Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge—First Quarter Catch-up of Finally Finished

I’ve been keeping up with my participation in CountryThreads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge with the exception of January in which I was a week late but otherwise February and March I was done before the end of the month. January’s UFO finish is one project from last year, blocks were made and the top needed to be assembled and quilted and February and March were UFOs, flimsies, from 2013, the year I retired. Here are the deets:

Modern Puzzle Pattern by Christa Watson 

I originally was planning on making Pat Sloan’s Stoplight pattern and had all of the 2.5” strips done but the squares still needed to be cut. I switched patterns when I saw Janine’s Quilts From the Little House Modern Puzzle Quilt which only uses strips and no squares.

Size: 54” x 72”, 8” blocks, fabrics used were mostly from Pat Sloan collections with some Bonnie and Camille and Crazy/Mom Good Neighbor fabrics.

Quilting was vertical wavey lines using variegated threads of primary colors.

The backing was pieced using leftover blocks, several decade old dark blue print with a Connecting Threads stripe print. It still wasn’t long enough so I had to several inches of a denim print leftover from the backing from the I Love London quilt. My yardage of Pat Sloan fabrics is dwindling and had to scrounge to find the red tone on tone print which there was enough for the binding.

Fig Tree Square

I retired in 2013 and one of my goals was to use some of the bundles purchased from the Fat Quarter Shop. I remember my subscription to the Moda Fabric of the Month Club which I received twelve fat quarters from different Moda designers. I designed this quilt top based on the fat quarters of the Butterscotch and Roses fabric line designed by Fig Tree; I used the floral fat quarters for the plain blocks in a controlled layout and the smaller prints for the rail blocks along with yardage of the rick rack and gingham from other Fig Tree fabric lines. Again the layout for the rail blocks was controlled.

This quilt measures approximately 52” square and quilted in diagonal wavey lines and straight grid lines using a Connecting Threads’ apricot/peach thread.

The backing was purchased online after the bundle was received and have been patiently waiting in the backing vault. And once again the gingham print which was used for some of the rail blocks was used for the binding which was safely tucked away in the binding drawer for almost eight years.

Dominique Square

This was another flimsie made in 2013 and I’m pretty sure if involved buying a Dominique Charm Pack along with yardage. This fabric line was designed by Sentimental Studios and has the most gorgeous Rose print. There aren’t too many Rose prints that I don’t like and justify buying rose prints because it has my name on it. I just love quilts mixed with pretty florals, toile, plaids, stripes and ticking. The pattern was again based on what I had and I’m pretty sure the plaids, stripes and ticking was from other Moda collections like Three Sisters.

This quilt measures 56” squares and was quilted with straight horizontal lines spaced 3/4” apart.  I’ve always admired this type of quilting done by Mary Etherington, Country Threads, and was determined to do this with the Dominique quilt  and resisted doing cross-hatching.  I love how modern quilting looks on traditional quilts.

A golden khaki tan thread from Star Machine Quilt Thread was used and blended nicely with all of the prints.

The tan backing was found in the backing vault and fortunately had enough even though it involved some piecing. The binding was the floral print used in the top and bottom borders and I was tempted to use the red ticking on the side borders but it’s the floral print which was saved in the binding drawer.

The next three UFOs remaining in the Challenge involves the last remaining square quilt top made in 2013 and used Lori Holt’s first fabric line. And of course, one of the other two was one I really was anxious to finally finish since I want to hang it up at the GP house. Joining this UFO Challenge was a great way for me to finally finish some very old projects and I’m looking forward to doing a recap post in July.

For someone who doesn’t like making square quilts, I made one as a bystander in the SAHRR (Stay at Home Round Robin) QAL since I liked the idea of making a quilt from an orphan block leftover in a Pat Sloan BOM and some Granny Blocks made last year with my Bee Sistas.  I didn’t do all of the rounds and wanted to keep it a small 40” square. The top is ready to be quilted and bound and had to scrounge once again for binding in my Pat Sloan stash.  

I’m trying to be good by not starting any new projects when I’m home which sometimes is only three to four days a week, and want to quilt some flimsies from last year but I keep finding wonderful fabrics and know the squirrels are calling. Plus, my left arm is pretty sore from receiving my second vaccination on Monday so not sure if I could handle doing machine quilting right now. I am working on projects involving small quilts and slow stitching when I’m at the GP House and I will share by the end of the month.

Hope all is well and if you’re experiencing snow still like we are, I am so looking forward to Spring.