As the UFOs Turn

As you can see from my previous blog posts, I have been sewing and making progress. Still, these seem to be new projects, so I thought I would inventory my UFOs and see what I was facing. One year (1996, I think) I buckled down and worked only on UFOs and finished 9 quilts. That was a record. Most, if not all, were already started and I didn’t quilt them all, but causing them to be quilted counts for something in my book.

This list in no way implies that I will discontinue starting new projects or finish any of these.

Here is my list of UFOs. You can see many of them over at Artquiltmaker.com.

  • Bullseye: finally found directions for doing the border the way I want it. Just need to do it
  • Garden from Pamela Allen class
  • He Tried to Make it Up to Her: needs back and to be quilted. St. JCN has to dig it out.
  • Her Eyes were Bigger than Her Stomach: needs a back and to be quilted. Very active quilt; probably not my best design, but a mile marker in the quiltmaking journey.
  • Kissy Fish: ongoing hand beading project
  • Leaf quilt: needs something that I don’t have; candidate for abandonment; sad, though, because it is a friendship quilt
  • Nosegay: top complete
  • Pointillist Palette 4: Night
  • QA Challenge Quilt: need to fuse the parts and rubber stamp the words.
  • See: started in a David Walker class. Needs fusing, stitching on of fused pieces and quilting
  • Self Portrait from Pamela Allen class
  • Serendipity Puzzle: on the design wall now. Five more blocks to piece.
  • Sharon’s quilt: blocks must be sewn together. After Serendipity Puzzle I will finish it. I don’t want a wedding quilt to be hanging around when a baby is due
  • Solid Star Friendship Quilt: need more friends so they can make stars for me in solids with black
  • Spiderweb: foundation pieced project, still piecing. Need to create the templates for the border blocks
  • The Tarts Come to Tea: need inspiration. Improvisational quilts are not the same experience when you do them alone
  • Thoughts on Dots: top complete
  • Women’s Work 2: needs focus.

Just for fun, here are the quilts on my mind. In some cases I have purchased fabric, but no sewing has been done, so they are not yet UFOs.

  • Denyse Schmidt Chocolate Boxes: see the post from August 11, 2006 to see the fabrics I will use.
Choloate Box detail
Choloate Box detail

This a pattern that can be purchased from Quiltworks Northwest.

  • San Mateo County Fair Dot quilt
  • Paper pieced Nativity scene: I downloaded this pattern when it was free a few years ago and have never gotten up the energy to be as organized as I need to be to make this, but I still want to make it. You can find the pattern at Paper Panache.com
  • Interlocking triangles #4: love the techniques and have at least one, if not two, idea[s] for more
  • Dot quilt with inset circles a la Ruth McDowell: more uses for dots and a good exercise in piecing
  • Feathered Star dot quilt from Summer issue of Quilts & More: more use for dots
  • Cross quilt: totally scrappy except for middle and background. I would also like this to be a handwork project that I can carry along with me.
  • Some kind of pink quilt with all the pink fabric I have been buying
  • Colorblocks 3: I want to use this pattern from Sandy Bonsib, but have silk fabric with a lucious sheen instead of the regular cottons. Background will be cotton sateen.
  • I Spy quilt for DS: hexagons and many of the triangles are cut. I just have to start piecing them. St. JCN comes to the rescue as she cut a zillion of the pieces.
  • Garden Quilt: I have been collecting photos and patterns of interesting flowers for years and have always wanted to make some kind of garden or flower quilt.
  • Jack’s Chain: I saw a quilt of this pattern years and years ago and have always wanted to make one.

The Best Quilts of 2006 According to Me

I went to the following quilt shows this year:

APNQ, Seattle, August 2006
EBHQ, Oakland, March 2006
PIQF, Santa Clara, October 2006
San Mateo County Fair, San Mateo, August 2006

Not enough, obviously, but they provided plenty of fabulous inspiration. People are still really pushing their machines to the limit.

St. JCN suggested that I put up pictures of the quilts I liked best from these shows and I think it is a good idea.

