UFO Update

I know, I know, I missed last week's update.

For good reason, not only did I have the ablation last week, but I had my mediport removed this week. Two procedures requiring anesthesia in less than 8 days left me sleepy, groggy and highly unmotivated to blog. That said, the ensuing insomnia, which I believe is my body's way of fighting back the nearly 3 days of sleep I needed after each procedure left me with ample time to craft. And so, I did.

And whoa. Did I accomplish some pretty darn good things. My original list called for me working on a quilt for my daughter for 6 hours. I figured in 6 hours I could cut the remaining pieces that needed to be cut and make a dent in sewing the top together. But once I dove in, I couldn't stop. I was determined to finish that quilt for my daughter, and somehow I did.



I'm still not sure how I pulled this off! I machine sewed the top together and machine quilted it. I did do the binding by hand. This quilt has a lot of applique. And I've learned that I don't always appreciate doing applique LOL!



But I'm pleased at how it turned out and my daughter has actually been using it, which as I told her, is the best compliment I could get =)

the backing

Getting this finished feels amazing. I can completely cross it off my list.


I also worked on the placemats, but only a tiny bit. I think I know why I stopped where I did. I did the binding on two of them and am already bored LOL!

There are 6 of these and matching napkins that need to be finished. Then I have a set of 6 that aren't quilted yet and need to be binded (also with napkins). Although I set out to finish all of them, I think I'm going to just finish the ones in teh picture. I figured I put in a lot more than 6 hours on the quilt so we're just going to trade finishing the quilt for finishing a set of placemats. Maybe I'll get to those next year ;-)

I also finished the little bit of knitting left on the baby gifts. I can't show pictures yet because the gifts need to be sent out, but it was nice to finish those little bits (2/3 just had weaving ends and sewing on buttons. One had a little more knitting to do and then all the finishing). Well, okay, they aren't completely finished. I need to wash them and block them and then they will be ready to go. But that's the easiest part!

Oh, and, I can't believe I almost forgot! I finished the big photo project I was working on. I considered literally jumping for joy with that was over, but decided not to.

I am feeling mighty accomplished at this point. Which is good, because even though there are technically 3 weeks left for me to meet my goals, over the next few weeks I will have not much time to be crafting. And I wanted to get a bulk of it done by this point.

Here's where things stand:
*Finish photo project - I am scanning a lot of pictures in. I started, oh forever ago. This is top priority to finish.
* Spend at least 6 hours on the rock'n'roll quilt I started for daughter over a year ago

* Spend at least 5 hours on needlepoint I started for my son. Done some work on it.
* Mend 5 items
* Finish placemats started something like 4 years ago Amended to finish one set
* Pick 3 items from my UFO box to finish (But I'm not sure which 3 yet) Haven't started. May not even get to.

* Speaking of my UFO Box, I need to go through and decide if there are any projects I don't want to ever finish, so that's on my list too.
* Finish 3 baby items I have started. That are so close, but just need to be finished! 
Overall, not to bad if I do say so myself!

Hope you are all well. Some of you have shown me what you're working on over on twitter and I love it. If you're blogging about it, don't forget to leave a comment so I can come check out your work and say hi!

UFO Update

Things this week went a little slowly. Okay, I take that back. This week was extra hectic with a lot to do, so progress on the UFOChallenge went very slow.

However, I fixed 2 pillows. For the first time in several years, my two couches now have all four pillows they came with. This has made all of us very happy and has eased the fighting over who gets the pillows LOL!

This means, I've officially finished one thing on the list (Mend five items). Although the pile is still pretty big, I'm happy with being able to cross that off the list. However, I hope I can keep this momentum up and maybe fix a few more things and maybe, just maybe get that particular pile gone!

I did some work on the photo project .... I think it will be finished soon and that makes me VERY happy. I've been working on this for an extremely long time - several, several years.

I also cleaned out my UFO box and got rid of a few projects I know I'll never go back and finish. That is a good feeling for sure. One less thing to carry around thinking about how I should-of finished.

Even though I didn't finish much this week, I still feel like this challenge is exactly what I needed to get some things crossed off the list. And that feels wonderful!

UFO: Week 1

So, the first week of the UFO Challenge has come to an end and I feel like I made a lot of great progress so far!

