finished

It’s a great day when a quilt is finished. Even a better day when three are finished.

The 2015 SAHRR is finally finished and is off the ufo list. This was delayed because plain fabric is the least enjoyable for me to work with. I had finished piecing and didn’t like it, so Mr. Ripper removed two rows. I combined patterns in the rows and like it now. It is a community quilt.

The 2026 SAHRR is also finished. It never made it into the ufo list. I had a baggie of calicos that I received from a friend. I used the fabric in the baggie for this. The baggie is not empty. I can see at least two more community quilts in the baggie. When I have a few minutes to spare, I’m going to cut the leftover fabric into precuts. My new policy for this year is to precut all my leftover scraps. If the fabric is one yard long it can go back into the stash. It it’s smaller, it will be precut. I’ll start with ten-inch square cuts and go down from there. When I get to five-inch cuts, I can make half square triangles with the accordion method. Eventually there will be a lot of “free” quilts. The 2026 SAHRR is another community quilt.

Several years ago, I was the winner of a batch of birdhouse blocks. The blocks were made by the ladies in my Maine Guild. This year’s Maine Guild challenge is to register three ufos and have them finished by September. The Birdhouse is the first to be finished. The blocks are different sizes, so I added log cabin strips on everyone to make the blocks the same size. The quilt grew to be 92 inches by 96 inches. It’s perfect for my bed. There is one block leftover. I will use it on the back for a label.

My second registered ufo is an applique wall-hanging. I made it to go over the sofa. It became a ufo because I couldn’t decide if I should hand quilt or machine quilt. The decision is made. It will be machine quilted. Now to decide how to do it. Ideas have been rolling around in my head when Angela Walters offered a free class that taught exactly what I was planning. The class starts in April, so this ufo will be put aside until after the class is over.

The third registered ufo is a Cynthia English paper pieced project that I started over 25 years ago. I know why it’s a ufo. Some of the pieces are very small. I have done about one quarter of the piecing, so it is doable. I just have to start.

In the meantime, I found an easy pattern in the Missouri Start Quilt Company Block magazine. I wanted a non- thinking quilt. It starts with forty-two 10-inch squares. Each square is a different fabric. I cut the squares from blue fabric and a few yellow fabrics.

A 2 1/2-inch strip is cut off one side of each block.

Then a 2 1/2-inch strip is cut off the end of the larger piece. The remaining square is 7 1/2 inches.

I moved i/3 of one set of strips to the bottom and 2/3 of the other strip to the bottom. That made the pieces different fabrics when I sewed them together.

At this point, all the pieces are sewn. They need to be pressed and trimmed. Then I can lay them out and put them together. I can work on this when I get frustrated with the paper piecing.

I have to think of a new quilt to make along with all of the ufos. I’m thinking about another Puzzle quilt. It uses a lot of different fabrics. I’ve made two Puzzle Quilts already. There are ten blocks in a Puzzle Quilt but only ten patterns. To solve the puzzle, you have to figure out which two are the same pattern. It’s not as easy as you might think. For example, the first block, (red and yellow) and the thirteenth block (green corners with flying geese) are the same.

Making two blocks at a time will be fun and eventually all twenty blocks will be complete. The border is strip pieced from leftover fabric and then cut.

Have a great day and happy quilting.