Finish-A-Long 2014: My 1st Quarter List

"Priorities" is my 'one little word' for 2014. Remember? Last year's word was "finish". And since finishing things is still a priority for me, I've decided to, once again, join in the Finish-a-long as a way to motivate myself to get those WIP out of the closet and on to beds. I'm listing 4 quilts for this first quarter, which will end March 31. Here goes:

1. Little Sister quilt: This simple one patch was originally going to be a Christmas gift for one of my grand daughters. Now, I'm aiming  for Valentine's Day. It needs a back pieced and then quilted and bound. The top is complete.

2. Big Sister quilt: Similar to the above quilt, but with brown included rather than navy, this top was made mostly with charm packs by Bonnie and Camille as was the quilt top above. It also needs sandwiched and quilted by February 14.

3. Juicy Fruit: Sigh. How I love where this quilt is headed, but I'm getting tired of shifting it from quarter to quarter so I am determined that this time it will become a finish! It still needs more blocks made before it can become a top and I've come up with a plan to make that happen faster! More on that soon. I have the backing all picked out...something I've been saving for just the right quilt. I haven't decided on binding though.

4. Selvage quilt: Not a good name so I'll be thinking of something better.....This is just blocks so far....and not nearly enough for a quilt. This project is so much fun to work on, but it all came to a screeching halt last fall when my husband mistakened all of my selvages for trash and, and....you can guess, right! Yes, we are speaking now. So, I've been hunting for and cutting more selvages and am ready to begin again. This time, the strips will not be stored anywhere near the waste basket, that's for sure!

Ready. Set. Go! I'm off and running. Wish me luck! Won't you join me? There are some great prizes!

Crossings: A UFO Finish!!

 Squeaking in one more UFO finish for the 4th Quarter Finish A-Long with Leanne, She Can Quilt, I am so happy to show you this colorful quilt!

 The blocks were made for me by members of the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild Scrappy Bee way back in 2011. I am excited to finally be cuddling with this quilt instead of shifting it around my sewing closet!

 I even found the perfect backing in my stash in the form of this cursive text print by ikea. 

 Straight line quilting is my favorite style for the texture it adds after a run through the washer and dryer.

Crossings is my second time making this pattern. The first quilt, X Marks the Spot,  was made in 2010 and was sent, along with others, to Rwanda where it now decorates the bed of a child at New Hope Homes.

Several have asked about the pattern for this quilt. You can find the original directions here. It's a great pattern for using up scraps!

Crossings is my second and final UFO finish for the 4th Quarter of the Finish A-long. My original list was for 3 quilts, so i will be moving the third project along to my 2014 list. Thank you, Leanne for doing such a great job of motivating me, and many others, to finish up our languishing quilts!

Take a look at all of the beautiful finishes here. If you've never tried committing to the Finish-A-Long, I highly recommend it if you like results.

For me, it meant eleven finishes in 2012 that probably would still be UFOs!

Ambrosia Reveal and the First Quarter Finish A-long Report

 My postage stamp quilt is a finish and I'm so excited about it!  Doesn't it just shout "Spring"! 

I made the blocks as leader/enders over the course of a year using 2 inch bright pastel squares from my scrap stash coupled with 2 inch Kona white squares. Did I mention that the blocks had been finished for a year? Sad, but true!

 The backing is a fun Swedish print that I purchased from Ikea last summer. Since the fabric wasn't quite wide enough, I pieced in some leftover squares and Kona white.

The quilt measures 65" X 83" and for binding I settled on a black and white stripe from the Happy line by Me and My Sisters as a contrast to the colorful piecing.

 With the busy patchwork, an all over quilting design seemed the way to go. From a white section on the back, the daisies and loops show up really well.

 My quilting adds some great texture to the front of the quilt. It will look even better after a trip through the washer and dryer! This picture shows off the colors in the quilt really well.

After lots of thought, I named my latest finish, Ambrosia because It reminds me of a big  luscious fruit salad....which has nothing to do with the fabulous green train engine. Oh, well!

Just under the wire, I'm reporting on my progress at finishing up a bunch of UFOs in 2013. Leanne is hosting a Finish-Along all year long to help keep everyone motivated. Tonight is the deadline for finishes in the first quarter. (Maybe you would like to join for the second quarter.) You can see my original list and post here.

Of the nine UFO projects that I had listed, I was only able to complete three. Do you think that maybe I was a just a bit unrealistic? 
Besides Ambrosia, here are my other two finishes:

Dipped: The top was already pieced so this was a fairly easy UFO to complete. You can see more views and details here and the "before" view here. 

 Pow: Starting out as just a few completed blocks, this twin size quilt took a lot of effort and time to complete. Because I wanted to give it as a gift for my grandson's birthday, I was super motivated to finish it. See all the beauty shots here.

 Although I can't claim "Bam" in the Finish-Along because I hadn't actually done any more than purchase the fabric for it, I consider it a finished UFO in my own mind because these two quilts 'go together' and it was also a birthday gift that I'd been putting off making. 

Progress on the other 6 projects:

Fortunate Friends: Lots of progress made, with the top almost completed.

The other 5 projects get big fat zeroes as no progress was made on them at all!  

Thank you, Leanne for helping to motivate me to keep FINISH as a priority in 2013.