Homeward Bound

Behind every unfinished quilt is a story waiting to be told.

The blocks for this UFO came from a block-of-the-month 

at a local quilt shop and have been sitting

 in the same box for about ten years.

The entire block-of-the-month program was a frustration.

Since the directions were poorly written,  

the blocks ended up as varying sizes.

I also hated the mixture of fabrics the shop owner selected.

In an attempt to salvage the project, 

as an inexperienced quilter I sewed narrow borders 

on several of the blocks to try to even them up.

The result was a whole bunch of ugly!

So at this point, 

not only did I hate the fabrics

but there was no unifying pattern to tie the blocks together.

My older and wiser self decided 

 it was time to conquer this UFO!

The first thing I did was tear off many of the narrow borders 

and re-frame each block in navy to tie all the blocks together.

Each block was then squared up to 12" to hide all the varying sizes.

Ah! That's much better!

To complete the top, a two inch strip of Kona snow was used for sashing

and a narrow, scrappy border was added in the outer border.

Finished size of the top is 62" x 75".

Here is a close up of a few of my favorite blocks.

This former unwanted and unloved UFO 

is now moving on to bigger and better things!

It has been lovingly named "Homeward Bound"

and will be donated to the Quilts of Valor organization. 

Special thanks to Alycia who has generously volunteered to 

machine quilt this!

Do you have any UFO's waiting to be finished?

Linking up with:

Finish it Up Friday

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?

Quilts of Valor Progress Friday

Quilting Galleries UFO Challenge

Patchwork Times UFO Challenge

Sew Darn Crafty

 May you always Sew in Peace!

Friday Night Sew In - October

Finally, I'm ready to post my results from this

month's Friday Night Sew In.  I was able to finish

this Quilt of Valor which is one of the goals I've been working

on for the Charming Girls Quilt Club.

The QOV foundation asks quilters to wash

all quilts before donation, so I decided to take this

step before I took my photographs.

Recently I read a post by Amada Jean at

Crazy Mom Quilts where she shared her thoughts

on prewashing quilts before you gift them. The above

photo is exactly why prewashing is a good idea.

This wonderful product called Stain Be Gone

is a sheet that can be tossed into the washer to attract

dyes in wash water. Let me tell you it works!

The top sheet collected dye when I first washed the quilt.

The sheet was so dark

that I decided to wash the quilt a second time to see if

it would collect more dye...and it did!

The middle sheet is the results of the second wash.

The bottom sheet is a new one.

There is nothing that make the heart sick,

 like time and effort wasted on a project

where the colors bleed when washed. In case anyone asks,

I did prewash all my fabrics before piecing the top.

Click this link if you want to read more about the

construction of this quilt.

For the backing I added several leftover blocks.

And this is the what was going on at my feet while

I was trying to take photos...

...because obviously someone does not get enough attention.
Can you relate?

May you always Sew in Peace!

Sandra

Friday Night Sew In - July

Made some real progress on my Quilt of Valor

during the Friday Night Sew In

and will be finished soon with the quilting!  

May you always Sew in Peace!

Sandra

My First Quilt of Valor

Ever since I heard about Quilts of Valor several years ago

I've wanted to make a quilt for a soldier. According to their

website, "the mission of Quilts of Valor is to cover all those

servicemembers and veterans touched by war with quilts".

This non-profit organization has currently donated over

28,000 quilts.

A few years ago I was part of a block-of-the-month program

at our local quilt shop. They chose the fabrics and patterns

and each month the customer assembled the blocks.

The blocks I made have been neatly tucked away in

a drawer all these years.  I think this is the perfect

opportunity  to use them.

Since all of my blocks were not in the block library,

I started by recreating each block in my EQ6 software.

This was my first attempt at drawing individual blocks

and thankfully it was pretty easy to figure out.

I started with this layout, but...

...yikes! This looks too busy.

So I continued to play with the layout.

 Basically I have four of each block,

so I was looking for a balanced arrangement.

Perhaps an on-point arrangement?

We're getting closer...

...ah this feels right! The colors and patterns 

seem balanced. Looks like this one will work.

I'm not sure about you, but for me each project

 is a "process". It doesn't pay to skip the time to

completely think  through the design

before you begin. Can you relate?