Progress Update

An update on the progress of my UFO's from this weekend, but first....some breaking news....

I was able to give my mom her Featherweight today.  She was thrilled and totally surprised.  It's always nice when you can actually pull off a surprise.  Yesterday was their 57th Wedding Anniversary so I gave her the machine.  

Now back to the UFO update.  My goal was to get my current "at the top of the list" UFO's kitted up or out where I can work on them so this is what I accomplished.  

• My brown Kaleidoscope quilt- this is one that I really mulled over for a long time while sorting through my UFO's.  I kept putting it in the "get rid of pile", but then I realized that I had 25 blocks already finished and more blocks already partially pieced.  Seemed pretty crazy for me to get rid of this since I had put so much time in piecing theses blocks.  So I decided that this should be one that would be easy to finish piecing.  There are two blocks in the quilt, one with dark outer rings and one with light outer rings. 

Pretty proud of my center points if I do say so myself....hehehe.   I started piecing this block in 1994 or 1995.  I could tell from some of the blocks that my piecing skills have GREATLY improved since then.  I did take 4 blocks apart and resewed them to make the centers match.  One of them looked totally like a drunk had pieced it.....and I promise I wasn't drinking when I pieced it. 

When I put the blocks up on my design board I LOVED IT!  I know it is a lot of brown but I love the hidden circles that you see with the pattern.  Glad that I kept these blocks.  I've got some of them squared up and hope to be able to finishing squaring up and then sew the rows together this week.  Then I need to pull some border fabric from my stash.

 I decided that I needed to have another leader-ender project cut out so that I could have it to piece during all of this UFO finishing.  Suzanne taught a rag quilt technique at the guild meeting last Monday and I decided while cutting up some scraps to make a halloween rag quilt from all of the halloween fabric that I have.  This should be fun.  Below I have kitted up the pieces.  I cut 5-inch squares of halloween fabric, 4 1/2 inch squares of scrap batting I had from other projects.  (some of it came from the scraps left from the yellow/brown braid quilt I just finished), I put one 5-inch square face down, batting piece, then another fabric piece right side up.  I pinned in two corners so I can easily pick up a piece and sew a diagonal line across it as a leader-ender project.  When I'm done it will be totally done and quilted.  What a great project.  Thanks Suzanne for sharing this technique.

 Below is where I have sewed 4 pieces into a row.  This is the side that will be cut in the seam areas to rag the quilt.  Can't wait to get this finished.

• The Patriotic quilt project- I had finished strip piecing all of the sections.  I have three of the panels already pieced and together.  These are the last three sections which I have pieced and cut apart now into six sections each.  Now just to unsew some seams and resew them back together into a panel.   I am using Bonnie Hunter's scrappy bargello pattern for this quilt and it goes together so quickly.  I purchased a ton of patriotic fabric on my trip to Hershey, Pennsylvania and I should have no problem picking out something for the borders.

•  Cathedral Windows Quilt- I laid all of my pieces together on the floor so I could measure and count how many more blocks that I need to complete to finish the quilt.  I started this  as a travel project in 2000 and have worked on it everytime we travel over the years, but have never made it a priority to get finished until NOW.  I want to get this done.

I did my calculations and I needed to cut out 77 more blocks to complete the quilt to the size I wanted.  I started to cut the size down to what I already had done but said no to that idea.  I have worked on this quilt for a long time and I want it to be big so even if it takes me longer I don't want to later wish I had continued with more blocks.  

I now have all of the fabric cut for the backgroud and window blocks.  This is one quilt that uses a TON of fabric.  I started out with 28 yards of the backgroud fabric.  Now to sew them, turn and press them so I can make the window blocks.  I am going to keep some of these in my car for sewing at bee and doctor's visits and the rest of them beside my chair in the livingroom so I can piece while watching TV with my hubby.  It is going to be beautiful when it is finished.

Guess that is about all for this weekend, whew.........got alot accomplished and I am very excited about the process.

Happy Quilting,
Shelia