UFO Sunday Cross stitch

A few years ago I got this cute little cross stitch with quilts on it.  There is a group of lady's that get together once a week to sew, talk, etc. and I only worked on the cross stitch if I had nothing else to do. 

Saturday I was looking for a UFO and found this cross stitch instead.....all but finished.  So I sat right down and finished it!  Took all of half an hour.  Now all I need is to frame it and hang it.

I also finished the crocheted edge of a fleece blanket for Project Linus that my mother started and ran out of yarn half way thru.  The yarn I got to finish it just didn't seen like the same color so it sat in the back of my sewing room.  I pulled it out and the colors DID match, so that is done, too.  Two things down, uncounted numbers to go.

And now I can work on my UFO Christmas quilt, which I'd put away because I'd run out of material.  I think I've figured out how I'm going to solve that problem. Woohoo!

Matrix

 I decided to do Leah's Matrix design to quickly get this quilt done as it's going to New York with other Project Linus quilts from Montana to help with the Sandy relief.  Only fast wasn't in the works yesterday.  Too many interruptions and then my bobbin started breaking thread about an inch or two after starting a new row of stitching.  Finally figured the bobbin was wound funny and used a different one........

 ..........only to start having skipped stitches!  Patience...I can deal with this.  I'd had that problem once before and knew it was the needle that needed changed changed.  Did that but still had "toe catcher" skips......

At that point it was late enough in the day I decided to quit, thinking I might have to take my machine in for a check up, which had been done in Aug.  Decided to try one more needle change this morning and BINGO everything worked fine.

I love the way the back looks.  I used orange thread and thought it would disappear on the orange (looks yellow in picture) but it was the pink that it got lost in.

My question for Leah....what size needle do you use?  The first two I used were 90/14 and the one that worked was a 75/11.  How much of a difference does the size of needle make when quilting.  The 90/14 was recommended by my Bernina repair man.

Barn UFO - Finished!

I have a finish!  I'm so thrilled to finally get a UFO done.  Once I set my mind to it the job was quickly done.  I think there's a few little tweaks I could make but for all aspects it is finished.

 I used a form of Flowing Lines from Leah's Go with the Flowing Lines tutorial from the beginning of October to make the grass at the bottom of the quilt.  I used a light sage green thread for the grass.  I didn't want it to show up too much but still add texture.  And I put in a pebbly walk way to the barn door.  In an earlier post, I showed the Goldilocks design that Leah taught us a few weeks ago.

I wanted a sky that looked like there was air movement and

 clouds so used a simple line with  curves.  I like the way it turned out.  Now I just need to soak it in water and hang it on the wall.... after I show it to my mom, who made the top.  She should be very happy to see I finally did something with it after all these years!