Tuesday, July 26, 2016

UFOs Bite the Dust, and the Dust Keeps Rising

Two more UFOs are finished.

I hate to admit that this quilt top has been on a hanger in the closet for at least three years. It's made with Quarry Stone and Loaf blocks from Stitchin' Mission days. Well, now it's gonna be a donation to Project Linus.

Quilting is this repeated snail trail design, one in every block. It's fun to have a reason to use 40-weight YLI variegated thread on the quilt top. Aurifil 50-weight silver-colored thread is on the back.

Here's the quilt back. With a finish at 55" X 65", it should be a nice size for an older child. And because it's mostly blue, I'm hoping it will suit a boy.

My second finish is this two-tiered skirt from the book "The Essential A-Line." I swear that I've made at least a dozen skirts with this great pattern. But I'm disappointed in how this one turned out. While it fits fine, the lack of color on the top tier makes the whole thing look too plain. My plan is to take this skirt and fabric markers with me when I attend any meetings, and color away on the top part.

Fabric is from Andover, by Alison Glass, purchased from my friend's Etsy shop.

I'm making progress on other UFOs, including finishing my BAM BOM (Bay Area Modern Block of the Month) quilt top. Students in the February "Alternate Grid" workshop with Lee Heinrichs (Freshly Pieced) helped each other and this is the layout we came up with for my blocks. I had to order more Kona Ash - the background grey. What I received was definitely from a different dye lot. So, I inserted those slashes of Kona Bahama Blue to separate the background Ash of the pieced blocks, from the large Ash triangles on the right corners. I think you can still see they're different, but it's better than if they were touching.

Using three leftover blocks from the quilt front, two orphan blocks from my shrinking pile of orphan blocks, and lots of leftover fabrics from the blocks on the front, I pieced this back. I do like it a lot! And what a great stash-buster!

It's now sandwiched with Quilter's Dream Wool, pin-basted, and ready for quilting. 

Because I mentioned this a couple posts back, I'm participating in Debbie's Crosscut Quilt-Along that began July 25. It's fun digging into stash for low volume prints, and rummaging through solid scraps to cut, and in some cases piece, the one-inch insertion strips. And yes, I did piece that striped-looking insertion in the center block. 

Blocks were supposed to be trimmed to 9-1/2", but for some reason, mine came out at 9-1/4". No worries though. This is improv, with more piecing and cutting to come.

On July 26, The Villages Daily Sun newspaper ran this nice article about our Central Florida MQG's members' efforts to make quilts for victims and first responders of the June 12 Pulse nightclub attack. Of course, we're just a small part of a greater effort by the whole MQG and the Orlando MQG chapter that's not only collecting hundreds of quilts, but making hundreds of them themselves! It's these kinds of efforts that make me proud to be a quilter who can be part of the collective good, no matter who's affected. I may not be able to verbally express my feelings about the incident or the people involved - though I know we all deserve to be loved, for God is love, and He first loved us - but helping make quilts is a way for me to make the inexpressible, expressible.



Linda
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11 comments:

  1. Wow, you are on a roll. Congratulations on your group efforts to help those families lost loved ones in such a senseless act of violence. Expressing God's love for us through your quilts is a wonderful act of kindness.

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  2. Love the shapes and colors of your BAM BOM! Congratulations for finding time and energy to give to those who are suffering and in need. Gifts from the heart are such a treasure to both the recipient and to the giver. Your crosscut quilt is looking great. I really like the fabrics you chose and your teeny, tiny pieced strip is precious :)

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  3. You always have the most interesting projects Linda - and the colors just lift my spirits. :) blessings, marlene

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  4. How fantastic that you continue to work through your UFO pile! I admire your tenacity in aiming to colour your skirt in! I'll watch your progress on the Cross Cut quilt. I decided I would wait a bit and decide whether I want a quilt of that size....

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  5. Another great stashbuster and I love the colors you are using a lot. But I cannot, repeat, cannot start another scrap quilt. I'm going to close my eyes and pretend I didn't see this. Coloring in the top part of your skirt is a fantastic idea. Can't wait to see that take shape.

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  6. ah ha! So you DID piece that stripe in your Crossquilt quilt - that's amazing! ;-) And good luck getting the skirt to the point you'll enjoy wearing it!

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  7. I do love your style and enthusiasm! UFOS flying out the door or at least out of the closet. I am hoping to get a chance to play with the Crossquilt technique later in the week. Your pieced stripe is fabulous touch and adds so much energy to this quilt.

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  8. You've been busy! All results looks wonderful.

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  9. What a great post, Linda! Live all your projects--especially the cross- cut-quilt-along. Why not try coloring in just a few flowers on the top part of your skirt to jazz it up rather than coloring them all in.

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  10. So many good quilty things happening in your studio. I like all the cute skirts you make. Maybe you just need to wear a bright colorful shirt and/or only color a little bit up from the bottom. I'd love to see you sitting at your meetings coloring. Have fun. You should see all the tops hanging in my closet. Many may never see completion but thankfully we have a wonderful machine quilter in our guild who will quilt the ones I donate to our charity. Yeah!

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  11. When you make up your mind, you're pretty determined! Good job tackling those UFOs and sticking to it. I really do like yout cross cut quilt! XO

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