Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Myra's 2011 PhD (Projects Half Done) Challenge

After reading about Myra's 2011 PhD Challenge over at Quilting in My Pyjamas I decided I'd jump on the Projects Half Done bandwagon.  You see, Projects Half Done could be my middle name.  I've got one flimsy that is probably getting upwards of fifteen years old.  I'm a much better starter than a finisher.  And in the past, I've been a much better piecer than quilter.  I'm trying to remedy the latter by learning how to FMQ.  That said, I'm only committing two projects to Myra's PhD Challenge, as life has a habit of getting in the way of my quilting goals.  Plus, I reserve the right to start a new project and live with the guilt of that fifteen year old flimsy.

PhD #1:  The Scrappy Star.  This project is at least ten years old.  It's now gone through two major moves.  In my defense, this quilt is hand-pieced and the blocks and the inner checked border will be hand-quilted.  In the interest of having this one finally done, I'm going against my obsessive-compulsive nature and will FMQ the last two borders.  At this point, I have 1 1/2 blocks and part of the checked border left to hand-quilt.  All  of the two outer borders still need to be quilted.





PhD #2 is sampler from a block swap.  The swap was called "You Pick" and was hosted by a gal I became acquainted with on RCTQ (rec.crafts.textiles.quilting), a quilting newsgroup.  Each participant chose a focus fabric and sent a 12" square of it to the other participants to make a block.  My focus fabric was a pansy fabric.  I received some gorgeous blocks back.




I have begun free motion quilting the sandwich, and have five of the sixteen blocks done.  I'm doing the sashing as I go.


As you can see since these projects are really more than "half done", I should easily be able to finish them by June.  Now, I only hope that it's true!

10 comments:

  1. Oh, cool, I'm doing this too! I'm going to have 6, though - all things for my house, which is why they haven't been finished before now! Maybe with 6 I can manage to finish one each month....

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  2. I get so distracted with lots of great projects -- I hope I can keep my commitment. Your quilts are so gorgeous. Wishing you the best of luck (and zero distractions!)

    xo -El

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  3. Girlfriend...you've got some mighty beautiful UFO's there! I can't wait for you to finish them. It looks like you have already put so much work into them!

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  4. People often say to me, "You have too much much time on your hands." As that's not even a remotely accurate statement, those who know this comment instead, "Where do you find the time?" Despite being asked this many times a day, I'm often at the loss for an accurate answer and usually stumble over my words on the way out which makes it end up sounding like a silly excuse more than anything.

    Today, my wife answered that question for me, and I was shocked at her answer, mostly because the more I thought about it, she was probably entirely correct. She said, "He doesn't watch television."

    This goes back to your "music in the background" post the other day. If I can put on my headphones and listen to some non-lyrical arrangement, it focuses me. And while I admire people who can do arts & crafts while watching TV (my wife has this down to a science), I find it wholly distracting.

    Which brings me to this question - What is it you like to do while quilting?

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  5. Good to see you rise to the challenge, and such challenging projects they are. Those stars and points make me want to pull out the book you gave me! I will, but I better work on a few others already started...
    :-}pokey

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  6. Oh my - those are beautiful - I'm looking forward to seeing the finishes!!! Love the butterflies in the border!

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  7. Such pretty quilts to finish! It's going to feel so good to get these PhDs done!

    P.S. - What is the name of that last block with the quadruple pinwheel thing going on? It's stunning!

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  8. OOOO! I just love that star quilt. Such a fascinating pattern.
    Your quilting is looking good on the pansy quilt. Keep it up.

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  9. Wow - you don't ever do anything simple, do you? ;)

    Love that scrappy star quilt!

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Your comments brighten my day. :-)