Saturday, March 31, 2012

A UFO becomes a Snowman quilt top

March's UFO project was my snowman quilt, started about 2002. It was a block of the month and I had 3 1/2 blocks made when we decided to move from California to Idaho. It got packed in a box and never had another stitch done until last year when I pulled it back out. When I wrote my UFO list for this year I had 8 blocks completed and knew I was motivated to finish this, one of my oldest UFO's.

Worried about completing this UFO in 1 month when the number was chosen, I continued working on blocks so when Judy pulled #8 for this month I was very pleased, I had just finished the 12th block, What perfect timing!

I knew I wanted to change this quilt from the original pattern, it made an 80 x96" quilt and I wanted something smaller.

First I started auditioning fabric for the sashing. I liked the first one I tried, but it was maybe a little dark.

I tried a lighter blue. I pulled out some strips to try for a tiny border around each block.

I liked the red and the gold, but the yellow was a little bright. I just wasn't liking this blue for the sashing though, and even with all my fabric, I just didn't seem to have another blue that would work. Should I go shopping for another blue?
Well I decided to give the first blue another chance
It didn't look too bad with the red, I decided to just go with what I had. I figured out a plan on some graph paper so I could figure out the sizes for the sashing pieces.
Trimmed my blocks and added 1" strips of red for a skinny border. I put the blocks on the wall and started adding sashing pieces, figuring out the order to sew them in as I want along. It went pretty quickly and soon looked like this

Almost done, just needed a border. I was just about out of that red fabric, but that gold had looked pretty good too, so I gave it a second chance in the border.

TA-DA.............A completed Snowman quilt top!


10 years to make this quilt top, I sure hope it won't take me 10 more years to get it quilted!



10 comments:

  1. It's so pretty!!! You made great choices for the fabrics to finish it with.

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  2. Cute blocks--and the sashing ideas worked perfectly. Congrats on getting to a flimsy stage.

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  3. Your fabric color choices were Right ON. I loved how you documented your steps to success. I never think of doing that.

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  4. Beautiful and all the colors play nicely.

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  5. How cute is this? Love it and congrats on the finish.

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  6. A quilt really worth the wait. I absolutely love it, great choice of sashing colours.

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  7. You did a wonderful job and I loved the process. Thanks for sharing. Judy C

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  8. Wahoo!!!! It looks so terrific, too. :D Don't you love serendipitous moments like that? (finishing the 12th one as its number was picked)

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  9. Fabulous! It was fun to follow the stages of problem solving that led to your wonderful finished top!

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