UFOs #4 Lancaster Rose 1994

My sister went to university in Waterloo and I often drove the hour to visit her. One of those trips, I discovered the quaint village of St Jacobs and several quilt shops and the Farmers Market nearby. There are often a lot of Mennonite made hand quilted quilts on display and for sale. I wanted to make one. So I started dreaming. Eventually, I got the pattern for the Lancaster Rose. It was a simple 2 page photocopied sketch of the  rose and the leaves. There were no instructions. Seriously. For a newbie like me, that was a challenge to figure it out. I did this by asking a lot of questions each time I visited there. I bought some cheap muslin  and some solid and some print fabrics. I started this hand applique journey in 1994 using brown butchers paper I got from my father, a retired butcher. I even took an applique class there where they taught several different applique methods including ironing the freezer paper to the back of the fabric and using UHU glue to turn under the edges. I always used too much glue. Way too much. 

I was struggling to manipulate the fabric with the freezer paper under my left hand while stitching with an applique needle from right to left. Turning corners was a struggle as was turning an inny point or curve. Pushing through all that glue.

Again, I was trying to figure out how to grow the thing to finish 72x90, but this time, it was going to be set on point and I needed one more block. I had only enough pieces prepped for 12 blocks. I often thought I would use these blocks to practice machine quilting, but new projects came along and I kept moving forward. I even thought about sashing with a border print. 

For the life of me, I cannot find the blocks anywhere. I know they are in this house somewhere. Now that is a challenge I should enjoy, except that our son and the girls have moved in to the old Farm house and there are quite a few more things piled up here and there until we get things sorted out. I will post pictures when I find them. Wish me luck. 


Blessings,
Chris

UFOs #5 Grandmother's Fan Kit 1996

I bought this kit at Mary Maxim which is about a half hour drive from the Farm. I took time to stitch all the fan blades together for each block. I started doing needle turned hand applique with a regular applique needle usually nights I was babysitting my niece next door who just turned 22. I even took a few blocks to India with me in 2006 and again 2009. Needless to say, I was not enjoying this journey. The fabric is a poly-cotton and the needle would not glide through the fabric. A year later, in 2010, I was introduced to #10 Milliner's or Straw needles and needle turned hand applique. It took a while to get it figured out until I came to love it. But not back then. 

I probably could whip these up now that I know what I am doing. But will I? 

Blessings,
Chris

Some Slow Weekend Stitching

The first week of school is behind us now and we did not lose any children. Well, not quite. The 6 year old got on the wrong going home bus Friday, but after a few phone calls Daddy met her at the bus stop near Mommy's house so all is well. The girls are all at the farm this weekend. One is hiding somewhere on her ipad another is helping Grampa do stuff around the farm and the 5 year old is doing science experiments here in the quilt room. She is determined to make some spray paint for her treasure chest. We agreed that quiet is a good place to work on our projects.

And what am I working on this weekend? Dear Daughter of course. I am more than a few blocks behind but have been prepping several for hand applique. I could have gotten quite a few stitches done as I sat at the end of our very long lane way waiting for the bus if I had known it was going to be  25 minutes later than the suggested drop off time. The girls can eventually walk home but for now it is comforting for them and the bus driver for one of us to be there.

I have been doing some back basting prep work on a few blocks. I totally messed up on this one a few months ago. I had cut out each of the buds and stitched them in place them laid the leaves piece on top. I missed. But since we were away at the time, I just started stitching the leaves anyway and figured I'd figure it out later.

This is later. I pinned back the leaves and started over with the buds. I will know soon if this works. In the meantime, here the  only other blocks I made earlier in the summer.

Blessings,
Chris

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UFOs #3 Single Irish Chain 1993

I made several quilts in 1993. I had figured out the how-tos from one of Eleanor Burns Quilt in a Day books. I completed at least 4 log cabin quilts. Then I ventured out to a Single Irish Chain. I bought some green and gold fabric and some creamy background. Everything had to match. After a while, I found more green and gold fabrics. 

I drafted out my plan on the back of an envelope. It was years later before I started using graph paper and eventually Electric Quilt on my computer. I was still obsessed about getting the thing to 72 x 90 and and this one was far from it. I was not adventurous enough to try to put some other fabric with it. It was lost in a box for decades. It looks like there is enough fabric - that matches - to complete the thing at 72 x 90. But it will not be hand quilted. At least not by me. 

Blessings,
Chris

PS: I was reminded about another similar quilt I made back in about 2001. I was teaching 10-12  year old girls to sew and they made up most of the nine patch blocks as they learned how to use the rotary cutter and the sewing machine. I had them and their mom's in for tea one evening and they all tried a few hand quilting stitches. I left most of them in. This quilt is on my bed. It is hand quilted but I see I missed a few blocks. I had lost the template years ago and finally found it then misplaced it. If it shows up again, I really should finish the quilting.  

