WiP: Long-Term UFO (and a couple of finishes)

A month or so ago I cut into my Maasai Mara fat quarter bundle that I picked up at the Sewing Summit Mixer.  I didn't get to go to SS, but Salt Lake MQG members were invited to the mixer that Friday night.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the fabric at first, but inspiration hit and I had to get started.  Then other deadlines came up and it has been sitting in a box.

I pulled it out tonight for a few minutes to work on it.  I've added a few solids to the mix, including Kona ash, water, and cactus, and a Kaffe Fassett shot cotton in navy that my LQS had.

These are going to be x strings blocks, but strip pieced to they can be more mass-produced.  I've got all of the strip sets laid out, about half of them pinned into pairs, the other half sewn into pairs, and tonight I finished one set.  I really like how it's coming along and I think it will look great when it's done.

This one is going back in a box for a while, as I've got another deadline before the end of the year.  I've got several other ideas floating around in my head that I think I might work on before this x strings gets done, so I've got a feeling this is going to be a UFO for a while.  I want to pull it out and work on it at least a little here and there.  I definitely want to have it done by the end of the summer, but other than that I don't have a deadline for this one.

So you know how when inspiration hits, you'd better fly with it?  Well, I was at JoAnn's a week ago buying flannel for the back of K's scrappy plus quilt, and spied some pink corduroy.  I'd been thinking about making a skirt for my munchkin, who LOVES skirts, so I picked up half a yard.  I had some leftover denim I'd wanted to turn into a skirt for her as well, so I did them both at the same time.  I used pink thread on both.  I'll say it was a design element on the denim, but really it was to save time. =)

 The skirts she has been wearing keep getting shorter as those little legs get longer, so I was aiming for 14" long to go to her knees.  The pink one, which I finished first, was only about 13", so I took a narrower seam between the yoke and the bottom part of the skirt on the denim one, as well as a narrower hem.  I'm actually surprised at how much bigger the denim one looks--they really are very similar in size in real life.

I designed this pattern myself to fit her measurements.  I put three soft box pleats on the front as well as on the back and they turned out really cute!  Altogether I think I spent maybe 3 hours on both of these.  I'm glad that they came together so quickly.  I hope they fit her well--she hasn't tried them on yet as they will be Christmas presents.  I think she will love them!

Linking up today at Work in Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.