Rules:
1. My opinion is the only one that counts on this blog. You are welcome to post your opinion in the comments.
2. I did not visit every quilt show in the world, so these are the best quilts that I saw.
3. I did not take pictures of quilts that were not interesting to me, so these are the best of the quilts that I photographed.
4. If one of these is your quilt, I will be THRILLED to post your name, and, possibly, a link to your site or blog (at my discretion).
5. I probably would have picked different quilts if I had chosen them right after I saw the shows. As it is, I am at the whim of colors from a camera and the computer.
6. Subject to change at any time.

APNQ

Piece O'Cake pattern
Piece O’Cake pattern

Yes, this is made from a Piece O’Cake pattern. I don’t care, I love the pattern and the rendition this quiltmaker created is wonderful.

Piece O' Cake pattern detail
Piece O’ Cake pattern detail

Here is a detail of the border, which I also love, because it reminds me of Mary Engelbreit designs. Don’t you just love the dot flowers? Great use of fabrics as well.

Best use of puffy paint I have EVER seen. The fabrics are fantastic and used well also (look at this quilt with your head tilted to the left)

Candy Wrappers
Candy Wrappers

I like this one, because it is different. I could do without the brown, but I love the blocks. The person who made this made an effort and made a quilt that is different.

Pineapple
Pineapple

I am a sucker for Pineapples and this is an excellent use of the Pineapple pattern. It looks like some of the silks that I have.

Special Exhibit quilt
Special Exhibit quilt

This was part of the Beverly Dunivent special exhibit. I bought this pattern (reprinted by her) a few years ago after seeing it (and her) on Simply Quilts. I love this quilt. I don’t know if I will ever make it, but I love it. (look at this quilt with your head tilted to the left)

EBHQ

One thing I like about the EBHQ show is the way the members use clean lines and simple shapes in their piecing patterns wih interesting fabrics to make engaging quilts. It was very hard to choose the ‘best.’

Mary Mashuta Baskets
Mary Mashuta Baskets

I love basket quilts. I am pretty sure this quilt is by Mary Mashuta and she is a genius with stripes. the quilt does have that sweet look she uses so often. I guess it is the soft/pastelly colors.

This reminds me of IT3: Spiky Stars.

I think of Christmas applies when I see this. I like the scarlet used with the lime/icky green. I also like the fact that the quiltmaker added some oranges and pinks into the quilt to add interest. I would like to see how this color scheme worked with different patterns.

The blocks are very sharp. I also like the use of color. It reminds me of Colorblocks 2.

Fun and cheerful. May be a Freddy Moran or it may just be by someone who took her class or read her book. This is a fun link as well to Gwen Marston and Freddy Moran quilts.

Whimisical and I like the shapes of the various flowers. Great use of color and fabric.

Excellent repetition.


Icky colors, but fantastic quilting. See the detail below.

I like the individual blocks more than the overall quilt, but I do like the color scheme, because it is restful.

The blocks just suck me right in.

The triangles come across as really interesting shapes here. Reminds me of earthquakes as well.

PIQF
Each basket had a different flower in it. I believe that this one was done completely by hand. The attention to detail was wonderful.

An old Piece O’ cake pattern that I love. The signs on the houses and buildings were done in Spanish.

Fantastic water effect.

Wonderful colors and details.

I love Mariner’s compasses.

I also saw this at the San Mateo County Fair. I love the use of black and white.

Wonderful star pattern.

Matador Garment
Matador Garment

I am not one much for garments, but this piece is wonderfully funny. I am really glad it won a prize. So often, judges have no sense of humor.

I like the way the stars overlap and contain little surprises in the center. I would love to see this done in brights and black.

Ronda K. Beyer, It Ain’t Easy Being Green: Love the colors; the quilting was fantastic. It won one of the prizes.

I love the wheel patterns. Again, kind of muddy colors, however.

San Mateo County Fair

The San Mateo County Fair’s quilts seem to be populated in large part by the Peninsula Quilters Guild. The piecing, in large part, is wonderful and there are a lot of quilts that display excellent piecing skills as well as a good use of color.


This is probably my favorite quilt of the year. The pattern is simple, yet complex. It really is a good use of dotted prints. The variety of fabrics and the way it is not easy to tell how the pattern was put together makes for a quilt. I couldn’t stop looking at.

Detail of the above.


Again, nice repetition.