Working With UFO'S

I've spent these cold winter evenings working with UFO'S!  For those of you not familiar with this 'crafting term', UFO stands for "un-finished objects".  Everyone who does any kind of hobby has these UFO'S laying around.  It's just human nature to start something gung-ho, then put the project away for whatever reason:  perhaps we hit a snag in the project, or ran out of money, or lost interest, or moved, or illness came, or life situations prevented us from our hobby.   I just finished a quilt that I started 15 years ago.   During the past 15 years I have moved, gotten married, built a house AND improved my quilting skills.   But I hated to throw the project out even though the squares were not the kind of work I would do today.   Over the years I put so much effort into the quilt, and the fabrics are vintage from the 60's and 70's.   So I decided to finish the quilt a little differently than originally intended.  Instead of a queen sized bedspread quilt with blue and green sashing, I used the best squares and made a smaller sofa sized quilt for wrapping up on cold nights while reading or watching TV.   Here is the finished project:  it is called Grandmother's Fan design.

The quilt is about 56 x 75, with a blanket used for batting. 

Another project I would like to finish is one that my mother started around 1950!  For her very first quilt she chose an elaborate Dresden Plate design (Wow, Mom, what a choice!).  Her original plan was to make a quilt for a full sized bed, with a gray border.  She made about 8 squares and had some fabrics cut out for more, but it wasn't enough to make too many more squares.   For whatever reason, she put away this project in a cedar chest and there it stayed until a few years ago when she gave me the project "to do something with".  Sixty years later!!!   I knew that 8 squares would never make a quilt top, and there was no way I could match those vintage 50's fabrics, so I took apart all the squares and plates she made, bought reproduction fabrics that closely matched, and used some old and some new fabrics to make NEW Dresden Plate squares.   I managed to make 20 squares out of the original 8.  The resulting quilt should be a queen sized quilt that will mostly cover a bed.  I need to applique more of the Dresden Plates onto 18 inch white squares, and then put everything together with stripping and sashing and backing and batting.   This will take me a while yet.  I remember that my sister and I would often dig into that cedar chest and look at the quilt squares Mom made and decide which fabrics we liked best.  So hopefully, soon, I will be able to finish my mother's UFO!

It's a lot of work to applique and sew these Dresden Plates, but aren't they pretty?

I have two more UFO'S and these are unfinished projects from Harold's Grandmother!  Here is one that I feel certain she must have sewn sometime in the 30's or early 40's because of the fabrics used.   Also the pattern is called Grandmother's Garden, which was extremely popular during the Depression Era because it used tiny pieces of fabric that could be saved from dresses and shirts that wore out.  This quilt was entirely hand sewn.   It had years of dirt embedded in it.   A neighbor gave me a special kind of soap to use on it, and I hand washed the quilt top.  All the dirt came out, and the quilt looks very nice and bright.  Only one hand seam fell apart, and I can re-sew that.   This quilt will need the edges appliqued to a side piece, and will need batting and backing.  I think I will use a plain linen for this.  And what an honor to be the one to finish Rosa Schadt's quilt!! 

What a lovely design on this 1930's quilt!

Here's a close-up of some of those vintage fabrics.

And here's one more UFO from Harold's grandmother Rosa.  This one I feel that she must have made in the late 40's or early 50's.  It also has a lot of vintage fabrics that you can't find anymore, and it is a large quilt, almost queen sized.   I need to get a backing and batting for this one and tie it up.  It will be lovely in the guest bedroom, which has a pink-peach color scheme.  And again, I feel so honored to be the one to finish her quilt!   And I am honored to be able to finish my own Mom's quilt, too!

Just look at all these vintage fabrics!