Connie - I love your pillow! Congrats on persevering. Sounds like you had quite the experience. It paid off...the pillow is lovely! https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/heart.gif

I have my basket blocks on the design wall. I had my second COVID shot on Saturday and haven't been up to arranging them to do the setting. I'm thinking this coming weekend. In the meantime I've been sewing strings!

This is really pretty - I love that style of tree! https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/heart.gif

I'm trying to design an appliqued Northwoods window valance but I didn't even think of looking for an embroidered bear - the embroidery and applique look so nice together. :)

If I find a good bear design I will take your advice and embroider before quilting. Thanks!

Neat pillow, Connie. Congratulations on getting it done!

Nice job, ret Teach..and you have a take away learning experience as well. Kudos for the finish,

Once again, I've apologize for my absence. I've ridden 1368 miles in April. Right now, K is helping me quilt an overlarge quilt for my grandson's graduation gift. He's very into Dragons & Dungeons and Magic the Gathering. I found different fabrics perfect for him, with dragons & characters from such games. I really hope he likes it! I think I have enough fabric for a pillow case or 2. I've also finished piecing my queen size quilt with Stonehenge Solstice fabric. No UFOs other than Solstice, which is resting until I finish my grandson's quilt. So between riding, working on a new quilt, working on more lap quilts for our rest home, and enjoying my yard, I haven't been on the boards for about 10 or 11 days.
My 2000+ mile ride was scheduled to start day after tomorrow, but most of Texas is having big rain storms, with hail mixed in, so our trip has been put off two days. Personally, my car was hammered by hail the size of jawbreakers on April 13, another distraction from the board. It's safe to drive, with only cosmetic damage.

That's a lot of miles - I know you have a blast on those road trips. :)

But, I'm sorry your car was damaged. :( That was a heckuva storm.

I haven't got any UFOs to report, either - I've only completed a flimsy that's been sitting in blocks since 2011 - finished/not finished - the completed tops are starting to pile up! :D

Like you, there are outdoor things to take care of and "popup" quilts we need to make. Enjoy your marathon ride!

Conchalea- that's a lot of miles! Even with all that riding, you and K have sure managed to get a lot of quilts done for a good cause. Have fun on your next ride!

No UFO finishes for me this month. I have been trying to get a couple of WIPs done so they don’t become UFOs and the UFO I had planned to work on for April is no longer calling to me https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images...es/biggrin.png. Will have to sort through the stack and see if there’s something that appeals for a May finish.

Rob

My current projects are just that..current projects! Can't let them become UFO's!

Nothing for me this month, I pulled the borders for a UFO but it never even got startedhttps://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/frown.png. April is a difficult month to sew in Minnesota, when we have nice weather everyone gets out in the yards to recover from the snow. Most of the weekends this month have been nice and 6 doctors visits ended up eating up another junk of time. But I'm happy, all the chemo treatments are done and my port has been removed my doctor doesn't want to see me for 6 months!! It feels good to know at the moment I'm cancer free and doctor free!

Such great news, Dedemac!

Conchalea: I was wondering how your rides were going. Bummer to your vehicle.

Dedemac: Such great news! It's supposed to be 80's tomorrow for our area. Beautiful May 1st weather for us Minnesotans.

Thank you, yes tomorrow is going to be awesome, Connie we are only about 36 miles apart. For are area that is almost next door.https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/wink.png

Great news, Dedemac!


Rob

Congratulations on being free for 6 months! I am guessing that it will feel good to be able to forget about for spans of time now that the port is out. Enjoy spring. Michigan is about the same. The peepers are peeping and the new gosling are out and about. Watching for baby sandhill cranes. They usually show up about Mother's Day.

No finishes for me and minimal quilting at all. Real focused on teaching this semester. I have a quilt retreat in about 5 weeks. I hope to layer four or five of my UFOs. A small group of about 12 attending in a large room that usually has about 35-40 quilters in at a normal retreat. We each get two 8 foot tables so there will be lots of social distancing and masks. So I should be catching up in June/July on some of my UFOs. https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/wink.png

Dedemac: We are almost next door! Depending on which direction, I have probably driven near you. 🙂

WMUTeach: Your retreat will be fun and will be here before you know it.

