UFOs #17 Ladies of the Night Mystery Quilt 2006

This was a fun evening. 

We met at the quilt shop at 7 pm 

probably on a Friday night in March. 

The group got locked in and worked on the mystery quilt 

until 2 in the morning. 

I think we lasted until about midnight 

considering we had an hour drive home after. 

The fabric above. Now that is interesting. 

I bought not one but all the fat quarter bundles 

of solids at Walmart when they still sold fabric long before this class.
I do believe that I used this same solid for the crazy quilt I completed
last year and gave to a cousin in Poland. 

Then I bought some cute yardage with bright sewing stuff

 on a black background. 

The pre cutting instructions told us to cut fabrics a specific size. 

So I cut a lot of pieces that size. 

I mean, a lot. This was going to be at least 72 x 90. 

Then when we got there,

we were given further instructions to cut 

all those pieces again to the actual required size. 

So, I proceeded to re cut a lot of pieces. 

Eventually, we were given instructions to sew together 

a lot of squares then cut half square triangles. 

Then,

we were given yet more instructions 

to trim all those half square triangles

to the exact size. 

Needless to day, this ended up in a box. 

We had pizza at 11 pm. 

And we could shop. Imagine that.

I bought a whole lot of fat eights just because I could. 

And some border yardage. A lot. 

This is all prewashed sitting in a project box 

labeled "Stonefields".  

Blessings,
Chris

This might just be a good project for next year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I will have to give that some thought. And most of the pieces are already cut. 

UFO # 16 Biblical Blocks Three 2006

In 2006 I had 6 quilt starts with 2 completions. 
This is the third Biblical Blocks quilt I have started. You can read about the first two here. The floral border is all hand appliqued except for some of the  flowers. I will add these after the border is sewn on so I can center them over the seams and mitered corners. There is a lot of freezer paper to remove. Not looking forward to that.

Also, there are quite a few more nine inch blocks to make. These will be fun fussy cutting into that wonderful Jinny Beyer border print. I have since learned other ways to do half square triangles. 

I loaned the pattern book to a friend a lot of years and 2 moves ago. I wonder if I can get it back? If not, I am sure I have the skills and resources to figure the rest out since I have already made one and a half.

I cut all the borders out first. Lots more applique bits ready. I sure hope that red flower does not run. All the setting triangles are cut and labeled. 

I took a class with Rosemary Makhan 2003-2004 when she was writing her More Biblical Blocks book. She taught us to draft our own patterns. This gave me the most amazing freedom to change the block size without panic or stress. I think that may be why I started 2 more. 

Blessings,
Chris 

UFO #15 Floral Abundance 2006

In 2004, I bought the book written by Rosemary Makhan at one of the shop hops I went to. Those were a lot of fun. Visiting all the shops on the list in one day. I usually spent close to a thousand dollars each time by the time I bought all the fabric to make at least 2 new quilts, some books and fat quarters all on sale. Fabric prices were at $15-20 per meter. Problem is, I never got around to making any of the quilts. And yes, we were taught to take the book apart, punch holes and put it in a binder. I have a lot of binders on one of my book shelves.  

I was determined to make this one. One of the shops offered a series of classes with Rosemary so I signed up, pulled some fabrics from my hoard stash and bought an interesting upholstery fabric for the borders. I started tracing and cutting out ALL the many freezer paper applique shapes. Then horrors!! The class was cancelled! So it ended up in a box. Did I ever mention that if I do not see something, it does not exist? Then the shop was closed. Sigh.

Rosemary based this pattern on William Morris designs. I knew so little of that stuff, even though  I had studied textiles at college before I was married. This is a simplified version of the now popular medallion quilts. I would love to revisit this one and see what I can do with it. 

Blessings,
Chris 

UFOs #14 Underground Railroad 2005

How was I to know that summer in 2005, that the simple purchase of one fat quarter bundle of Civil War reproduction fabrics was going to change my life and my approach to quilting? My local quilt shop was running a summer class on Quilt in a Day's Underground Railroad and for some reason, I was unable to take the class. I heard it was fun. I decided to do the quilt and one of my quilting friends joined me in starting this journey.

