A Pair and a Spare of UFO Finishes for May

I surprised myself by finally finishing three UFO flimsies in the course of one week which included a three-day visit to the Grandparent House. I only planned on finishing just the one I committed for Country Threads’ Dirty Dozen UFO QAL which in turn prompted me to finally finishing the other two.

The first flimsie finally finished was my May Quilt which was my #8 for the Country Threads’ Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge. The flimsy was finished in 2013 and was made from fat quarters and yardage of Lori Holt’s Gracie Girl collection. Aren’t these prints fun?

This quilt measures 39” square.  I’ve become fond of quadrant quilting ever since I did this on my Frosty Flakes Quilt and glad I thought of this when I was ready to quilt Gracie Girl. The only marking I had to do was drawing a “X” with a Hera marker across the top and then quilting it. From there, I quilted 3/4” apart on each quadrant with a Silver Aurifil thread. The backing was a gray polka dot from the backing vault and thankfully the binding, a grey and white mini check used in the top was found in the binding drawer. 

The machine quilting made my Gracie Girl quilt somewhat stiff and would be perfect for a play mat or a wall hanging. A funny thought came across my mind as I was finishing this quilt which was several years ago when I finished a baby quilt for a QAL, I found out my niece was expecting a baby as well as her oldest daughter was graduating high school. I brought the QAL baby quilt to the daughter’s graduation party. Now her son is graduating from high school and the party is next week so I’ll be checking with her to see if I need to bring Gracie Girl to the party. I’m pretty sure I won’t have to, but it’s going to be fun just to ask her.

After the Gracie Quilt was finished before we left for the Grandparent House and upon my return I thought it would be nice to finally finish the Glamping Flimsie which was made the same time.  I thought the fabric was another Lori Holt collection but actually was designed by Mary Jane Butters for Moda and came  out the same time. I only had a charm pack of this collection and yardage of the teal and white check.  I added some white with teal/green pin dots to make this simple baby quilt of squares and rectangles or modified coin quilt which measures 39” x 42”.

The quilting was a combination of straight lines 3/4” apart on the sashing and wavey lines on the squares and rectangles and Essential white thread was used.  The pink patchwork print was found in the backing vault and really fits the “girliness” of this quilt. I almost couldn’t find the binding which I swore I put it in the binding drawer over seven years ago. After clearing out the drawer I found it stuck in the corner; proof that Hubby is right that it’s always going to be in the last place you look and I say I really need to reorganize the binding drawer. My plan for this quilt when the top was made to gift it to good Quilt Peep Mary who goes camping and was also celebrating the birth of her first grandchild/granddaughter. Now Mary has four granddaughters and I’m having second thoughts of keeping this for myself since I’ve been dreaming lately of Class B Campers. Do I need another quilt- No, but I always want another quilt. The Glamping Quilt is definitely one for traveling and I’m looking forward to taking it on vacation when we travel to Colorado in August. I’m pretty sure we won’t be traveling in a Class B camper.

When I was pulling out the Gracie Girl and Glamping flimsies, I came across the Fireburst Mystery Flimsie which was finished in 2018.  This was a mystery quilt hosted by Tish’s Adventures in Wonderland and I know that it remained a flimsie because I did not know how I wanted to quilt it. After Gracie Girl was quilted, I knew I could do quadrant quilting for the Fireburst quilt. I used the Silver Aurifil which blended really nice with all of the colors. This quilt measures 32” square and the plan is to either to give it to my son who lives next door to the Grandparent House and has purple living room walls or my new neighbor on the other side of the Grandparent House who loves purple. For now, I think I’m going to keep it awhile since I love how it turned out. Also, I have to make sure I link up to Tish’s UFO Busting post.

Here’s a photo of the pair and spare hanging on the garage door which is a nice substitute for a clothesline as long as you have strong magnets.

I should mention that before I started on the final two flimsies, I had to get caught up with the Follow Your Own Path QAL hosted by Sandra, mmmquilts by sewing the blocks together. It’s ready for quilting and I’m pretty sure it going to be straight horizontal line quilting but do I dare do quadrant quilting? Either way, this quilt will be done in time to celebrate a famous Canadian’s birthday on June 15th. I know it’s going to be a wall hanging either in Demando’s bedroom, although he doesn’t know it or in the soon-to-be basement studio at the Grandparents House which is another post for another day. I’m not entirely sold on the idea, something to do with the long meat hooks found hanging in the basement. Good Quilt Peep Mary thinks since the  house is almost a hundred years old that meat, etc. was hung there because it was cold down there. Confession: it’s been two years and I have not yet set foot in the basement, Hubby shows me photos.

Finally, I am enjoying sewing my Glitter blocks and sew far have ten blocks done. It’s a nice project to do when traveling to and from the Grandparent House but as I tell Hubby, it would be easier if I was sewing in a Class B Camper.

As I tell Hubby, I saved 100K with the purchase of this Everything Mary Large Lap Desk for $6 which makes sewing the EPPs much easier but not as nice as it would be in a Class B Camper. BTW, Demando the Paramedic/Firefighter saids that I should not be using this tray in the front seat in case of an accident so there will be no sewing when road conditions are iffy.

Thanks for reading this rather long post and we’ll be leaving the Grandparent House before the Memorial Day Weekend. I’m hoping to have one more Finally Finished before the rather lovely month of May is over.

Sew Safe!

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation and Tish’s Adventure in Wonderland