Design Wall Monday - Almost Finished

There hasn't been a lot of sewing going on here in the last week. It took me until Saturday to figure out just how I wanted to do the 1st and 3rd borders on the wolves. Then I realized that the scraps of purple and the 2 blue prints were too small. At that point, I quickly invented Plan B and cut some fabric.

It won't take long to stitch on the 3rd and final border. Conveniently, there are strips less than 3" wide left of the 2 fat quarters I used for geese and borders, so it's off to the scrap bin for those. No worrying about what I can do with half a fat quarter.

I've already sliced strips of 2 fabrics ready to start stitching the next quilt top as soon as I get the last border on these howling wolves.

What's on your design wall? Visit Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times to see what JudyL and others are working on and add your own Design Wall Monday post to the Linky list.

Design Wall Monday - Geese & Stars

I finished the strips of flying geese and stitched some 5" friendship stars for the corners. The squares in the stars finish at 1 2/3" which caused some interesting measuring and cutting.

Now the challenge is to decide how to turn some of this fabric into

1. a border between the center panel and the geese,

   and

2. a border around the outside of the geese and stars to finish the quilt top.

There will definitely be some piecing in these borders, but I want to keep them pretty simple.

Click either picture to see a bigger version.

What's on your design wall? Visit Design Wall Monday at Patchwork times to see what JudyL and others are working on and add your own Design Wall Monday post to the Linky list.

Design Wall Monday - Geese Attack!

The howling wolves have been joined by some flying geese. This UFO is back on the active project list.

Saturday morning, I spread the wolves on my cutting table to measure the length and width. I grabbed a pencil and some paper, did a few calculations and decided to make flying geese that finish at 2½" by 5".

Most of my geese are laying on the cutting table waiting for the corners to be trimmed.

Some are at the sewing machine patiently waiting for the second sky triangle to be stitched on.

The geese will be the middle of 3 borders around the center wolf section. My original thought was to use strips of dark blue for the other 2 borders, but I don't have enough dark blue and I'd like to make this from stash. I used fabric from a couple of fat quarters for some of the geese. I may use some of the FQ leftovers to piece border strips, maybe using some of the dark blue, maybe not. As usual, I'm designing as I go.

What's on your design wall? Visit Design Wall Monday at Patchwork times to see what JudyL and others are working on and add your own Design Wall Monday post to the Linky list.

Evolution of an Afghan

In October 2003, I made half a dozen rectangular granny squares to demonstrate a join as you go technique at a Project Linus event. I used some random bits of yarn that had been donated, including a neon green and some white.

There was only enough yarn for a few rectangles. It was just a sample for a demonstration. I never intended to make it into something usable. But I really hate to throw things away, so those half dozen rectangles sat around with the tiny bits of yarn that were left.

Occasionally more bright green yarn came my way and I added it to the bag. Over the years, I collected enough green yarn to make a whole afghan. The project went on my UFO list in 2008 (the first year I made a list).

Early this year, I got the project out and made the first 3 or 4 rounds of the rest of the granny rectangles. I used a color for 1 or 2 rounds and then changed colors. I made an assortment of different colored centers and then varied the colors in the additional rounds, so few rectangles are alike.

By March 23, I was ready to start joining rectangles. I swept the floor and laid everything out to arrange the blocks. I wrote color names on slips of paper and put those on the blocks to indicate which yarn to make the last round or 2 rounds of the rectangle with.

14 blocks joined.

23 blocks joined. Watch closely, the blocks may move to a new position.

All 36 blocks joined.

Edging - Try 1

I merrily started edging the afghan. I made 3 double crochet clusters in the spaces between the clusters on the last round of the rectangles. Then I changed colors and did the same thing in the spaces on the first round of edging.

I decided I didn't like it. The first round of the edging was blending into the blocks and it just seemed like more of the same, rather than a finish.

So I frogged all of the edging and started over.

Edging - Try 2

I made a double crochet in each stitch around this time. A bit more time consuming than making clusters in spaces. The solid, filled in texture clearly distinguishes the edging versus the blocks. I'm satisfied.

I continue until I have 3 rounds of edging complete. Weave in the last of the yarn ends and the afghan is complete.

The afghan was donated to Project Linus in April.

Finish What You Start?

You may have deduced from my last post that sometimes I have trouble finishing projects. Ever wonder why I quit writing about the Lone Star quilt in 2008? That's right, I quit working on it and it's languishing as a UFO. My niece may never get her wedding gift. The Learning EQ7 series didn't stop just because of my long hiatus from blogging. I also got sidetracked and quit doing the lessons.