If you go to Mystic Lake then yes you have been really close to my house, wasn't yesterday awesome. After a little yard work and a bike ride today I'm going to cut to length the borders for the UFO! I also found out my DH will be staying overnight in St. Cloud for Tuesday and Wednesday so I will have lots of sewing time this week.

Dedemac: Looking forward to seeing your UFO! Yesterday was gorgeous! I have been in your area, mostly to Canterbury to watch my nephew race snowmobiles but it’s been a while since he’s raced there. I graduated from St. Cloud State and grew up south of there.

I pulled out my next UFO. I need to appliqué a few more blocks and then I will decide the groupings for several wall hangings as I don’t want it as a quilt.

Getting closer
 

I'm making progress, backing is pressed and the top is finished! Depending on the weather this weekend I will try to sandwich it. I was able to do a fair amount of cleaning and sewing the past 3 days with DH out of town on work. This weekend is fairly full, a baby shower on Saturday and Mothers Day on Sunday, and it should also be safe to put plants in the ground (less chance of frost finally). The picture doesn't show the colors to their best, sashing is a yellow with small yellow flowers. Also each there are only 1 square and rectangle of each fabric if I remember correctly. I figure 8 years is long enough to mature for a UFO. https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/hug.gif Paintmejudy's scrappy train ride waiting since January 2013. Next step how to quilt it?

Dedemac: Very pretty. I did some of her later quilts. Thank goodness you mentioned frost. I went out right after reading that and got my early Mother’s Day planter in from the front step. The flowers were already chilly feeling.

I so enjoyed the Mystery Train postings by PaintmeJudy. I have a list saved of all of her mystery train patterns and where there are if any one is looking for a particular one. I have made several. Good directions and pleasing results.

Dedamac...Congrats on your treatments finishing! Love the bright colors in your happy little quilt!

I'm working on getting my baskets together. Took me a bit to arrange the colors on the design wall. Now to sew it together on the diagonal. I didn't realized until I had them all arranged, that I hadn't squared the blocks up yet...so I have to do that as I sew the diagonal rows which will slow me down. I don't want to mix them up again!!! It will probably take me several days interspersed with other things...

Three very nice mystery quilts, Dede and WMUT! Kitty likes them too!

Heavens don't get your blocks mixed up Kristi! Looking forward to seeing the basket quilt.

Meanwhile I finished a little mini. It went into UFO land because I couldn't find the binding I had made for it...I gave up looking and made some new; fortunately still had fabric to match. Will try to get photos before I forget! Going to try to find fabric to finish up a couple more mini UFO's. Need borders, backing and binding...might use a quarter of a yard of fabric ..getting rid of stash an inch at a time!

May Finish!
 

Hey all, I have a UFO finish for May. It's an old quilt, one that I made in 2016 and had used Elmers school glue to hold binding in place. I washed it to get the school glue out and didn't like the way it crinkled up in places due to not enough quilting. So I decided I was going to un quilt it (it was lightly quilted so probably not difficult), take it apart and add new batting etc...... it has sat on the UFO pile for 5 years while I dithered about it. Yesterday I decided to just add more quilting instead of un quilting, re-batting, etc. Today I finished quilting it. It looks a lot better and while I'm not as happy with it as I was before it was washed, I can live with it now and it doesn't look saggy. It is officially off the UFO pile and I've hung it over the mantle in our tv room as a reminder that sometimes a simple solution is just fine. I don't have a picture with the additional quilting, but Here's a picture of it from 2016 before it was washed. After washing the colored panels all were saggy as was the middle sashing, those are the areas that I went back in and added more quilting using thread that blends in and doesn't show. Anyway. It's done and I can't believe I let it sit for so long in the UFO pile.

