It's like Christmas every month

It's the time of month I look forward to every month, New Block of the Month Day!

Kinda like Ralphie and his longing for the Red Ryder BB Gun I cannot wait to see all the new blocks for the quilt-a-longs I am trying to keep up with.  Two or three days before the beginning of the month I start checking the pages (sometimes they post early) to see if they are out yet.  I MUST HAVE THEM!  Most have posted that they will not be posting them until the 2nd of the month for February, so instead of pouting I've decided to write about them.

Goal one for the year is tackling all of the UFO quilt tops laying around, but my second goal for the year is to lessen my fabric stash.  I'm happy to say that the piles of unused fabric laying around are not as bad as they could be but I do not want to turn into a hoarder either.  I want to be known for beautiful creations not as that crazy chick from that one episode of Hoarders Buried Alive.  BOM are a great way to use up fabric plus it's kind of exciting not knowing what you are going to end up with.  Plus most of them are FREE (all the ones I'm participating are).  Last year I participated in Pal Sloan's Globetrotting  BOM and her Aurifil designer block challenge.

This year I'm joining Pat again for her Vacation Time Mystery Challange and the Aurifil challenge as well.  Instead of a block of the month the Aurifil challenge will be 12 mini quilts!  Who doesn't love a mini quilt!  I should have Flurry finished this weekend.

  My husband asked me several years ago to make him a quilt with an Asian feel and I jumped on the fabric collecting.  Huge problem, I had no idea what to do with it and could not find a pattern that spoke to me.  So I stumbled onto this BOM hosted by Gold Coast Quilter's Guild.  Each month they are posting a Japanese block designed by Susan Briscoe.  Perfect! Sign me up!

The Gold Coast Quilter's Guild also has a mystery quilt underway.  Clue one is a supply list and these fabrics seem like this quilt will be a nice home for them.  Now to wait for clue two.

These are two of my smallest totes of "stash" containing mostly 2.5 and 3 inch blocks or strips.  I think the QM Bitty Blocks BOM will be the answer for weeding these babies out.  Really it's more of a row by row challenge.

The rest of my collection will fall victim to the Quilt Art Designs Beginners BOM 2015 and the Adventurous Quliters 2015 BOM.  Both are using paper piecing for their blocks.  I could use a little more work on my paper piecing so this kills two birds with one stone.  Quilt art Designs also has a Bitty Block going on as well but I think I might need to improve my skills be before I tackle that one.

UFO Sighting---What?

I have had a UFO sighting at my house.

No, I haven't lost my mind.  Not that kind of UFO sighting.  It was of the UnFinished Objects kind.  The kind of UFO only a quilter could love...or hate depending on which side of the fence you're standing on.  When I first started quilting my view was "I just like the creativity of piecing and fabric. I'm not into it for the actual quilting."  I pieced my little heart out until I ended up with a stack of quilt tops that I could not afford to pay someone to quilt.  Oops. 

Slowly I'm crawling out of the hole.  The UFO sighting at my house for the most part looks like this today.

How about a contest of How Many Quilts is Tisha Behind--Guess the Stack?  If my counting is correct the answer is 14.  Which is a smaller stack than when I started out last year.  Hopefully, by the end of this year I will be completely caught up.  A girl can dream right? 

Down the Rabbit Hole

Around this time last year while playing on Face Book, I came across Pat Sloan's Globetrotting quilt along.  The idea of a mystery quilt and the fact that her friend Debby Brown was going to also follow along and show you how to do it as a quilt along had me hook line and sinker.  This was the push I needed to gain some confidence to try free motion quilting...and for the last year I have not looked back.  Although that first quilt isn't exactly finished (although it will be) I decided to make a second quilt but not do it as a QAYG.  The quilt along was technically over and I knew what the finished product would look like so I asked my husband to pick out the colors and fabrics.

I have to say the color palette he chose is not one that I would have chose which is part of the reason I asked for his help.  Sometimes it's good to get out of our comfort zone.  I was determined not to let this top fall into the dreaded category of UFO, so I printed out a blank copy of the layout, poured a glass of wine and went to the drawing board.

After maybe a few glasses of wine (over a few days) I finally came up with my crazy plan.  I have found that drawing something out helps me stay on track and figure out how I'm going to tackle things.  The next big question is with what shall I quilt it?  Can I decide on one over all thread color or go crazy with the colors that are on the quilt?  Of course crazy color wins!  Bring on the Aurifil threads!

After 3.5 hours quilting time this week (thanks to the handy stopwatch on my phone) I finally have the center square of the quilt and all of the "ditch" stitching finished.  The design for the most part has stayed the same as the drawing. 

One block down...only 12 more to go!