2017 Quilt Doodle Design BOM ~ UFO

Working through UFO's can be difficult, they did become UFO's for a reason.  This one had two reason, #1 I lose interest in mystery BOM.  

#2 After losing interest, the last two blocks came out and UGG, they just didn't set right with me and I didn't feel like drafting my own.

This pattern is called Farm Memories Dresden Style by Quilt Doodle Designs.  The full pattern is still available at the previous link.  

So here we are, years later and the mojo to get the quilt top together has finally arrived.

The blocks I didn't care for were the station wagon and a water can with flowers.  It was designed for raw edge applique, my blocks are turned edge. As you can see the applique is very small.  Some of the raw edge designs had small points and impossible angles for me to turn under so I changed them to suit my style of applique.

After staring at the design wall for what seemed like forever I had an idea for two new blocks.  The quilt pattern name is called Farm Memories.  My grandparents had a small farm when I was a child so I started taking a trip down memory lane, what could I add to this quilt?  It took some time of walking their farm in my mind until I came up with a plan.   A truck and a hay wagon!  During the summers I spent a lot of time at grannies house, she was a free babysitter.  One summer I helped put up hay. It's not a fun job, but it had to be done.  Just me, grannie and gramps. What made it so memorable was my grannie never wore britches, only dresses, well except for this one hay day. The night before we were to put up hay she took an old long skirt and made them into britches.  I couldn't help laughing at her a time or two throughout the day.  She looked so funny in britches and she was constantly adjusting and tugging on them. She didn't know how any woman could wear them on a daily basis.

  Anyway...some of you might remember my truck quilts from a few years ago.  This one was called Autumn Memories.

The truck and hay wagon was inspired by that day on the farm.

I quickly found the old files, resized them, printed out the new templates and pulled the fabrics.  The truck and wagon will be separated into two blocks.  Fitting them both in one block would make the applique too small for me to make.

See you soon with the last two blocks!

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Quilt Guild BOM UFO

Obviously I'm having trouble getting back into the swing of blogging.  So let's try this restart once again.  

These 12 blocks have been waiting to become a quilt for 13-15 years.  The problem with UFO's is there's a reason why they became one in the first place.  More often than not it's because I simply don't like the quilt for a wide range of reasons.  This one has many, but for the sake of staying positive I'll spare you my thoughts and tell you it made me happy to find the perfect fabrics in my older stash to finally make these blocks into a finished quilt top.

TADA!  She's ready to quilt.  Not too bad, huh?  I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.  It'll make a great couch quilt or quilt ladder display piece.

The backing fabric was also hiding in my stash, it's flannel.  It used to be a small design wall.  I'm not a fan of working with flannel but I'm in a use what you have mood.  Luckily there was enough of the light blue inner border to make both the binding and label.   February is on the label but the chances of me getting it quilted in the next few days is a big fat zero.

So in a box she goes until I get the current quilt off the frame. 

See you soon!

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Mariners Compass Quilt ~ A UFO Plan

 Last December, I started sorting through all my UFOs and making plans to finish them. I managed to complete a few this year, but there is still plenty left, and I’ve even added a few more to the list. HAHA! Such is the life of a quilter. Last year’s UFO plan will carry on into 2026 and beyond until I’ve finished them all. Of course, I’ll still start new projects as well when I get bored with UFO's.  Right now, I’m in full 2026 UFO planning mode since I’m not quilting due to home updates. My most recent UFO pull is the Mariner’s Compass quilt. Originally, I planned to use the 12 quilt guild BOM blocks as a border around the Compass, but after much thought and input from many of you, that plan has changed and those blocks will be used to make a very traditional BOM quilt, 3 blocks across and 4 down, with sashing's and borders.

The Mariners Compass was paper pieced on parchment paper.  Did I draw it or did I print it on parchment paper?  Who knows.  I can see that I labeled the pieces by hand, but I can't tell if the lines are hand drawn.

I remember drafting the flying geese border because I blogged about it back in 2012, describing my method. You can find it here. I took the paper out of the outer flying geese years ago to make sewing the next round easier, thinking I might need to ease in some fabric.

  Mr. Podunk loves the compass and originally had other plans for it (you can read about his plan here), so adding a little more time and effort to the design of the quilt.  After a little internet Mariners Compass quilt searching I came up with this plan for adding borders.  It will finish at 68 x 68.  That should be plenty big for him to burrow under like a hibernating bear, snoring away in the recliner.

