Wow, quilt jargon is so fun! Yes I really did finish off two UFO’s!* I put the binding on two quilts this week and that felt really good. The first quilt I’ve already posted a picture of with the pink minky back. The second was my ‘learning’ WOMBAT I put on the Innova and did all the crazy blocks and cross hatching on. They are done, completed, fini!
The Wombat was my first pieced top kit. It is the Starshine pattern from Creative Sewlutions. I didn’t think I did a good job on it, the points and blocks didn’t line up and many of the triangle pieces had blunt points on them making them into trapezoidal. In short, when I finished the top a couple of years ago, I felt it was not very good. However, my more experienced quilty friends told me to finish it, that I could look back on it in the future and realize how far I’d come. So I kept it. I was thinking that this wombat was so bad, anything else I make would look good in comparison and thus it would be an ego booster. That was the quilt top I decided to use to ‘learn’ all the quirks of the Autopilot Innova. And ya know what?! After it’s all said and done, it really isn’t so bad. It’s not fabulous. But it didnt’ come out butt ugly. It’s actually going to be useful. Since it’s not ‘perfect’ I”ll actually probably use the heck out of it. I wouldn’t hesitate to use it in my car, camping, watching tv, sitting on it for a picnic or at a football game. It will probably become my ‘car quilt’.
As far as the PHD’s:
I still have the red, black, and white blocks to assemble into a quilt top. I think I’m going to go with black sashing with red squares at the intersections, and a black and red double border.
Also I cut out a One Block Wonder earlier this year. I picked up Maxine Rosenthal’s One Block Wonder book at the Quilt Haus in New Braunfels, Texas. I used a Kaffe Fasset fabric that has fuchsia blossoms and cabbage like leaves in an olive green and turquoise color scheme. I wanted to find a bigger pattern with a 20 inch plus repeat. This fabric was the only thing I found with the big repeat, not too many colors and a pretty random looking but large pattern. It wasn’t my first choice for colors though. I think the coloration is why all the pieces are still in a box. I’ve got to get that out of the box and on a design wall. I’ll never get it laid out while it’s sitting in the dark unseen. I know it’s going to take six months of rearranging to get it right.
My mom is sending me a quilt top and back that she made for my Dad. I’m going to quilt it for him for either his birthday or christmas whichever it ends up being done in time for. It’s very patriotic. I”m thinking of doing the Air Force Strategic Air Command Shield in some squares and flying eagles in a repeating pattern all over the rest of it. But maybe in the border around it, I’ll put the preamble to the U.S. Constitution.
*Quilty Jargon I like:
UFO – Un-Finished Object
PHD – Projects Half Done
Wombat – Waste Of Money, Batting And Time
PFC – Professional Fabric Collector
Free Form Quilts 