Planning the UFOs

Here's a straight-on shot of the Girl Scout quilt.  It's hard to tell what it looks like when it's laying on the floor, and the colors were not well represented in that dark room.  I still have to take the one column off and turn it into a row and save one block for the back. I still want it to be twin bed size, which runs about 65" x 88", but no larger than 72" x 90".  I think the quilt top now measures about 65" square...before adding any borders.  Hence my thought about moving the column to the bottom making a 4 x 6 grid.

I went to ol' Wally World and picked up these three pretty blue bins to keep the Top 3 UFOs in.  When I'm not working on them, I can put them in these three bins and keep them on hand for working on as time allows.  All the extra fabric fits in them...or mostly fits.  The top bin has all the fabrics for the borders, back and binding...and probably more fabric than I really need.  Pillowcases?  A skirt, maybe?  A Girl Scout vest? A duffle bag?  All of the above?  I'll have to find out how much fabric I have left over after finishing this project.  I don't want to buy more of the fabric unless I have to.

I'm actually considering replacing one of the UFOs--the Japanese One-Block-Wonder that I had chosen for Emma's quilt.  I'm not very inspired to work on it, and I don't think she'll like it much...the colors are a little odd--lots of oranges.  I think she'd prefer the Kimono and Lanterns quilt for which I have only one block made.  I picked up the pattern for the kimonos but need to copy the pattern a bunch of times to make the blocks.  The pattern looks a little bit like this one by Betty Blais (or maybe exactly like this...I don't know for sure).  Unfortunately, I don't have many Japanese fabrics.  Maybe I need to make a bunch of the patterns and hand them out as a friendship block.  I think that's the winner.  It'll get a lot more variety and cut down on the amount of work I'd have to do.

The one drawback, of course, is that it'll take three or four months to get all the blocks back--patterns handed out in September will be returned in October, November and January...we take August (the picnic month) and December off for officers' duties, but I can do a simultaneous friendship block of lanterns so I can get a larger quilt done without having to do so many blocks.  I'm thinking I could off-set the blocks around the edges and make it look like they're strung up as a border.  Maybe I could get it done by February or March?  It seems like a long way off, but I have two other UFOs to finish already.

After talking with Linda and brainstorming, I have an idea of what I want to do with Ben's MONSTER! quilt.  I have 13 monsters so far, and I'm not sure I want to make more monsters.  The applique blocks are a lot of work, and I'd have to find the book again, copy and blow up the drawings and make the blocks.  The other option is to alternate the monsters with MONSTER HOUSES!  She suggested that I make wonky houses like these.  If I get really creative, I can have doors and windows that open, have a Monster school, a Monster factory, a Monster outhouse...it'll be fun!  Creativity reigns!  If I make 12 monster buildings, I can use 12 monsters to make a 4 x 6 grid (similar to Cammie's) and use one monster for the back.  

SO...I guess I have my work cut out for me!