Wednesday, September 27, 2017

September UFO


Even though I still have a few minor tasks to complete, for all intents and purposes I am considering this Farmer's Wife Quilt UFO a finish - another in the month it was assigned. Whew! Down to the wire on this. I dreaded facing it because I think I knew deep down that the blocks were not all uniform 6.5", and that some would have to be eased into place to fit. I trimmed things I normally would not trim in order to get this checked off my list. I am continually reminded by other quilters that done is better than perfect.

This quilt will be a poster child for that sentiment!

Since it has been years of start-and-stop work on this quilt (first post here), there are plenty of references to it in past posts. I won't recap all of that here. In a nutshell, a complete FWQ calls for somewhere in the neighborhood of over 100 blocks. I made 53, decided that was enough, and chose 50 of them to use here. (The 3 orphans that will find a use elsewhere.)


Because I could not just pick them up and sew them together randomly, I had to lay them out on the bed to arrange the blocks in a way that pleased me. I didn't fuss too much, but I did try to separate colors evenly around the quilt.


I had already decided that the sashing strips would be this brown in the photo above. I sewed all the sides onto the blocks and made rows. See what I mean about done is better than perfect? I have completely obliterated so many points on these blocks.


Then I had to go to the stash to find cornerstone and setting triangle fabric. I sorta' had a notion that red would be nice, so I dug out the big stash tub of reds. I found the Floral Trails from 1999 which seemed suitable, so I went with it. Then as I straightened around the remaining reds, I found this big hunk of Garden Dance and decided it could be called into service as a back. Voila! FWQ is 100% stash. Yeah!


At that point it was a very methodical afternoon of sewing rows and sashings together. When I had the first half done, I took the photo above, and then proceeded to finish the other half. By late last night, I had a finish except for trimming and corner triangles.


Because I need to do a lot of school work today, I won't get back to this until late tonight or tomorrow. I am debating the need for an outer border. That is yet to be determined. I will decide while trimming and attaching the corners.

I am going to link up with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts and her Let's Bee Social party. She is featuring a new pattern - a cute panda bear baby quilt. It's darling.

The month ends on Saturday. I sure have been a lazy blogger this month. Maybe I will be more enthused in October. I did get a lot accomplished in September, so maybe that is a worthy trade-off.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

4 comments:

  1. Congratulations on the finish! It looks great! I don't have many UFO's left any more. There is such a relief to see my UFO's dwindle and to finish each project as I go along. Happy sewing! Andrea

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  2. Hooray for you and I really mean it ! I have a FWQ that needs finishing, but I am having a hard time doing it. There are so many other FUN things to sew ! Yours turned out very pretty!

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  3. Those points and edges will all fade away with the shear beauty of this piece!!

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  4. I love the color of the fabric you chose for the sashing. It adds a lot of warmth and unity to the variety of blocks. And your other two fabrics -- for cornerstones and back -- are beautiful. I was hoping they were currently available but probably not considering one is marked 1999.

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