Three stuffed animals were repaired and returned to two very happy to have them back children. However, mr. snakey here developed a new tear in only a few minutes, which I fixed right away to save him from being stuck in the repair pile for another 2 years LOL! I want to mend a few more things next week and get those items out of the way. Truthfully, mending is my least favorite thing to do. And that's why I think the mending projects sit forever.


I also did some great work on the photo project. 90% of the photos were already scanned in (which was a lot of work in itself. I have one album left to finish. Last week I went through 8 albums worth of scanned photos and straightened/cropped them. I'm using a photo scanner, but it doesn't always pick up the photos properly and I don't always feed them straight. Next, I need to go through and label the photos with whatever was on the back of the original photo. Again, this will be my biggest focus until it's all done (hopefully within 2 weeks!)

And I was able to find time to work on my needlepoint project.

 This is how it looked before I started working on it. At the end of the 7 weeks, I'm hoping to have a picture with a lot of progress shown! Although it did dawn on me, I'm not a fast needlepointer. And if I only do 5 hours of work, you probably won't see a huge difference, but hey, it's five hours more of work than I had before. I probably won't work on it for the next few weeks though. This is a project I can take with me on vacation (we'll have a lot of travel time) and so I need to focus on the ones that won't be so portable! But my son (whom I am making this for) is so happy to see me working on it. Who knows. It might be in his room by the end of the year if I can just stay motivated enough to finish it!

How did your week go? Did you make a lot of progress on your projects? Let me know!

UFO Challenge

Alright. Today's the day. It's time to kick this UFO Challenge off!

So, I've been thinking about what I want to accomplish. And at first I had a pretty long list. But then I had to remind myself, it's only 7 weeks. And during that time I have kids activities, a county fair to help my 4-H'er get ready for, doctor's appointments, vacation and the whole the family wants to eat every day and have clean clothes. So, I kind of had to scale back.

Here are my goals for the 7 weeks:
* Finish photo project - I am scanning a lot of pictures in. I started, oh forever ago. This is top priority to finish.
* Spend at least 6 hours on the rock'n'roll quilt I started for daughter over a year ago

Some of the pieces for the quilt

* Spend at least 5 hours on needlepoint I started for my son
* Mend 5 items
* Finish placemats started something like 4 years ago

Corner in my craft room that holds items needing to be mended and some UFO's (including placemats)

* Pick 3 items from my UFO box to finish (But I'm not sure which 3 yet)

Yes, I have a box, labeled and everything for UFO's for when I want them off my counter space!

* Speaking of my UFO Box, I need to go through and decide if there are any projects I don't want to ever finish, so that's on my list too.
* Finish 3 baby items I have started. That are so close, but just need to be finished! 

So, what's your plan for the next 7 weeks? Tell me in the comments, or link back to a blog post with the details! And, for those of you on twitter, feel free to use #UFOChallenge





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Happy finishing crafting my friends!

UFO Challenge

I've got all these projects, just laying around half-finished. I really need some motivation to finish them. (Because it's so much more fun to start new projects and then I forget about them. So projects tend to pile up!).

I feel pretty confident that I'm not the only person with some unfinished objects (ufo's) laying around the house. So, with that in mind, I'm starting a UFO Challenge.

But, I'm leaving it very vague. You decide what YOU need to do. If it's finish 10 projects, set a goal to finish 10 projects. Maybe you just have one big one you need to work on. Or maybe you just want to challenge yourself to work on some UFO's for an hour each week. Start planning now. We're going to start Monday, July 16 and run through Friday, August 31.

I hope you'll play along. On the 16th share what your goals are and then every Friday we'll show off what we've accomplished that week.

I even made a button (and no, I've never done this before so it's a little less than perfect!). And if I've done this correctly, there will be a code for you to grab it as well and put it on your blog (but only if you want to) =)



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Well, I'm going to take the next week to try to organize my things and figure out what I have and what I want to work on! Hope you'll join me!

UFO and MORE giveaways!

UPDATE: COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED, PLEASE CHECK BACK TOMORROW FOR THE WINNER!

