• 12 Comments

•

At last year's QuiltCon I took an awesome Intermediate Improv class with Rossie Hutchinson. One of my projects that resulted from that class is this Wonky Cross quilt. It was chosen this month (#12) for the APQ UFO Challenge.

The blocks are created in pairs. I completed eight blocks in class. At some point I added a second fabric pull to the project that I thought coordinated well. Now I'm up to 34 blocks. I have no specific plans on number of blocks/rows or overall finished size. We'll see where this takes me this month.

January and February both resulted in finished quilt tops for the OMG UFO challenge projects. I'm hoping I'll get through the quilting step as well on this one this month!

I'm linking up to the OMG February Goal Setting Link Up.

• 12 Comments

•

This week's challenge for Project QUILTING was "well-dressed man." On Tuesday, the kids and I made a trip to Goodwill in search for an inspiring men's jacket. I was interested in a jacket with elbow patches (which this one didn't have) and interesting buttons. I just couldn't resist this plaid jacket! And it had a great solid blue lining, too. We chose a tie to go with it. At the register the man helping us commented that "dad [was] getting a new jacket" and my kids prompted corrected him that it was for me. I laughed and said that I was going to make it into a quilt. He chuckled, then asked if I was serious. I explained the challenge and he asked if I'd bring in my finished quilt to show him.

I knew that I wanted to highlight some of the features of the jacket, but I didn't really have a plan for the construction of my quilt.

I finally got to work deconstructing the jacket on Friday night.

I cut out some sections that I liked, but didn't get back to my sewing machine until almost 10pm on Saturday. With about 12 hours left in the challenge, I knew I had to take my friend Mel's advise and work small. I edited down my initial ideas and decided on making the blocks even smaller than I'd planned. One feature that I liked was the section from the front of the jacket that had the full pocket. When I decided to make my blocks smaller, it eliminated the possibility of using it as a block. Then I realized if I trimmed my blocks down to 4.5" finished squares I could use the pocket as my backing. I used a remnant piece of batting and bound my quilt with the tie (deconstructed to only be the top layer of fabric).

In the end my mini took me about 2 1/2 hours to sew and finish. The solid blue is the jacket lining fabric. My blocks feature the tie, the cuff of one sleeve with buttons, a section of the inside where the lining met the plaid fabric, and the bottom corner edge of the jacket. The section from the interior was just cut out and used as is, and I machine appliqued the other three blocks.

Here's the back with the pocket.

I loved this section of the inner lining. The plaid edge you see was the detail on the interior breast pocket. Early on I knew I was going to use it. Mel suggested I use it for my label, but I thought I might feature it on the front before I decided to work even smaller than planned. Once I decided on the smaller size, I knew it would make a fun label. I opted to finish it and tuck it into the pocket on the back.

I'm linking up to Persimmon Dreams for the Project QUILTING Well-Dressed Man Challenge.

Voting is open over on Persimmon Dreams. You may vote for your EIGHT favorites. You can find me at #51.

• 10 Comments

•

Another month, another finished quilt top.

I started the month with five finished quilt blocks from 18 months ago, originally intended for a mini quilt like my Cotton + Steel Mini Swap quilt. I decided I was less excited about a mini quilt and opted for creating fifteen more blocks to go with my original five. (This is where I mention that I realized this morning after finishing all fifteen blocks that I sewed them the wrong direction. In the end I decided the wild prints made my mistake not so noticeable. And done is better than perfect. Moving on.) With straight set blocks, this would bring my project to about 32" x 40". I cut all fifteen blocks, got organized on my trusty fast food tray, and set to chain piecing (and Netflix).

Like the first five blocks, my remaining fifteen blocks were made in sets of five. This photo shows five blocks in each row, created from five 10" squares. Each fabric is in each position once in the row. Since I was working in more blue and green with my additional blocks, I shuffled these all around for my final layout.

With a trip to QuiltCon, supervising some remodel work, and four other quilt finishes this month I had to settle for a finished top for my #8 UFO and One Monthly Goal project for February. Here's the finished quilt top.

I'm linking up to the February OMG Finish post.