Another One Bites the Dust

The best way to describe today's weather is "raw". It is not that cold, around 34°F but the humidity is 100%. As it is not actually raining we have fog.

This brief tropical interlude mid-winter has caused much of the snow to melt, into slush, mud interspersed with sheet ice. Cold + damp = raw. Very British.

So, what bit the dust? A UFO bit the dust, the first 'finish' of the year... Here it is:
Click photos to enlarge

This was a kit bought on sale for under $50 from Connecting Threads. I can claim no credit whatsoever for the fabric choices.

The fabrics are from their own line of batiks (which are incredibly well priced) and the pattern is called Fabric Dance by Grizzly Gulch Gallery.

It uses just five fabrics pieced into four patches and alternating five inch squares set on point. This would be a wonderful first quilt project and I had fun with it too. The backing, shown below, was off a bolt I bought a few years back.

It was quilted and bound by Lori. The pantograph is "Flowing Feathers" by Australian designer Hermione Agee of Lorien Quilting.

I used to be quite snooty about quilt kits, I mean, who needs a kit? Well I was wrong wrong wrong. What a quilt snob I was!

Quite often kits are a bargain. You get just as much fabric as you need with a generous fudge factor for cutting oopsies (in most cases) and, when you add in the pattern and the convenience it is a no brainer, literally.

A word to the wise. Most kits assume you will use straight grain strips for the binding and calculate fabric quantities accordingly. I prefer bias binding. The binding gets the most wear on a quilt and bias binding is strongest. I always order at least an extra yard of the binding fabric.

Have you ever made a kit?

Y'all come back!

O Happy Day!

I think!

This was a UFO. About five years ago (maybe more) Lori was making an Ozark Maple Leaf quilt from Nickel Quilts by Pat Speth & Charlene Thode and I thought "I like that" so I made about 20 blocks and put them aside. You know how that works, right?

Images should enlarge when clicked.

I was inspired by Judy Laquidara to dig through my sewing shelves and find a UFO and finish it.

Yes, well. One down and I'm not telling so don't even ask.

The Fabrics

The blocks were made with scraps from stash and a white on cream for background. Two of the blocks were distorted horrors and IMO unusable, that left 18, so after considerable head scratching I thought if I set them on point 4 x 3 I would get a usable throw. This was perhaps not the best setting choice for this particular block, but too late now!

The setting triangles are Connecting Threads "Fox" from their Quilters Candy Mirage line, which was quite a surprise for me when it arrived because I bought on the picture not the description. We live and learn every day.

The inner border is an older Moda, still available if you search diligently. The little circles compliment the Fox (which does not play very well with others) and added a little foo-foo to what was otherwise an unloved project.

Final border fabric was bought for the purpose, the name is "Stockinette" and it looks exactly like knitting! Cool! Super-duper sale from Connecting Threads again also available in red, green and blue, I bought 6 yards for backing border and binding at $2.48 a yard and used it all.

Y'all come back!