Works In Progress

Ready for binding. This is an oldie but goodie that I "found" recently.  The date on the back label says 1994, so that's when my bee did our brown bag trade. I put the red/blue plaid in the bag, and the bee member who chose my brown bag was to make a block and return it in about 8 months. Well, Jackie H. made me a small quilt!

I think this pattern was on the cover of American Patchwork and Quilting at some point (1993 or 94).  It's about time I bound it. Sheesh.

And this is a sneak peak of my wool circles appliqued on shirting. It's going to be a 20-inch pillow once I add borders and the back. And once I run to the quilt store for a 20-inch pillow (not today; it's too icy, so I'm staying put.)

Do-Overs

There are not many times in life that you are allowed a do-over. I bet the guy who drove into the Chinese take-out parking lot a little too fast on a slippery night and cracked our bumper would like a do-over.

"North Wind" pattern.

I should probably name this quilt "Do-Over" because there are many things that I did and had to undo because the results were less than pleasing. (The first thing I did was machine quilted the top with nylon thread, but the results were wretched; I picked out every last stitch and hand quilted it.) These do-overs really make a project drag on and on.

The left "stripe" is the original fabric color that was hidden in the seam line.

I had just gotten to the point of hand quilting the border, when I realized that the fabric color had changed. At first, I thought the border was dusty. But a few shakes later, there was no dust; just major fading, in a few month's time. I did not keep the top in the sun or even where a lamp light touched it.  This caused the project to go to the bottom of the pile while I stewed over what to do.

I finally found better fabric for the border, added red cornerstones, and finished quilting it. Binding should be done in the next couple of weeks. Whew!