UFQs (Unfinished Quilts)

Well, some of these are unfinished and will stay that way, some I am working on, and some I just plain forgot I had begun!

This Three Little Piggies quilt is my own design entirely, and it was a very good lesson in value of prints. Because so many of the fabrics are medium and medium dark, the lovely apple tree blends too much into the house and the bricks are a little wild! Did you notice the wolf's tail peeking out from behind the house? This quilt looks much nicer in the photo than in real life! It is about 2' x 3', unfinished.

I loved this pansy fabric and tried to use it as the focal print in this quilt. Yikes. What I thought were medium tone fabrics actually turned out to be darks and while I had good contrast in some spots, the overall effect was quite harsh. Another lesson learned the hard way. Maybe one day I will finish this, but it is only about 4 ' wide and I can't see it ever being a nice quilt.

I love the garden trellis look. I made this so long ago I do not remember my inspiration. But the overall effect is really nice. This is just a little practice piece about 12" x 18", and includes some fabrics I dyed myself.

How can you not love Snail's Trail? It draws your eye from one place to the next and the pattern just pops out at you. The interesting thing about making it is that you don't see the pattern at all until you put the blocks together. As you can see, there are black and white blocks and dark/light blue blocks. The swirling pattern develops when they are placed side by side. I just had to make a little something with it when I discovered it, but can't imagine making a large quilt with it.

If you squint at the picture, you really get a sense of the swirls. This piece is about 12" x 16".

Finally, a quilt I am working on. The top is done, I just have to quilt it. This design is from Barbara Johannah's book called Crystal Piecing (Chilton 1993) and like the Snail's Trail, I just had to try it.

The colours are not too clear, it is a lovely black with gold pattern for the background fabric, and the rings are taupe and an olive green. It is a lap sized quilt, or could fit a twin bed.

Barbara Johanna has been a great inspiration to me - she thinks like I do and invents her own way of doing things. This quilt was easy and turned out well, it just looks distorted because of how I have it taped to the wall! I am working on another one of the same pattern with bigger blocks in pinks and blue. Watch for it by the end of the summer. It is one I am considering for my Quilt in A Day Marathon workshop.

Update August 07 - After making two in this pattern, (this was plan B) I had to choose a quicker pattern. View plan A here (sampler), plan C here (windmill), and plan D (Irish chain), the final choice here. Yep, don't like to sew in summer, and I end up making 6 quilts. Well, they are not all finished, but none the less, I spent a big chunk of time in the basement. And I will finish them......