Rob

Great finish, Rob! The idea of unquilting would be daunting to me and simply overquilting has given you a result that you like. https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images...es/thumbup.png

And congratulations on adding to the UFO count for May! Thank you. :)

I have so many current projects going on that my work on UFO quilts has slowed way down - I may not get a single one finished this month.

Rob: Congratulations on your finish! Great idea to hang it where you can see it and use it for motivation.

I close to getting 2 ufo tops put on my quilting machine. Ones a blue and wine blender fabric I won from a quilt raffle 5-10 years ago. It took me several months to fine a coordinating border and backing fabric. So this is a weekend job. The other top is a raggedy Ann throw for my grand niece. I’m pushing to get them done by the end of the month.

happylab: Great progress getting 2 UFOs close to the finish line.

I haven’t taken pictures but I finished the quilting/ binding on my “ Roundabout “ quilt ( picture is before it was quilted) I am loading up the next one on the stack. Between myself and my son I have 14 tops to get quilted and bound so I’m concentrating on those and not working on other things- except my flannel embroidery project which is my ( travel/hand) project. We are leaving the end of this week for vacation and I will be taking that one with me- it is a ufo I started at least 8 years ago- maybe I will make some headway. My room is fairly cleaned and organized so I am feeling like I can continue to knock things off that ufo list- I gave up on the ‘list’ and just put them all in a stack- taking them as they come- not worrying about any specific order.
the photos are the ( unfinished “ Roundabout “ quilt and 1 block of my flannel hand project. I think I have about 9 blocks finished and 4 or 5 border strips.

Very pretty, both of them! I'll bet that flannel applique is going to be gorgeous!

ckcowl: Very pretty! I hope you make lots of progress on your flannel project.

Rob - congrats on not giving up on your project! It has a great graphic modern design.

Ckcowl - the flannel is beautiful and the blue and white is so soothing. I have about 14 tops to quilt up too...I'm pecking away at it while I work on the BOOM. I'm cheering you on!

happylab - sounds like a couple fun projects. Raggedy Ann ahs always been one of my favorites.

Here's my baskets sewn together! I thought I had posted a picture, but I couldn't find it. So here it is!

thanks, everyone

Ckcowl- Can’t wait to see the finished roundabout- it’s already gorgeous, as is your applique block. Between your beautiful projects and Ben’s it must be hard to choose what to quilt next!

Kristijoy- great job on the baskets, I really like the controlled scrappy effect and shifts between complimentary colors and near complementary colors- gives it sparkle.



Rob

I had some dresden plate blocks I made about 6 years ago. I recently pulled them out got them sewn together with a bigger dresden plate in the middle. I'm not quite sure if this constitutes as an ufo or not. I got it sandwiched and quilted. I still need to do the binding. This picture was before I got the outer squares sewn on.

m not picking what to quilt next- I just piled them all up on a stand by the Longarm table and when I unload one I grab the next one on the stack. Then I have to measure, find backing a batting and load it up. I don’t know what I’m going to get until I grab it & unfold it....this May or may not be good as I progress. ;)
LittleBit seems to always have to be on the Blue ones- I guess it’s her color
Here’s the Roundabout all quilted & bound...

I finished a UFO! It's a miracle!
This is from last summer and just needed binding since. I hate doing binding.

Watson

QueenBarbieJ, Love the pinks in your plates and the pieced border. The green makes then POP!

kristijoy: Great basket quilt top.

Queenbarbiej: Definitely a wonderful UFO finish! I love Dresdens.

ckcowl: Congratulations on finishing your Roundabout quilt. Very pretty.

Watson: Wahoo to your UFO finish. I really like your design and colors.

Great progress four more for the month of May, and all are awesome.

I'm close to a finish, the binding is attached and I should have it stitched down this weekend. Will post a picture when it's done.

Watson, I Love that quilt! Great finish! That’s one that just makes a person smile. So glad you finished it.

Congratulations on the finishes! Love that pink dresden. And the blues are so calming. And Watson's brights are so cheerful!
There's been too much going on for me to settle down and finish a quilt. Hopefully, June will be a better month for finishing a quilt.