Are you ready for a challenge? A quilting challenge, where you get to pick one of your UFOs (unfinished quilting objects), make some progress and get it finished – or almost finished.

Along with Quilting Is Murder, I’m thrilled to be hosting this quilt challenge where we ask participants to save a UFO (unidentified project) from certain death by finishing it up! Here’s the best part: it can be anything mysteriously quilting related *and* you decide if it is "finished" or not when submitted.

Head over to the Quilting is Murder – Save a UFO Challenge page for all the details. I hope you’ll join the FUN and rescue one of your UFOs.

My Challenge

I don’t know about you, but I need some accountability! to get some of my UFOs done this year. I’m overwhelmed with all the projects I have on the go. While I can’t officially enter this challenge, I am going to participate and make a challenge to myself, and you, to get this quilt top done.

This is my postage stamp quilt that I started collecting 2″ squares for back in January 2010. As of mid-December, I have 17 blocks completed. Each block will finish at 12″ square and contains 64 – 1.5″ finished pieces.

I redid the math for this project and decided I wanted a 5×6 layout or 30 – 12″ blocks. During December, needing some time to de-stress, I started piecing the 8 strips together for the remaining 13 blocks for this quilt. Mindless stitching at its best.

I did some additional piecing over New Year’s and now have 52 – 16 patches together. Next up, pin and stitch into 26 patches, then into 64 patches for the completed 13 – 64-patch blocks.

With 3/4″ sashing strips and 2.5″ for the outer border, the quilt will finish at 70″x82″. I haven’t decided yet the sashing or border colours. This quilt will contain 30×64 = 1,920 – 1.5″ finished patches when done! Here’s an EQ7 interpretation:

Last year, oh that sounds so LONG ago, I finally got something finished in my sewing room. I made two Smitten with Mittens Table Runners. One for my parents and the other for my sister and her family. I shipped them off to their respective homes in December so they could be enjoyed during the holiday season.

I started working on these table runners back in September. The mittens appliqué are from Erin Russek. You can read the original post, which includes the various links to Erin’s free pattern and tutorials, here: I’m Smitten with Erin’s Mittens.

This was my first time using Aurifil’s 12wt cotton thread for the blanket stitch. I used a 50wt thread in the bobbin, a size 14 top stitch needle and lowered my tension to 2. It worked like a dream. Love the depth and texture it added to the mittens. I’ll definitely be using this thread again when I want some definition to my appliqué projects.

I wanted the table runners a little longer, so I added 1/2″ finished yellow sashing and used up the leftover charm pieces to add side borders. The red border finished at 1″ and the green border at 2″. The table runners finished at 40″x16″.

I stitched in the ditch around the blocks and all sashings. I did a small stipple in the blocks around the appliqué pieces. For the red border, since it was already stiched in the ditch, I just did a straight line down the middle. For the outer border, I marked where the binding would be attached then evenly spaced out lines to form the diamond shape. I did a simple crisscross design in the coloured sashing edge pieces.

Close up quilting of one of the blocks:

You might recognize the fabrics and colour scheme from the Christmas Ornaments wall hanging I did. This one I kept for myself, as it fits the round table in my kitchen perfectly. I suppose I should pack it away with the Christmas stuff and make something new for my table.

P.S. I’m linking this post up with Pat Sloan’s Show me your stuff post. So many lovely projects to look at!

Linking up here too: WIP Wednesday.

This month, Shruti is doing an ABC’s of Quilting series on her blog. She’s invited guests to help her out. Check out the various subjects that will be covered here.

My post is a Blogland Tour of 10 of my favourite modern bloggers. I have to admit, it was not easy to pick just 10. I could easily have picked 20.

Head over to read my post and see who I chose: Blogland Tour: 10 Favourite Modern Bloggers.

Share your favourite bloggers in the comments below. I cleaned out my RSS reader earlier this week, so now I have room to add a few blogs.