UFO Challenge

I’ve decided to join the UFO Challenge on Finns blog.  I’ve committed to finishing 2 UFO’s by the end of the year, which given my slow rate of quilting, can be accomplished.  I’ve got many more UFO’s, but I told myself if I finished these 2 quilts, I can start a new chenille quilt project that I’ve been wanting to do.

My Halloween quilt is the first quilt that I need to get finished (like now would be a good time to finish it!)   I’ve got a few more quilt lines to transfer for the FMQ, than I can start quilting.   I want to do more than just stippling on this quilt, so I found a border with leaves and vines.   My goal this weekend is to get the FMQ started.  Then I will have to bind it, put a sleeve on it, make the pumpkin top appliqué and attach it, and I will be done.

 Here is a picture of the quilt so far. If you want to see a close up of each cat, you can click here to my previous blog with those pictures. 

The other quilt I want to finish is the pinwheel quilt.  When I say finish on this one, I mean have the top and back done to send to a long armer.  I don’t want to wrestle quilting this quilt with the fragile 30’s  fabrics around on my sewing machine.   This quilt is made up of 30’s blocks my grandmother made.  You can read more about the background of this quilt here.

I’ve got the border attached, but I’ve got to rip out one side because of a tension problem with the sewing machine.  I’ve also got the appliqué top border almost finished, but I don’t have a picture yet.

I’m actually excited to get these UFO’s done.

Karen

Halloween UFO

I started this UFO well before Halloween last year. I almost got it done in time for Halloween, but got stopped by the quilting, again (sigh). I tried to quilt it and it just didn't come out like I wanted. By then, Halloween was over and I lost interest. So, I'm going to try again to finish well before Halloween so I can hang it up in my office. I had a lot of fun finding the right fabric and doing the raw edge applique on this one. I changed the layout a little bit and decided that my blocks were going to be wonky and not all the same size. I didn't really know what I was doing, but I like the way it turned out.

This guy is pretty cool!


I used a combination of sewing and colored markers for the lines


Boo!

Are you scared?

Yes, all those little bones are appliqued! Mwahhhhh!

This is my favorite. I love the expression on her face.

I want to make this into the shape of a (long) pumpkin, and still need to come up with a pumpkin stem for the top of it.

If you don't hear me talking about this over the next few months, please bug me about it! Sometimes I need that extra push. If anyone wants the free pattern, click here.

Take care,

Karen

Pinwheel quilt

Thanks, everyone, for the border suggestions on my pinwheel quilt. To answer a few of your questions, no, I only have a small amount of green fabric. I ran out, and that's how I ended up using a different fabric for the outer edge. At the time, I wasn't happy about running out, but now I think that was a good thing. It made it more interesting. But, I don't have very much of the outer green fabric left either, so don't think I'll be able to do much with that remaining fabric either.

I like Cheryl's suggestion of adding a black and pink border. Although it is not easy to see, the outer green triangles are a print with black and white flowers. I'm also toying with the idea of an appliqued border at the top of the quilt. I wasn't thinking when I put this together, and it is more square than I'd like it to be. I'm thinking something simple, like what they did in this picture from the quilt show I recently went to. I think I have enough green fabric for the vines.

In addition to the pinwheel blocks, my grandmother also left behind 2 finished quilt tops, a set of dresden plate blocks on white muslin, and a set of sunbonnet sue on muslin, along with many pieces cut and ready for assembly. I'm going to look to see if there are some fabrics I can use for the border of the pinwheel quilt. One of these days, I will get them out and take some pictures. In the mean time, I don't think of these unfinished blocks as UFO's...I have enough pressure with my own UFO's.

Speaking of UFO's, I think it's time to pull out my Halloween UFO. I'll do some pictures tomorrow if my DH doesn't take my computer away to be fixed...

Take care, Karen

I finished it!

I've been working on my pinwheel quilt a little bit each weekend, and I finally finished it yesterday. I say finished, but I'm not whether sure it is done or not. I've been thinking about a border, perhaps a piano key border in blacks and whites. I don't have any black/white stash. It would be a chore, but I'd probably have to go to the quilt store and buy some fabric ;)

Here is the (un-ironed) quilt top.

My helper had to test it out.

Since you all inspired me to get this top done, I'm asking what would you do?

Would you stop where it is or would you put a border on it? What kind of border would you put on it? What color border would you do? The picture looks like it is blue green, but it is actually a green 30's reproduction color.

Looks like we're going to have another day of rain so maybe I'll pull out another UFO, perhaps try to finish my Halloween wall hanging before Halloween!

Hope your day is a good one.
Karen

There's a reason why they are UFO's

Ok, so Cheryl and Erin inspired me to pick up one of my UFO's. It started a few weeks ago when Erin posted about her grandmother's quilt, and Cheryl's been posting about scrappy quilts. I was getting bored with the quilt I was working on, and hadn't done any sewing for a while. So, why not pull out something else to work on? So, I pulled out the 30's quilt I'd been working on, and sorted, ironed, and laid it all out.


First, I have to give you the background on this quilt. My grandmother died when I was young, and when my parents were cleaning out her house, they came across a bunch of fabric. Nobody wanted this fabric, and me being the only sewer in the family, said "I'll take it". I wasn't a quilter at the time, so I had no idea what to do with this stuff. I put it in a closet for many years. Then I bought this book and it told me what I had, which was a bunch of 30's quilt blocks. I still didn't do anything with the quilt blocks for many years, until I has been quilting for 4-5 years. Then, I got the courage to try to put a quilt together from these blocks.

I took one of those "finish" classes at the LQS so I could get some direction on where to start. Now, these quilt blocks were poorly made so I had to sort out the best from the worst. I swear I spent forever trying to get these blocks squared up. The blocks were kind of busy when put next to each other, and I was afraid that if I tried to sew the blocks together, none of the points would match. This is what the blocks look like.



So, I decided that I would put some plain sqares between the blocks, thinking it would quiet them down a bit. What I didn't realize at the time was that the plain squares would also stabilize the blocks so they would be easier to sew together. I got as far as sewing the blocks into rows before it became a UFO for about a year. So, when I pulled it out to work on, you'd think it would be easy. I just had to sew the rows together (I made it on point), put the finishing triangles around the edge, and I'd be almost done. Wrong...

I remember now why it took so long to sew together in rows. I had to stop every few blocks or so and reinforce some of the seams so the blocks would not fall apart. I wasn't about to pull apart all those pinwheel blocks and completely redo them. Well, now I had to reinforce the other seams as I put it together in rows. Trying to match the blocks together as I sewed was another challenge. I swear those blocks changed in size from when I squared them up. So, I was trying to ease the blocks together. Then I came to this block. THIS IS WHY THIS IS A UFO!


There was no "easing" of this block. Should I try to sew the middle seam together so it would fit better? No, that didn't work. So I went Marie Antoinette for a minute and thought "off with its' head" It was out of here. I pulled it out and put a new block in, and I was back in business.

Whew! I got two rows sewed together this weekend. It is halfway there. Here is what I have so far.

You know, the treadmill makes a wonderful place to hold your ironed rows while waiting to be sewed together. Why not? It's not serving any other useful purpose.

So, this is why we have UFO's. Hope everyone had a good 4th!

Karen