UFO Challenge

I've been considering how to take part in next year's UFO Challenge put on by Judy at Patchwork Times.  I wrote in an earlier comment on Judy's blog that I haven't really been quilting long enough to accumulate very many UFO's.  I was looking at them this afternoon, and really, there are only two.  I wouldn't even classify those as UFO's.  They're really WIP's.  I'm just pausing to think about what to do next with them because they are ready to be quilted.  I'm just thinking about what I want to do.  I haven't put them away, and they're still very much on my radar screen.

I have two other bed sized quilts that I've started, but we're getting ready to take off on a three-month-long snowbird journey, and so they are just on hold until we get back.  Still . . . not one to be left out, I've been thinking about how to make this work for me so that I can be productive over the next year in keeping with the spirit of the challenge.  It finally came to me this evening that I have one very special quilt that I'd like to complete over the next year.  It has a lot of embroidery, and it's the sort of thing that I could easily never finish if I don't set up some sort of schedule for myself to keep it on track for completion.  You may have seen this quilt in quilt shops.  It's called "Winter Wonderland."

Maybe you even have the pattern.  I fell in love with it the first time I saw it in a quilt shop, but all that embroidery was very intimidating. 

I saw it again in the same quilt shop and admired it out loud to one of the owners.  She told me she'd seen it done in blue and that it was beautiful.  That made it even more desirable to me, but I was still intimidated by the hand work.  Then I saw it again in yet a different quilt shop, and I couldn't resist it any longer.  I ended up buying it.  That was about six months ago.  I have all the fabric, muslin, and floss that I need to complete the top, but so far, I've barely gotten started on the first stitchery.  With your permission, I'd like to spend the next year working on this one project for my UFO Challenge.

I looked at it this evening.  It has 21 star blocks from six different star patterns.  Some of them are duplicated in various sizes.  It also has 10 stitchery panels.  My goal is to complete one stitchery panel and at least two blocks each month through the end of October.  I'll spend November constructing the quilt top, and I'll spend December quilting and binding it.  I think that is a challenge I'm up for.  It won't be easy, and I'll have to keep at it diligently each month to get it finished by the end of the year.  In the end, I'll have a project I've been wanting to complete, and it will be a great sense of accomplishment.  By the way, I am doing mine in blue, and I plan to quilt it by machine embroidering snowflakes onto the white background in pearlescent metallic thread.

I hope you'll accept my choice for the UFO Challenge of 2011.  Good luck to the rest of you!  By the way, this is the only project I'm taking with me on our snowbird journey, and so I'll be able to keep on track even though we'll be traveling!