As usual, I couldn’t resist experimenting with different ideas. The girly side of me thought adding a small print fabric could be cute. Would that make it too feminine? Maybe I could find a blue anchor print instead...it would still be cute but not overly girly.

Then I was thinking a darker outer border might work better, but nothing is set in stone. Whatever I decide, I’ll need more fabric. There are a few scraps left from making the compass that can be used to make a few flying geese blocks, but not enough for the final border or the inner solid border. There’s still plenty of time to make changes, and I don’t plan to start this project for a few months...ideally in the first half of next year.

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In Between Long Arming

My inability to work on one project at a time is no secret.  So, I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear 100% of my time has not been spent quilting the Cabin Fever Quilt.  This week when needing a break from the quilt frame I worked a few other things in the studio.  First was catching up on the scrap half square triangles.

Most of these scraps were from this year's Quiltville Mystery quilt called Old Town and the binding for my Bumpkin Baskets quilt.

 I must say I'm proud of myself for not letting these get out of hand like I did a few years ago.  It's so much easier to deal with the scraps as they are produced.  

The real task will be using all of them in quilts before I die.

After debating with me, myself and I for the last week or so, I won the debate to remove Old Town from the design wall.  As I said back in March, I'm sick of looking at this one.

While pulling it from the wall I started thinking about my UFO's and how I always have about the same amount of them waiting to be finished.  I have enough UFO's to keep me busy for about two or three years but I keep starting new quilts.  The quilt on the frame is a UFO and will be finished soon and here I am boxing up a new UFO...HAHA!

Oh well, at least I'm making progress on something.  I know I whine a lot about UFO's.  And you're probably tired of hearing about my new plans for conquering them.   So, in true Lea Anne style I've come up with a new plan, HAHA!   NO MORE UFO PLANNING OR WHINING.  I'm just me working on whatever my fickle self decides to work on at the moment...well that's the plan for now.

On the WIP's cart is the mini scrappy basket quilt and the green gingham fabric for making pillow shams and curtains.  However, they are not top of my list right now.

When I started the basket quilt, I knew it was going to be a long-term project.  Cutting the low volume prints for this quilt took its toll on my shoulder and neck, so it's being set aside for a few days while I recover from being an old lady.  And as for the green gingham shams, I might work on them. 

 Right now, these scraps are screaming for attention.  So, I'll be working with these when I need a little sit-down time away from the quilter.  You can read more about these scraps here and here.

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The Quilters High

 Hi Quilty Addicts!  After my recent quilt finish, Delightful Daisies, I've been on a quilter's high.  I'm sure some of you can relate.  The quilt you've put so much time and effort into is finally finished and you LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!  The body puts out an intoxicating cocktail of hormones and before you know it, you're searching for the next high.  Wild eyed with quilt drool dripping from the chin, the dig for the next quick quilt fix begins.  I told myself to stop but the quilt finishing monkey on my back wouldn't listen until I found the perfect next quick quilt finish.  Oh yes!  This quilt designed by Gigi's Thimble is perfect!  

Perfect for many reasons. 

 

1. The (free) quilt pattern is called Cabin Fever and right now we are transitioning from winter to spring.  Perfect!  I don't get cabin fever in the winter but the quilt finishing monkey on my back had me feeling a little nutty and feverish.

2. It's small and will be perfect for a quick to finish, oh yes, the quicker the better.  I needed my quilt finish fix!

3. The first day of spring is March 20! Perfect!

4. The backing and binding were made and stored with the quilt years ago, perfect!

5. The backing fabric has daisies on it, my favorite flower!  Again PERFECT!

As the 70's tunes blared, the quilt top and backing were placed on floor to check for the quilt frame loading direction.  Oh, fiddlesticks.  The backing is too small.  The original plan must have been to quilt it on the sewing machine.  No worries, it's a simple fix.

As I boogied my way over to the stash cabinet, I realized the quilt finishing monkey on my back was barely hanging on.  Was this the result of the backing issue?  By the time I had found the perfect fabrics the quilt finishing high was gone. 

A quick look around the studio at the quilt blocks on the design wall and the new scrappy quilt on the cutting table and wouldn't you know it...that little monkey lost his grip and faded away.