In January 2008, I wrote annual goals for various things, including UFOs. I located all my Unfinished Objects (UFOs) and Works in Progress (WIPs) and made a master list. Any of my WIPs could become a UFO, so I group them together. It's amazing how frequently something more urgent or more interesting pops up to sidetrack me.

Each January, I create a new UFO/WIP list and set a goal for how many I want to finish. So how have I done?

Year	# UFOs/WIPs on Jan. 1	# UFOs/WIPs finished
2008	37	13
2009	33	8
2010	32	6
2011	30	4, so far

So the number of unfinished projects on January 1 isn't going down much each year. I start and finish a lot of things each year. Unfortunately, I also start a few things each year that don't get finished by December 31.

I am slowly getting some of the true UFOs finished, though not necessarily the oldest ones. There are always Project Linus blankets in various stages of completion. There is always a pair of socks being knitted. Whatever isn't finished on December 31, goes on the list for the next year.

I've decided to pass one crochet project on to someone else through a garage sale or thrift shop donation. It wasn't my UFO to start with. A coworker bought it in an auction lot. She knitted but didn't crochet so she passed it on to me. I worked on it some and never finished it. The group I planned to donate it to no longer wants it and it's time to get it out of here.

It really is OK to not finish everything. If it no longer inspires you, you don't want to work on it and it's not an overdue gift someone is expecting, don't torture yourself. Pass it on to someone who will love and appreciate it and get the clutter out of your house and out of your mind.

On the other hand, if you love the fabric, yarn, pattern, or someone is waiting for a gift from you: keep it, pull it out and work on it occasionally and finally get it done! Sometimes spending small chunks of time move the project along until you finish it. This works best on projects you can easily get out and put away.

I dread getting out the Lone Star quilt to work on. It is a huge quilt. I'll have to move my living room furniture to clear space to layer the back, batting and top and baste them for quilting. It's probably going to take hours, days and weeks to quilt. Then there are miles of binding to stitch.

I just remembered why I love making blankets for Project Linus. They're relatively small, quick to make, and nobody cares if your quilting is a little less than perfect.

What UFOs should you get rid of because finishing them would serve no purpose? Which ones do you feel like you should finish, but you really don't want to? And which ones will you get around to someday?

How to Finish a Quilt

Most quilters know how to make a quilt.

• Choose the pattern and fabric
• Cut fabric and stitch pieces into a quilt top
• Prepare an appropriate sized quilt back
• Layer back, batting and top together and baste for quilting
• Quilt the layers.
• Bind the quilt

Sounds easy. Just do a series of steps and the quilt is done. The journey to finishing this bear quilt wasn't quite as quick or straight forward.

Making this quilt went more like this.

• I was one of 3 quilting coworkers who each made 2 quilts for the 6 babies due in the 2004 baby boom at work. I bought the bear panel just in case.
• Retire in 2005.
• Summer 2008: A baby is on the way. I'll make something simple so I can get it done more or less on time.
• Add borders to the bear panel to make a quilt top.
• Use Joan's Trick to make a quilt back from flannel.
• Layer the quilt back, batting, and the quilt top.
• Baste with safety pins, fold, and move to my sewing/quilt area.
• December 2008: I have to make Christmasa gifts now! Move quilt sandwich out of the way.
• The baby arrives. Send the rest of my gift and don't mention the quilt. It can be a surprise gift when I finish it.
• 2009: Move quilt sandwich back and forth between the table behind my sewing machine, the cutting table, and other horizontal surfaces.
• 2010: Move quilt sandwich back and forth between the table behind my sewing machine, the cutting table, and other horizontal surfaces.
• January through June, 2011: Move quilt sandwich back and forth between the table behind my sewing machine, the cutting table, and other horizontal surfaces.
• End of June: Time to bust this UFO and get it out of my way and off my to do list.
• Quilt for 2 seconds at high speed.
• Spend 45 minutes picking out poorly placed (and tiny) quilting stitches.
• Quilt at much slower pace with good results.
• Bind quilt.
• Baby is now 2 years old. Put finished quilt away for the next baby.

I did free motion quilting (at a slow speed) around many of the shapes in the printed panel. I added some loopy, curved quilting lines in the background area to even out the quilting density. The quilting is closer than the Soft and White batting needs, but it is what worked for this quilt.

The quilt has 4 borders. 2 are printed on the panel and I added the yellow print border and the blue print with yellow stars. I quilted in the ditch of the added borders with my walking foot. I also stitched the printed lines outlining the borders printed on the panel. You have to look closely to see which borders are part of the panel and which aren't.

No longer an Unfinished Object, I'll put this cute quilt with a cuddly flannel back away until an appropriate gift giving occasion arises. My UFO list is one object shorter.