Attack of the killer UFO's...

Nothing kills my creativity like quilt guilt.  And nothing gives me quilt guilt like nagging UFO's.

There they are...on a shelf in the quilt cave, right above my daughter's head.  When I am sitting near her sewing, I can hear them nagging at me.  I stop and ask her if she hears anything, like nagging voices...she just looks at me and shakes her head.  Mom's hearing voices again...

I shut up the scrappy bowtie quilt this week by taking a whole 30 minutes to finish quilting it.  Fortified by my feeble success, I have picked the next two to attack.

These are the blocks from Bunny Hill's "Bunnies Prefer Chocolate" - started in 2006, I think.  I bought the whole set of Block-of-the-Month patterns from Jennifer's Quilt Shop in Pinckney, Michigan.  I just need to assemble the chunks and do borders.  I started out following the pattern to the letter like a good girl, then I started going rogue (I just can't stop myself sometimes...), "tweaking" a couple of blocks with my twisted personality.  I think the reason I never finished it was that I was sort of bored with the proposed border treatment.

 

Now I want to incorporate some words in the border.  As enchanted as I am with Tonya's free-pieced letters (Lazy Gal Quilting), I think the style of this quilt calls for some lowercase appliqued words.  I need some inspiration on that (feel free to comment with suggestions!).  All I have come up with so far is:

1) Bunnies prefer chocolate...and so do I!
2) Chocolate...it's not just for breakfast anymore!

And because this quilt is destined to hang over our bed, I made the mistake of asking my husband for his input...he came up with something about "getting your chick's tu-lips off his chocolate bunny" - why do I even ask him anymore...

See why I need help??

OK...enough said...project number 2.  I only lack the the last 3 blocks finishing the center of Sue Garmon's "All Around the Town" that I started in 2010 after ordering the pattern set from Quakertown Quilts in Houston, Texas.

Here's the pattern front.

I've mostly been behaving myself about following this one faithfully, except for a couple of additions.  The last 3 blocks leave me a little cold, which is why I think I have had a mental block about finishing them. 

Cathy of Cabbage Quilts is also working on this top, and her version has filled me with fresh inspiration about how to finish mine.  She did a little off-roading herself, and I love her results!  Here's her top.

I am designing some subtle changes on my last 3 blocks and some additional little things in other finished blocks to make the town my own.  My friend Ola is doing this project as well, and we are having fun discussing our planned deviations and having some good giggles (remember the Gorton's fisherman?  Ola also thinks my town needs a whore house...why does she suggest that for my town and not hers?!?).  Giggles are good.

So, these are my next areas of attack.  I am not making a pledge to finish all UFO's before jumping in on some new projects...I just want to reduce the volume of those nagging, old, unfinished voices so that I can drown them out with the TV or a good movie.  I have also found a great new pattern for reducing my scrap pile, which I will share next time.

In stitches,

Teresa  :o)