Quilting some UFOs

Since I haven't been teaching classes, I have more free time lately. I wish I could say I'm using the time to the utmost. I'm not. But I have been working on getting some quilts from the UFO pile quilted. 

I don't have as many unfinished or in progress quilt projects as many people do because I have to finish them in order to use them for class models. I haven't always quilted them before using them. It is easier to hang quilts unquilted, plus I didn't always have the time to get it done. 

I started a series of samplers that I designed to help teach different aspects of quilting. These proved to be popular, so I continued. This was #5, Row by Row, which I made in about 2007. I always use a different setting and different blocks. Eventually I started designing new blocks as well, but for this one I used traditional blocks.

My quilting machine is an oldie and doesn't always want to cooperate, (or it might be me not being consistent in my movements....), but it's been working pretty well lately. Conrad has really taken a fancy to this quilt, taking every opportunity before and after the binding to sleep on it.  

It is hard to bind with him around sometimes!

Another top finished.

I participated in a Windmill block swap with nine friends a couple of years ago. We each ended up with 20 blocks. I put tilted borders on the blocks to give them a little spin. Then I put it away for a bit....ok, a year...

I finally got them sewn together last summer and added a teal border. Then it aged a little longer....until Tuesday. A local group is making twin size quilts for a children's shelter here in town, so I decided I would finish this quilt and donate it to them. It just needed one more border to make it twin size, so it is ready to quilt. Now to find a back!

I had taken this partially finished tea cup swap block project with me on Tuesday too. I found it when I was cleaning out the quilting room the other day. I had some of the fabrics left too, so I put it all in a bag and took it with (it's on the "let's get it finished" list.) One of the other ladies ran out of fabric for her project so I asked her if she wanted it. She took it and started to work on it. She even got some more fabric to go with the leftover fabrics so that she could make a piano key border. She was still working on it when it was time to go, so more on this project later....

I spent yesterday getting a couple of quilt tops pressed and the backs ready so that I can quilt them.  Then I worked on a new string piecing project. I got seven blocks finished...string piecing is so much fun!

A really, really old ufo

 I started this quilt a long time ago, as is evident by the fabric I used. I started to make one just like this, and ended up giving it to a friend who was retiring. So I started another one for myself. It's not that big, about 27" sq. so the piecing didn't take that long, but I had hand quilted the other one, so I wanted to hand quilt mine too. You can see I got the center almost half quilted...then it ended up abandoned. Not sure why I never got back to it. I eventually stored it in a tub with some fabric.    

 When I was going through some project leftover fabrics and sorting them into tubs, I decided I should finish up some partially sewn models. When I teach a class I make a model to hang at the store so people know  what the class quilt looks like. Then I make up some demo props that show how to make it, or one or more of the steps. Sometimes I make up something else with a variation of the pattern, or the leftover cuts from the original quilt. Some of them will never be made into quilts, but some of them are small versions, so I could finish them and make a runner, or a pillow or something.

 So that's what prompted me to get out this small quilt to see how far I had gotten before I put it away and to decide if I should finish it. I don't really like the fabrics anymore, so I'm not sure if I want to spend the time to finish it. I could probably finish quilting it by machine, but not sure I want to do that either. But I hate to just throw it away. Do you have any old projects laying around like this? What would you do?

Busy quilting week....

I quilted most of the day yesterday, after an emergency run to buy batting. I am working on a customer quilt. She wanted something simple so it is going pretty quickly. I want to finish it this morning, then have a UFO class this afternoon and a Sampler class this evening. Saturday I have a Stack n Whack class, then I have no more day classes until.....well until I schedule some! I need a little time to get caught up, regroup and make new stuff. I will still have my night Sampler classes in July and August.

Hopefully I will have pix tomorrow of a finished quilted top!