Saturday, December 31, 2011

UFO list for 2012 Challenge

 

It is time to list the projects that I undertake to complete during 2012 while I take on the UFO Challenge at Patchwork Times.  Here we go: 

1.  African Collage – this is a holdover from last year’s list.  Surely this time it will be finished!

2.  Orca Bay Mystery

3. Buggy Barn project – flowers.  Blocks are made.

4.  Framed scrappy logs quilt.  Centre of the top is done.  It needs borders and finishing

5.  Log Cabin and Stars.  Top is complete.

6.  Stack and Whack six-pointed stars.  The blocks are made and have been hanging around for more than a decade – time to get it done!

7. Double Slice Scrappy – this one even has a destination ready for it, so it will be great to see it completed.

8.  Wall-hanging made of vintage 1950s scraps. 

9. Monet’s Wedding Ring – pink and white. 

10. Scrappy Braids – this one is leftover from last century!

11. Batik tiles

12.  Summer flowers – designed to hang over the fireplace.

Let the Challenge begin!

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Saturday, December 24, 2011

Christmas quilts

Each Christmas season I enjoy putting up my Christmas quilts around the house.
The oldest one is this Cardinal Quilt (which is a good example of why we should label our quilts when we make them!)  I THINK it was made about 1998.  Pattern is from the book Go Wild with Quilts by Margaret Rolfe. This one hangs on the quilt rack in the dining room.
Christmas cardinals quilt
Somewhat newer is the Star Sampler that was made with a group of friends in 2004.  We chose fabrics together and each made a set of stars.  Then we swapped blocks so that each person had one of each star.  I really enjoyed figuring out the set for this and piecing the borders and setting blocks.  The values don’t quite work (the large star into which the others are set doesn’t really show up), but I hang this one by the back door and remember my friends every time I see it.
Christmas star sampler quilt
The little Nativity Quilt is a pattern from Linda Worland at Paper Panache.  For this I used some batik scraps and I had a great time choosing the fabrics for each section.  This is displayed in the entry way on a display rod that I found at Ten Thousand Villages.
Christmas nativity quilt
Putting out the quilts is one of my favourite parts of the Christmas season.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

UFO for November

No, it isn’t completely finished, but it has come a long way from the stack of blocks that languished in a bag for years! 

I made the hexagon blocks from a pretty pink daisy fabric some years ago.  I bought the fabric and the One Block Wonder book by Maxine Rosenthal on the same day.  But as pretty as the hexagons were, I wasn’t happy with them with the One Block Wonder technique, and they were put to one side.  I have carried them around with coordinating fabrics for YEARS!  Every November at retreat I would vow that this would be the year.  Another retreat has come and gone, and there was still no progress. 

The sticking point with this project was in making the decisions – which fabric? where?  One day I sat down with EQ and considered my options.  I made some decisions.  I started to sew.  Nearly came to a halt when I didn’t like the way one fabric was working out, but I made ANOTHER decision and carried on.  (I’m sure you didn’t notice where I used two different fabrics because there wasn’t enough of either to do the job!) Pink hexagon top

This still needs some borders, but I have enough of the original daisy fabric plus a coordinating dark pink or dark green.  So that part will be easy. 

There is one UFO left in my stack for the year.  It is the African Collage from a class with Pippa Moore at Quilt Canada in 2010.  If I put the pieces up on the design wall, do you think they can be turned into something by the end of the month? 

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