Southern Ontario that you can see on Google Maps, the black lines are roads, small green blocks are wood lots and the strips are fields.

The reason I never got further than this (apart from laziness and lack of staying power) is that I couldn't decide whether to put a border round it or not.  I had the idea to use a mitred border to almost make it look like a framed map on a wall, I even made the fabric pieces for the frame.  If I do that it will look something like this...

So what do you think?  I am still really not sure what would look best and would be very grateful for any feedback.

My next UFO is actually leftovers from another quilt, you can see the original one in this post from The Parkers Abroad.  It is based on Elizabeth Hartman's Xylophone quilt pattern in her book A Modern Patchwork.  I totally over estimated the fabric I would need for my xylophones and ended up with all these strips to use up.  I'm pretty happy with them and I love the happy yellows but I've not found a background I like yet.

Third is this scrap quilt I started for my nephews, I'd better get on with it or they will receive it when they're teenagers and not be impressed.  The train blocks were designed all over the floor by Jacob and Rose one day when I left my scrap box out.  This quilt is my One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts, my goal is to finish the top by the end of November.

And finally, this is my most recently started quilt, I blogged about it here.  It is also inspired by an Elizabeth Hartman design, Bird Bath, from A Practical Guide to Patchwork.

So now I just have to get on with finishing them all up.  I am going to see if I can motivate myself to finish some aspect ready for Finish it up Friday each month.  My aim for November is to have the scrap quilt top done.  If my 'proper' sewing machine is back from its spa break I would like to have the whole thing completed so I can post it off to England in time for Christmas but that might be a little ambitious.

So now I'm all done I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts , Can I get a Whoop Whoop and One Monthly Goal then I'd better get sewing!