Saturday, December 20, 2014

Working on UFO's

A couple of months ago I went through my stuff look for tops that needed quilting. I found 9! Some are not tops I made but are ones I bought. I have one on my frame that I'm hand quilting. This was a vintage bow-tie quilt I bought.
 




This is a vintage 4 patch that was machine pieced. Most of the fabrics look like they are from the 70's. There's some polyester going on in there. I machine quilted 1/4-inch on each side of the seams.
 

See Dumbo?
 


This vintage top was hand pieced. I was having a hard time getting a picture of the complete quilt. The strips make squares to a certain point. Then there are just strips on each end.


I've been watching a class by Leah Day about Free Motion Quilting on Craftsy.com. I did some practice on this quilt top.
 

This is the back I pieced together from older fabrics in my stash.
 


Two down, 7 more to go! Most of the remaining ones will be machine quilted. I have two vintage scrappy 9-patch left to quilt. Also, tops I've pieced include a scrappy 1-patch, pink and white snowball, Celestial Sampler (stars and angels), and Thimbleberries pattern of pine tree blocks.

I need to get busy preparing backing and basting.
 

 

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Pillowcase from leftovers and a remade quilt

Going through my scraps I came across these quilted strips that I had trimmed from a lap quilt I did a few years ago. I have no idea why I trimmed such large pieces after quilting. I must have really messed up with my basting and things shifted.


 I sewed the strips together. Added some white quilted pieces and made myself a pillow case. I'm pleased with the results.


In 2005 I made my sister a large quilt from 12-inch squares of fabric. Instead of quilting, I tied it. Her dog, Sadie, decided right off the bat that the quilt belonged to her. You can see the quilt and Sadie in this post  http://craftypat.blogspot.com/2008/11/for-many-years-i-had-good-intentions-of.html

Sadie is now getting on in years and everyone knows she won't be around forever. A few months ago my sister mentioned when the time comes she wants to bury the quilt with Sadie. Honestly, my first reaction was a bit of shock. Then I thought about I made the quilt to comfort my sister and if that brings her comfort then she should do it. A few days later I came up with the idea of dividing the quilting into two quilts. My sister was all for that! She said she had thought of it but hated to ask. 

When I got the quilt I kept thinking it seemed very thin. When I took it apart I found the polyester batting had disintegrated! Apparently I had not put the ties close enough together. 



I cut the quilt top in two pieces. Removed the backing and batting. With new batting and backing, I machine quilted each piece using straight-line quilting. I then used solid red for the binding.






A few weeks after finishing them I went to visit my sister and return her "new" quilts. Sadie approves:



Her sister, Ruby, had to also test out the quilt.