Needles and Pens

This month's goal for the Patchwork Times UFO Challenge was one of the sewing projects I used to fill in for the (unbelieveable!) lack of unfinished quilts that I have left to work on. (It also provided a much-needed break after finishing my crazy-intense January project !) Lucky number 10 -- Tim's Fleece Vest -- last appeared here as a pattern, a zipper and a bunch of yellow fleece in a pile in my sewing room: All chosen by my 12-year-old son, who wanted fleece vests in his favorite color combo, yellow and black. I finished the black one right away, but then the holidays were upon us, and the yellow was put on the back burner while I focused on other projects. (Sewing clothing is not my favorite thing, so any excuse to procrastinate will do!) He seemed very happy with Vest #1. However, in the three months that followed, I never once saw him wear it. So I made a slight change in the plans and decided to go with a different pattern. This pattern is adult sized, ...

I have now officially visited all 114 links to the finished January UFOs in the Patchwork Times UFO Challenge (and with dial-up internet, that was a challenge in itself! lol) I don't know if I'll have the stamina to do so every month, but it was nice to at least once visit all of my co-challengees. What a lot of gorgeous quilts and projects, and seeing so many things being accomplished is incredibly inspiring! (If you happened to miss my own January finish, you can find it here .) Now it's on to February... and I'm having a bit of a slow start this month. Since finishing the baby quilt that I needed to do right off the bat, I've had a return of the insidious pinched nerve in my back that stopped me in my tracks a year and a half or so ago. I've gone to the chiropractor religiously since then, so I have no idea how I managed to aggravate it so badly, seemingly overnight. Could have something to do with the marathon stitching and quilting of January's UFO?...

I didn't quite accomplish as much at yesterday's sew-in as I had hoped, but I did get one project completed, my scrappy quilt top for Quilts with Love . Here's the top, before borders were added: And here is the border, in progress: Finally, the finished quilt top: Isn't it amazing what a border can do? This pattern, Tammy Tadd's Paislies on Parade , is one of many available as a free download from Camelot Cottons . I changed things up a bit, enlarging it to 84" x 54," to meet the requirements for Quilts with Love, and by making mine super scrappy. But I can see this pattern working well with all kinds of fabrics and color combinations. Now if my grandson will allow it (I'm babysitting today), I have another border I'd like to work on. Wish me luck!