UFO #2 QAYG Sampler 1993

Way back in the Dark Ages, in 1993, I got a do-it-yourself book teaching how to quilt. I bought some fabric for about a dollar a yard then, when I did not have enough to finish, it sat forever in a box. Then on a quilt shop hop in the summer of 2005, I came across the exact fabric in a shop in a remote town on Lake Huron when I was visiting my niece. I hoped I had bought enough. 

I needed another light pink and found it on Ottawa St in Hamilton. It ended up costing me $25 for each of the 2 yards that I bought. I got a parking ticket in a rush hour zone. I cried all the way home because I could not afford that but I was guilty. Today, $25 a yard is common. But not in 1993. I was so proud of myself as I made blocks. I had taken a class in Quilt-As-You-Go at Mary Maxim. I used some of the blocks for a 9 patch setting for a lap quilt. I actually did complete the thing, but loaned it to a missionary family that stayed with us one summer and it did not come home when they did. So sad. 

I often used these blocks as samples when I taught beginning quilters here at the Farm. Not sure why I never completed it.  I hand quilted each block, often while my daughter was at swimming classes. We were given a square quilting frame to quilt up the square blocks. I later made a dozen of these for a 4-H class I was teaching to hand quilt. I have a whole pile of them here that would be useful if I could find the lug nuts for them. 

Blessings,

Chris

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UFO #1 Dolls of the World 1979

A lot of years ago (probably 40), I did textile painting with Tri-Chem. It was not anything original or artsy. Mostly paint by number. I painted up many Dolls of the World blocks intending to make a quilt some day. That day has not yet arrived. I gave  some of the blocks to one of my sisters. I wonder what she did with them? My first born daughter Denine died around that time and this ended up in a box somewhere and found recently in a mass de-clutter. 

At a local quilt guild meeting several years ago, the guest speaker was a quilt appraiser. She explained how appraisal and actual monetary value were not the same thing. She had in her collection a few unique, one of a kind quilts. One of them was the aforementioned Dolls of the World. At that time, I wondered if I still had the blocks. I did! I do. I seem to recall I planned to sash them in a solid red. 

I always had this thing in the back of my head telling me that when (not if) I completed quilts, they had to be a minimum of 72 x 90 inches in order to qualify showing them at my local fall fair. Seriously. Then, my adult kids got queen sized beds and I was trying to figure out how to grow the quilts I was making to fit on the larger bed. Then, my son got a king bed and I quit trying to figure it out. 

I did another similar to this with fairies flowers, completed it and hand quilted and donated to the Home where our daughter lived the final year of her short life. 
This is a poor fuzzy picture, but I could not scan it and it was a photo that "just happened to show up" the other day. 
I recall I had a birds of the world kit I made up and thought it would be nice to make it up with fabrics, but at that time I did not know how to applique and wondered why anyone would spend that much time making it anyway. 






Dolls of the World will be a throw size. When it is completed.  Any of you modern quilters out there have creative ideas how I could finish this ?

Blessings,
Chris

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New Series of Posts About UFOs

One of the things I wanted to do this summer is downsize my quilt stash. Its more of a massive hoard. I have bought hundreds, ye, thousands of yards and pieces of fabrics over the years. But in reality, I will not be able to make all the quilts I wanted to. Something about choosing the more difficult hand appliqued samplers in the past few years that take more than a weekend to make and I have progressive osteoarthritis that slows me down.

 I thought about doing a one month challenge for August to write about each of 31 never before mentioned ufos including kits purchased and their journey. I have a notebook I have kept over the years listing, in order, all the quilts I have ever started and those I have completed as well as how and to whom they were given. I even figured out how to pre-schedule posts. 

One of the reasons motivating this great task was that I will be celebrating my fifth year of blogging on Sept 4th and thought it would be nice to have it coincide with my 500th blog post but I would still have to write up another 131 posts, so, instead, I started to prepare 31 posts.  In June I started doing a treasure hunt in the massive quilt cupboard and taking pictures and writing what comes to mind. It has been quite the nostalgic journey. I also have been doing more research for my second book and so much has fallen into place with this quilt ufo journey. 

Mid July I decided to take a break from blogging and reading blogs. After all, it takes time to read and comment and interact with bloggers, which I love by the way.  I thought I would have some time without little people and I planned to be writing. Mid August I had one week and thoroughly enjoyed some quiet time, started chiropractic treatments 3 times a week and had 2 painful dentist appointments. The little children all returned at once and the summer is now over. 

I am celebrating my 5 year blogging anniversary and will post about my ufos sporadically. Stay tuned.

Blessings,
Chris

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