Yes, I do love playing with my scraps.  The Cabin Fever project will need to wait.  Back into storage she went along with the fabrics to enlarge the backing.

Now that the quilt finishing high has faded it's back to the original plan for the week.

Today I think I'll work on the Old Town mystery quilt.  She's been singing to me all morning as I write this post...

Song sung blue
Everybody knows one
Song sung blue
Every garden grows one...

 

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What's In The Box ~ Part 8 ~ Red December

 Hello Quilty Friends!  Today's UFO quilt is Red December, designed by Esther Aliu.  A quick search of my blog for the start date yielded one mention of the quilt in 2014.

The pattern calls for over 400 tiny red circles. I made 322 and a few other shapes before she was stored away and became a UFO.  Today she will no longer be a UFO.

I've made the decision to give up on this quilt and put the applique pieces in my applique spare parts box.

This is where I put most of my applique tools, test pieces and oopsies. 

Hopefully someday I can find a use for most of the spare parts in this box.  Maybe an orphan applique quilt?

Here's the quilt in all its glory.  Isn't it gorgeous?!!  This image was pulled from Esthers blog.  The quilt was made by Gail Smith.  If you would like to purchase the PDF pattern you can find it here.  My virus protection says her blog is a threat.  I think that is false because I belong to an Ester Aliu Facebook group, and they use it often for purchasing and downloading patterns. 

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What's In The Box ~ Part 2 ~ Grandmothers Flower Garden

Hi Friends!  Do you ever have a day when you just don't feel like sewing?  It's rare for me, but it does happen, and it happened yesterday.  I didn't feel like doing much of anything but watch TV and go down many quilty rabbit holes.  Late in the afternoon, I decided I should at least take a look in the UFO box for a Part 2 of "What's In The Box" blog post.

I went through this box and organized it on Wednesday evening.  Organizing was nothing more than making sure every project was in a bag.  I didn't open projects already in a bag.  So, as I go through these bags over the next few days, I might find a few surprises hiding inside.  They were put back in the box in no particular order and shared in no particular order.

Today's UFO is three different bags of Grandmothers Flower Garden Blocks and one Sunflower block.

Let's start off with the hand pieced Sunflower. How it got here is a mystery but it sure is cute. The first thought that came to mind for using it was a simple pillow.

The same story for the next two bags of blocks.  I don't remember anything about them.  All are hand pieced and older fabrics.

These are in bag two.  

Bag three. I made these blocks many years ago but when?  After searching my blog for any talk of Grandmothers Flower Garden blocks, I found ZERO posts.  A good guess would be 12 to 16 yrs ago.  I remember working on these while on camping trips and long road trips.  Oh well, they are old and that's good enough.

In the bag is more fabric and cardboard templates for making more blocks. To be on the safe side I'll leave the these stored with the blocks.  Being fickle is something I do really well, so it's a good idea to keep them out of my stash and ready to be used for more blocks.

If all of the blocks from the 3 bags were the same size, they could easily be put into one quilt.  But life likes to throw challenges my way.  Each set is a different size. Oh, I'm certain there's a way to put them all in one quilt but do I want the hassle?  Again, only time will tell.  I love them all and plan to use them, I just don't have a plan.

Over the years I've pulled out my bag of blocks and played with ideas for setting them as applique on a large piece of background fabric.  

A Medallion style quilt, then add some applique around the outside in the blank areas to make it more interesting.

After taking the pictures above, editing and writing this blog post for today it was time to get back to being lazy.  I started looking for ideas online. After about an HOUR, I stumble across a quilt made by Lori Holt.  It was late and I needed to get to bed. So, I opted to cancel the 4 am scheduled post so I could add the following. 

In this quilt Lori's flowers are appliqued to a background fabric then snowballed and set with colorful sashing.  I like it!  Maybe this is an option but on a much larger scale.  Her style of applique would be the quickest way to finish my project.  I don't really like her style other than it's fast.  Since I borrowed her quilt image, I'm not going to tell you or show you her applique technique.  You can find the tutorial by clicking here.

If I choose to go this route, all the blocks from the three bags could be used in one quilt.  It wouldn't be the prettiest quilt, but it would be finished and have a story to tell.  What do you think? 

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