UFO Update

I know without a doubt that I have too much stash. I probably don't need to buy another shred of fabric or another zipper or another hank of elastic ever. 

Probably.

I also know that for a confessed fabraholic, need rarely enters into the acquisition of anything.  I sometimes think I could find a perfectly adequate combination of fabrics if I just stopped being so fussy about the right green or the right blue, but what would be the fun of that?

I found a piece of flag fabric that might do with the red/white/blue UFO from yesterday's post.  The center has a lot of navy and a small amount of lighter blue.  The flag has a lighter blue.  Not great up close but with a small beige inner border, not bad:

Here are some other things I'm working on to use up all the bits and pieces.

 

I saw this idea in a modern quilt magazine... these two panels would make two quilts.  You find a solid or something that looks like a solid, the length must equal the length of the pieced panel.  Then you cut it lengthwise, at approximately 18 inches.  You now have two pieces, 18" by length of panel, and 25-27" by length of panel.  The panel goes in the center.  Viola!  Modern quilt.

 

Sadly, my stash of pinks is all small pieces.  <sigh>  A shopping trip is in my future.  At least I can come up with some acceptable backing choices!

 

I used the two inch strips in my bin to make strip sets for the chevron quilt I did a while back.  A year (or two?) ago I made two quilts using the "Jacks" pattern above for a lady at work who was having twins. The same sized pieces were used in both quilts.  I had leftovers of each.  Ergo, more Jacks. This one just needs a wildly colored border.  I have that chosen, I just need to decide on a style.  The back is going to be green.  Green goes with anything!

 

This panel is leftover bits from my daughter's quilt -- blue strings on the left, and blue and brown Friendship Stars on the right.  The plan is to make more panels and add them with a plain strip between ever addition.  As long as they're blue or brown, and the same length, they should work.  The actual quilt will have the strips going horizontally, but I can't get the picture to rotate.

 

This panel operates under the theory of 'if I sew them together, they go together'.

This doesn't even make a small dent in the stash pile, but it does clear out about a third of the UFOs.  Wish me luck.

 

Sew on...

Working on My UFOs

It was rainy off and on this weekend, and I had major things to do such as clean out the freezer and put things back in my yarn storage closet after incident of the falling shelf.  (Thanks to DH it's back up with more anchors.)  But I DID manager to get some time in the sewing room.

Of course the sewing room looked like a bomb or at the very least a hand grenade had gone off in it, so some cleaning was in order there too.  Miss A had other things to do this weekend, so I was on my own.

I had been discussing my Almost Twilight quilt top with my friend Suzi, the 'Quilter' (the quotes are because she does such beautiful work!).  I made the top during and after a quilt retreat back in maybe 2013.  The class was taught by Jan Krueger, and I think someone else designed the quilt but never published the pattern. 

Anyway, Suzi offered to help me layer it, and said she might be able to quilt it for me for a consideration to be named at a later date.  I have fabric for backing but I think I have to piece it.

Almost Twilight -- this one isn't mine but it was the only photo I could find, someone else at the retreat made this beauty.

I pulled out the box of UFOs and found several wonderful things without borders.  Like this red/white/cream/blue beauty that just needs a big patriotic print to be a finished flimsy.  I dug in the stash and didn't find anything for this one so I set it aside for later.

I love black and white and red...some of these bowtie blocks were left over from another project and I enjoyed the look so I made more.  I want a small black inside border and then something red on the outside. I found appropriate fabrics, cut borders and bagged this one.

The one I actually finished was one of several charm square middles that were sewn, pressed and ready for borders.  This one was six blocks by eight blocks, so it's on the small side, 27 inches by 36 inches.  Now that doesn't cover much of anything but it's a good center size.

 

I dug around in the blue stash and found this jazzy stripe.  but just the stripe was too fussy next to the mainly solid or reads-like-a-solid blocks.  So I added a narrow strip of chambray blue.  The original plan was to miter the corners.  But it was kind of late in the evening and I was afraid that could get frustrating so late in the day.  And I wanted to finish something before I went to bed. 

 

Last week at Log Cabin Quilters we had a speaker who showed a number of quilts with a different border technique.  It requires knowing how to do a partial seam, but I already knew how to do that, so it sounded like I had a winner.  Here's the result.  Sorry for the fuzzy picture... I must have been yawning while I was taking it!

 



Other UFOs requiring treatment include but are not limited to (as we say in engineering):

Twirligig.. I might make some more of these blocks.  They're big, they finish 15 inches so three more and a top is almost done, although I want an applique border - flowers or something.

and

My Jelly Roll 1600.  I had a dark blue border planned for this quilt.  I hope I didn't use it for something else...

 

Others on my list:  three Christmas quilts (two tops, one that is layered and pin basted), another r/w/black lap quilt, three more charm square centers, a spools quilt, a black/white stars BOM top, and several ziplock bags filled with four patches and nine-patches that need to be sorted and put with backgrounds.

 

Oh my gosh I had better get busy!

 

Sew on...