I haven't shared yet, but I did actually manage to finish something up for the UFO Challenge! When the month began, I had one, little lonely knitted bootie

Publish Post

This poor little guy, has been friendless for quite some time. I'm pretty sure it was made a few years ago. So I pulled out the yarn and some needles and knitted up another one!

Yeah for a pair of booties! =)
And I love these booties so much. For quite a few years all pregnant moms I knew received a pair of these booties. And now, well, I don't know anyone who is expecting, so guess what?
You can have this pair of baby booties! It's simple =) Just leave me a comment by Saturday, November 3 and they could very well end up in your home! If you aren't going to have a baby anytime soon, I promise they make a fabulous gift.

Now don't forget to also:
sign up for my first giveaway
sign up for my second giveaway
sign up for my third giveaway
visit etsymom for the fabulous giveaways there as well

And go back to the Fall Y'all headquarters and sign up for LOTS of freebies (last I saw, almost 500 giveaways to take part in!)

Other notes:
I'm sorry, but I'm only shipping to the US or to an APO address. I know, it means I'm leaving out a bunch of nice people but the cost of shipping and all that jazz!

Also, a shameless self-promo here, please go and visit my etsy store Emmagail Creations. I'm hard at work over here making some lovely aprons to list over there. So feel free to go over there and browse around =)

Random pictures ...

I pulled out another UFO item recently. This is a sweater that was supposed to be given to someone for Christmas last year. I never finished it (obviously) mostly because the more I knit it last year, the more I kind of didn't like it. Actually, I started to hate it.
I don't hate it anymore, but I'm not really liking it!
Anyway here is where it was when I pulled it out:



I have almost finished the front piece at this point. I kind of want to put it away again though. But I'm going to try to push myself to just completely finish it and be done with it! Anyway, we'll count it towards my UFO Resurrection Challenge.

I also had the pleasure to do a bit of embroidery. This person requested this for a bridal shower gift. The bride and groom are taking a honeymoon to a warm place on the beach.

I think the towels turned out so cute! I will have to steal this idea for the future!

Currently working on ...

Placemats (that were started forever ago and so are consequently part of my UFO Resurrection project this month LOL!)

Also, listening to Dave Ramsey's radio show. Because I think Dave is taking over our lives - but I mean that in a good way!

I can not believe how into this whole thing dh and I are right now. How much we have changed so quickly (thank the Lord that we are getting it and changing it!) My husband left me a little love letter the other day. And he wrote in it "P.S. Let's stick to our new budget. I agree it's the best thing that's happened to us in a long time." Maybe I'm dorky, but that at the end of his little note to me did make my heart flutter, because I had been feeling the same way about it all! And to think dh was feeling how that it was just that wonderful - well, it's nice to be on the same page!

So we were driving home from class on Tuesday and chatting. Dh mentioned he was positive we need to take the class at least 2 more times - to really get it and let it all sink in, and as we make it through the baby steps different parts of the classes will become more important to us.

[I have to admit here, although dh was glad I won, he went into the first class with a "well, of course it will all sound good, but will it actually work and will we get realistic expectations." And I'm not positive on this, but I'm thinking if I hadn't won the class, well, he probably wouldn't have paid to be there. (Now, I will have to ask him to see if I'm right about that!) But we did win it (again a shout out: Thank You Lu!) and we are there and we are so excited about it.]

Anyway, talking about how we will need to take the class again. So I agreed and said now if only we could find it at a closer church or at our church. To which dh pointed out my church isn't too much closer and if I wanted to see it there, I should go ahead and teach it. Which of course made the little wheel in my head start to spin! And I think I would enjoy spreading this around to other people - really how awesome would that be?! Anyway, it won't happen soon. Because I feel swamped already and I don't think it's in my near-future. But in 6 months to a year from now? Maybe. It's there. The idea is now tucked into the back of my mind as a possibility for someday.

Anyway, the budget was perfect last week. Even had a few surprises on bills that came in less than what we budgeted for. It really feels like dh and I are on a mission. And we are attacking it head on, and it is so incredibly awesome!

UFO Challenge ...

