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!