Finishing UFO's II

Another UFO ( UnFinished Object) has now turned into a WIP (Work in Progress). I made this lap quilt/wall hanging in the 1990's based on the Guinea fowl at Kew ( they're such characters , resembling rather manic city gents that I called them 'The Chaps') The background is made of hand dyed silks and cottons ( that dates it to pre 1998 when my kitchen was refurbished and I could no longer make a mess dyeing in buckets ). The chaps themselves are hand appliqued in different grey fabrics which were also used in the borders and on the back ( below)

I started out hand quilting but ended up 'echo' machine quilting around the shapes of the guinea fowl and made a freezer paper quilting pattern of smaller guinea fowl around the border.

All that was left to do was to stitch feather patterns on the guinea fowl themselves - I did a couple then abandoned it - it's quite tough going as they were appliqued using vilene so there's 5 layers to stitch through!

I've been inspired to finally finish it as a birthday present for our nephew who loves birds and birdwatching and might appreciate it rather than being stuffed in a drawer. A few wonky stitches until I found the notes and diagram I'd made several years ago for teaching 'crows foot' Very satisfying - I can see me using this stitch more now I've rediscovered it.

8 down , 4 to go. If I have sufficient time I might machine stitch their feet and crests - I'm not convinced how permanent the red fabric marker pen is.

Finishing UFO's

Sorting through all my stuff, as well as fabric threads etc , I've came across several old uncompleted projects. The earliest UFO (UnFinished Object) dates from 1982 when , flushed with success at making a quilted bag , I decided ( as you do!) to make a double size bed quilt next! I spend days in mum's shed going through her bags of fabric ( she was an embroiderer and quilter although it was me that as a child acquired all those cotton dresses at Jumble Sales - sharper elbows!). Then templates for 'snowball' pattern were made from graph paper stuck to cereal packets, fabric marked and cut out with scissors. It was pieced using my hand operated Singer ( which I still have). At least I had the sense to assemble it for quilting using 'quilt-as- you- go method' in 6 sections.

I spent a lot of time hand quilting intricate spiderwebs ( and some spiders) and the lines on the 'wickerwork', completing 2 sections but abandoned it to move onto more exciting ( and quicker) projects. I ruined another section practising using the 'hand quilting' stitch on my brand new Bernina in the 1990's and it was abandoned again

Several quilt tops have already made their way to Sue's charity quilt group to complete - looking at these sections again I thought that I could make a couple of lap quilts out of them. I've added some extra machine quilting where necessary and am currently putting on bindings and undoing all my meticulous tacking ( well before I discovered safety pins) It's been quite satisfying to do something that's useful for a change rather than artistic although I could still do something quirky with the 2 sections left.....