I am hanging my head in shame. I signed up to do the UFO Resurrection Challenge, did it for 2 months and promptly forgot about it!
This may be why I have such trouble finishing projects that are left undone.
Anyway, I went back and thought - the scarf I finished for the Harry Potter party was an unfinished project until I finished it! So there, with 3 things for the UFO Challenge, today I decided it was time to get on with it.
So I pulled out this:



Which I might add, I blogged about here - back in 2005! I was going to make a bedskirt for the bed my dd was sleeping in. This would have looked fabulous in her room frankly. But we don't have that room, and we don't have that bed, and we don't have the bedding I picked out for it to match. So today, I pulled it out, and took apart what I had done and now it looks like this:



I thought I might be sad as I ripped all those stitches out, but actually I felt relieved. This has been sitting in a bundle on the floor of my office, just taunting me. I swear it was whispering "ha ha you never finished me!" and I wanted to finish it but there was no point, we don't have that sized bed anymore. So now I feel better. It's taken apart, no need to finish it. Now, I can have fun with it and find other projects to use it for! And that purple gingham, well, since it was already cut into a very long skinny rectangle ... I'm thinking it might make great napkins for the children of the house, and for the adults as well! LOL! I'm thinking about it ... but haven't decided quite yet!

And watch for some more items to be pulled out and looked it this month. I have an entire box of UFO's and I'd like to do something about them all!

Harry Potter!

Way back here I had showed you a Harry Potter scarf I was working on for my oldest. I am proud to say, it is finished! Woo-hoo ...

(*I'd like to add, that since I cast on for it about a year ago - well maybe 9 months - I am counting this for my UFO Challenge for the month of July! LOL)

But that is not all I have been busy working on my dear readers ... first I started with a yellow tie, some red fabric and a wonderful product called wonder under. I would like to add here, the tie was a whole 1.49 from Good Will

What I ended up with was a nice Griffindor tie - is it perfect? No way! But I wasn't going for perfection ... I was going for something close to it that wasn't going to cost more than a few dollars!

In addition to a tie, one needs a school robe to wear. In this case, I made one black one and one red one ....

When combined, I get this:

Now, I would like to interject that I am so proud of this robe because I changed the pattern - not a lot, but I changed it. I've never strayed from the pattern before and it was quite liberating and I'm glad to know that I could and it turned out almost like I had planned for it to turn out! Woo-hoo!!











When everything is put together ... I end up with ...

Yes, I do realize the scarf is missing, however, a friend has decided to join us last minute and so she will be wearing the lovely scarf tonight so that she can have something fun to wear as well.
Personally I can't wait to get my hands on that book and forsee the party tonight being a fun time!

UFO 1

Here is what I picked for my UFO Resurrection Challenge for the month of March

Now, I originally made the whole thing last summer - sewed it up, stuffed it and left it there. Mostly because I hate hand sewing and the spot needed to be hand sewn together. So I waited and waited and waited. And saw it sitting in the garage of the new house and decided it need to be done. And so I present to you, a finished airplane:

It's really quite cute if I do say so myself. However, my little man is a little less than thrilled with it and hasn't picked it up to play with it since I've showed it to him.

UFO Challenge: February

Blanket for the UFO challenge. Not only did I pull it out and begin to work on it today, I finished it! YEAH! Well, really I just had to weave in the yarn. DH will be mailing it out tomorrow as we realized a friend had a babygirl and we never sent a gift. So wa-la! Fabulousness! And it will now be one less thing to move to the new house, and my first completed projected curtesy of the UFO Challenge! =)

UFO Challenge ...

I joined the UFO challenge.
Right now I'm too tired to show links or pictures. But I did pull out the sweater I made this fall that has been patiently waiting to be seamed and have the band added to it.
I swear I did. I will prove it later.

For now, I want to say I bought a house today. I'm in a lot in debt and really tired! LOL!

Added later:

Here is the pile of the sweater I pulled out. I have now pieced the sleeves to the back and front pieces. I still need to do the side seams and then add the nexk band. Which probably won't happen until I've unpacked more as the matching yarn and needle I need are hiding somewhere in a box. But at least this will be the very first project I finish in the new house. And really, without the motivation of the UFO Challenge, it would probably still be in a pile, laying in the basement, waiting to be moved from this house to the new house to be thrown in a pile there!

Now, the question becomes, what to resurrect for the month of February ....