I got 10 of the blocks done and stalled because of some weirdness in a technique used to make the Dresdan Plate block and the whole thing ended up in a pizza box on a shelf never to be touched again until now.

Oh, and I started 3 other quilts that month, non of which are completed yet. I am sure that had nothing to do with it. One of them was the Biblical Blocks. Come to think of it, I was finishing up my first Biblical Blocks quilt and doing an internship because I had gone back to school after my kids were gone and I recall going to Scotland on a class trip studying Celtic Christianity as well as doing Developmental Psychology and a distance ed course on the Gospel of John and then, I went to India for the first time. I remember that because I was trying to do some of the coursework on some of the 8 flights and 2 train rides we took and swollen feet. I guess I was a bit busy because I was also milking cows every day back then as well as doing all the bookkeeping and paying all the bills. Nice to be retired from all that now.

Blessings, 
Chris

UFOs #13 Almost Amish Double Irish Chain 2004

Winter 2004 I was beginning the healing process from the anger and depression. 

I was at a family wedding and discovered 

that a nephew had suddenly gotten married 

and just had to make a quilt for the newlyweds. 

This is as far as I got before their short marriage ended. 

Sad. 

I was using yet another fat quarter bundle of a line called "Almost Amish". 

I found a bit of yardage for a border and a tone on tone white. 

I even had all the hearts ironed onto freezer paper and glued under. 

I think I was planning to machine applique them on. 

I know it would not take long to put this all together 

then I would have something to practice machine quilting. 

But that is what I have been thinking about every one of the ufos. 

Blessings,

Chris

UFO # 12 Heavenly Stars 2004

The anger, depression and suicide part of my menopause journey was beginning to change into peace and joy. This was the year I had 2 of my completed quilts photographed and published in Rosemary's latest book More Biblical Quilts. I was on a header and decided that I should try to design my own quilt since I had learned how to draft patterns from a photograph. 

I decided to use one of Jinny Beyer's border prints and the Radiant Star layout. My challenge then was to find fabrics to go with the turquoise, gold and black border print that I chose. They all had to match. I did not yet know how to pull in other colours. I made plastic templates and a few test diamonds that I hand pieced. I got stuck, to say the least. I started no less than 7 quilts that year and completed 3 of them right away. Actually, I cut out, sewed up and machine quilted 2 of them in just 3 weeks each all the while milking cows, driving tractor and writing research papers. Goes to show what can be accomplished with a deadline and incentive. 

Blessings,

Chris

October 2018 OMG

My printer quit. This is the second one that quits when the black ink runs out. I got it replaced on warranty last time but will see what they say this time. I bought it for half price and have new ink cartridges in it that cost a lot. How did we ever quilt without a printer and photocopier? This one is special. It prints 11 x 17 ledger size pages. 

October is here and I am not ready. Oh, I put on socks today and the furnace kicked in the middle of the night. How can weather go from 33C one day and 6C the next? Oh yes, it is fall here in Canada. At least we do not have snow. Yet. 

I have been posting about many of my ufos. I am slowed down right now because I want to take pictures but my quilt room is so stinkin' cluttered, first with my stuff, then with the little girls ipads, crafts, toys, paper for drawing, paper for colouring, paper for painting, paper for cutting, paper, paper, paper. I brought a recycle bin in here so I could begin to declutter. We are still trying to figure things out since the girls moved in half-time a month ago. I like that they are here some of the time. I do not pack lunches or do their laundry, and their dad cooks supper the nights they are here. I like that too. But there is extra furniture and boxes with toys and winter gear and other stuff. 

I have decided that my one-monthly-goal-october-goal will be to continue the ufo posts . This means taking a few more pictures. So far I have done 11 posts. However, I am having difficulty locating a few of them. They will show sometime when I am not looking for them. And I really want to post them in the order they were started. But I could skip ahead then come back. Most of the posts are already written. I did that back in June. I will aim for 15 more. 

Turns out there is a clean function on the printer. If only I had known. This bit of information cost me $22. It could have been more. I might have had to buy a new printer/copier. And the recycle bin is now full and I can see the floor again. And I can access the design wall again. At least until the little girls return tonight. 

Blessings,
Chris