The UFO Challenge

You know how much I love quilting -- design them, piece them, design the quilting, choose fabrics, save scraps -- everything about quilting.  I just can't help myself.  Dear Son the Younger worried that I don't have much of a life.  Oh, but I do!  Finally I have the time, energy, and resources to do all the quilty things I want, anytime I want.  So I do, and I love it.  BUT --  I end up with way too many almost finished projects.  So, when this year's Stashbuster UFO challenge came around, I signed on.  Info here:  http://www.stashbuster.com/index.html   At present I have "only" 21 UnFinished Objects.  Finished quite a few early in the year -- the smaller, easier, closer-to-done ones. 

This "Black Arrow" tote needed only lining, zipper, and strap.  The arrows are applique and hand embrodery.  The circles on the other side are all hand embroidery. 

 

  

Another tote, for my friend Edna.  I was going to put it off but some painful family troubles made this finish extra important.  The dark green is an all-over gecko print.  Edna loves geckos.  Her initials, on the front, are hand embroidered.  The gecko applique on the back is partly free-motion machine embroidery and partly hand embroidery.  The prickly pear pads around the sides and bottom are free-motion machine embroidery, the prickles and buds are hand embroidery. 

  

 A cosmetic case and an I-Pod sleeve, both with music themes.  An eyeglass case from a scrap of embossed black velvet, lined with red velvet -- added a little bling to that one.  A tote from orphan blocks and the legs of too-short summer pants.  Some truly butt-ugly potholders -- I'm so hard on potholders it just doesn't pay to make them pretty.

And then this lovely thing:  quite some time ago a friend sent me three tops she couldn't bring herself to finish.  I put them away and forgot about them until I listed my UFO's for this challenge.  This one, Drunkard's Path, started out in the traditional layout.  Way too busy for my bedroom.  So I took it apart down to the individual "pie-slice" units, then reassembled it in the "Dove of Peace" layout, with all the doves facing an off-set center.  Called it "Homeward Bound"   I sketched a flying bird in each block and free-motion quilted the body and feathers.  I was so excited to see the doves taking shape I quilted all the blocks before I put the top together.  So... quilt as you go to the rescue.  Here's the best part:  Dear Son the Younger, for whom I've made several quilts, had said "No more textiles, Ma, I'm running out of room."   Understandable, yes?  But when he saw these pictures he said "I want that one Ma, send it as soon as you can!   Of course I said yes, and it will soon be winging along to Norway (sorry, can never resist a pun!) More later............