Almost Finished

The first of the three registered UFOs is almost finished. The only thing left is the embroidered letter B. I’m going to move it to another UFO bin and consider the first bin completed. I think that I know what I want to do with it, but not now.

The first bin was birdhouse blocks that I won from my Maine quilt guild. The decision was to make a wall hanging or add something and make a bed quilt. I decided to make a bed quilt. The blocks were different sizes, so I made cutouts and placed them on graph paper.

The small pieces were moved around until I thought they were where they were supposed to be. I made log cabin strips and sewed them around the blocks. There were ten blocks and as hard as I tried, I could only find the space for nine. The tenth block will be the label on the back.

As I added strips the blocks moved around. Somehow. I was able to contain each block in sashing. The quilt has three borders. The middle border consists of strips of the same fabric as the log cabin pieces. I made several stratas , cut them, and sewed them end to end.

This is a quilt that was designed as I went along. I was amazed to find that I had made a king size quilt out of nine blocks. I’ve been asked the usual question, “Who are you going to give it to?” The answer is “It will go on my bed. ” I no longer go to Maine so my friends will be remembered as I look at it.

I am ahead of schedule to finish three UFOs. This bin was fun to work with. There were several small wall hangings in it. Hopefully the next one will be fun also.

The mystery quilt has been completed for this month. There are 54 of the following. The instructions come on the first Thursday of the month so there is time to make the blocks between sewing other things.

One day this month, I put a little table topper on my dining room table. Everyone who came in commented on it. As I looked at it, I thought – What if I made several blocks like this and made a full-size quilt. When I quilted it, I quilted every seam with a different built in embroidery on my sewing machine.

The mile a minute basket was full of strips so this would be a “free” quilt.

I needed 80 six-inch blocks and 20 3-inch blocks. This block still needs to be trimmed.

The blocks are all completed. It didn’t make a dent in the mile a minute basket. As this quilt will be large, I’ll make it in four quarters and then quilt each quarter. Then, I can sew the four quarters together. It’s the machine embroidery that makes this piece.

Now, it’s time to decide which of the remaining two UFOs to work on. The Cynthia English paper piecing wall hanging or quilting the applique wall hanging. I’m glad that I have until next September to finish them.

Have a great day and happy quilting.