Tuesday, November 27, 2018

UFOpalooza Part Two

 

The end of the year seems like a good time to get some more UFOs finished up. Here's my next batch of finishes from the last several weeks.



This is one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects. I made two of these spiral blocks each month, for a total of 20. Each pair of spirals includes one that has the featured color on the outside, and one with neutrals on the outside. The combination of these dark and light blocks makes a sort of maze effect.



These blocks were a bit of a pain to make, but in the end I loved how scrappy and fun they turned out. Twenty 10" blocks makes the perfect size little quilt for Wrap A Smile, 40"x50", and it's called Rainbow Spirals.



The backing is a single piece of this fun tan with tiny dogs wearing berets and bandanas. So cute! The binding is scrappy reds to pick up the red in the backing. Any color binding would coordinate with the front!



The quilting is simple wiggly lines that follow the shape of the spirals. Friends, this was the fastest, easiest and most satisfying quilting I've ever done! The piecing completely guided my stitching, so it was practically mindless. The wiggliness of the lines was super forgiving, and look at that texture! I'll be watching for other piecing designs that lend themselves to this technique because it was fun fun fun!



Color Wheels is also destined for Wrap A Smile. In spite of its rainbow colors, it was not made as part of RSC. It was a squirrelly diversion at some point months ago, when my kaleidoscope ruler happened to be sitting on top of some colorful scraps. At first I thought to make beach balls, but once the ROYGBIV was in motion, I couldn't stop the rainbow train. The background is white with tiny blue and green stars, a lovely fabric that was given to me by my husband's aunt.



The flimsy sat around on a hanger until this wonderful backing fabric fell into my lap. Happy little forest critters on bright yellow! It came in my big box of fabrics from Ann last month, and I knew I wanted to use it immediately.

A big, loose stipple quilting motif makes Color Wheels soft and cuddly, and the dark green binding frames it up nicely. Again, because any color would match the front, I chose the binding to coordinate with the backing.



Next up are three really little quilts. Doll-sized little. In fact, they are doll quilts, and will be donated to A Doll Like Me. The first one, Minnows, is made with scraps from a baby quilt I made for my cousin. I saved all the little flippy corner triangles in a fit of frugality. Then I had 160 tiny HSTs that needed to be trimmed to 1 7/8", finishing at 1 3/8". That sound you hear is my head hitting the cutting mat as I pass out from pondering too many tiny HSTs.



I know other quilters love to work with tiny pieces, and I admit the HSTs were darned cute, but it was many hours of labor to produce 12 small "ocean wave" blocks. I was happy to find a few scraps of the original fish themed fabrics to make the central blocks and fatten the whole thing up to about 24" square. Doll quilts are fun to make, but I don't need to spend that many hours of my life on flippy cut offs again.



Jason's Stars, on the other hand, took zero hours of my time to make the blocks. That's because they were made by Erin and I inherited them as a quilty orphan. They were originally intended for her son Jason. As I was scrounging for small pieces of batting to make Minnows, I found just enough of two different materials. Minnows' batting is polyester, and Jason's Stars uses scraps of wool.



Erin did a wonderful job making the stars, pressing the seams so they nested perfectly when I stitched the nine of them together. Her blocks were exactly the same size as each other, too. The nine wonky stars are significant: the colors represent the different karate belt colors on the way to black belt. That's why there's a white star, even though the contrast is low on that one.



This chunk of alphabet fabric, fattened up with some other scraps from Erin, makes a fun backing. The quilting is just walking foot cross hatching through the diagonals of the piecing. A zippy black and white striped binding finished it up.


Last but not least, this little owl quilt is finished. Actually, I finished it months ago and forgot to blog about it. So it's not really a UFO, but I'm guessing you are OK with me throwing it into this post. Owl Be Seeing You was made with all the owl fabrics that were part of the I-Spy square swap I participated in this summer.


I decided not to use owls in my quilts for Wrap A Smile or Quilts Beyond Borders. Some cultures associate owls with death, and since most of the quilts for those organizations go to other countries, I thought I'd save the owls for a US-based donation. 

And now I have three little quilts to share an envelope heading to their forever homes. A Doll Like Me creates soft, personalized dolls that look like the children who receive them. They are specially created for children who might have limb differences, or chemotherapy IV ports, or cochlear implants, or a number of other characteristics not found on typical dolls. It's wonderful for a child to love a doll that looks like him/herself! And very special dolls deserve their own quilt.

27 comments:

  1. Fantastic finishes! I am not on facebook so i cannot see the requirements and mailing address for Adoll like me. Can you get that info to me?

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  2. Wow Louise what beautiful finishes,love your pics by the sea.

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  3. Always a joy to see what you've been up to Louise. Gorgeous quilts, especially love that first one even if it took a while to piece. And how game to use all those tiny triangles. Such lovely gifts to others, wonderful job.

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  4. Your quilt finishes are always so delightful to see! You’ve put smiles on hundreds of faces!

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  5. I always enjoy seeing the quilts you make for donation. You are truly an inspiration to me, Louise! I think for 2019 I need to be more intentional about making donation quilts. Love that first quilt with the spirals and the texture. I think kitty doesn't quite know what to make of dogs in hats!

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  6. Oh how I love rainbow spirals!! You have been busy my friend, and having a bit of fun at it too:) Always so fun to see what you come up with to make everything your own. Great job Louise!

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  7. You've been busy! I love your rainbow spirals. Your quilts are sure to comfort some kids - and their dolls - who need a quilty hug.

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  8. Great work Louise! You not only create works of art, you are a wonderful story teller as well. Fingers crossed that I can get some photos of the Wrap-A-Smile quilts in action to complete the stories. Thank you for your boundless generosity!

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  9. Those rainbow spiral blocks are sew neat!!! Love your zippy binding! Great job on sew many finishes, Louise!!

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  10. Seeing the quilts in your post was like walking down the aisle at a quilt show. I particularly love the rainbow spiral quilt and the kaleidoscope quilt. It's amazing how much you get done in such a small space.

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  11. Another great group of quilts Louise! I especially like the kaleidoscope quilt. You are so productive.

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  12. fabulous quilts.... the spirals is very effective (and wavy lines is a favourite of mine too!) I did laugh with those tiny HST's and your remark about the tiem it takes.... it's quicker to make king size quilt isn't it??? However the result is just so sweet. Many happy faces soon …. do you ever hear about the recipients?
    Hugz

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  13. I always love seeing your bright and cheerful quilts. So many kids will love getting quilting hugs from your beautiful little quilts.

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  14. I always love everything you make, Louise, but those spiral blocks are really calling me! Did you figure them out yourself, or is there a pattern out there somewhere? I made a quilt for A Doll Like Me last year - I should definitely do that again! It's such a good feeling to contribute to that charity.

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  15. Oh my you have been a busy bee these days! It's hard to pick a favorite in all those lovely quilts. I love the concept of the karate belt color stars quilt and even though Minnows was your most challenging quilt I think I would have to say it's my favorite this time. You make such wonderful quilts for such fantastic causes. Thank you....thank you....thank you!!!!

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  16. You are certainly on a roll! Way to go!

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  17. The spirals turned out beautifully! The quilting is just perfect.

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  18. Way to go on so many finishes!! I swear those little quilts take just as much effort as the big ones. I especially love the maze/spiral quilt and it might inspire me to use it as a scrap buster. =)

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  19. Louise, such an amazing collection of quilt finishes in your post!! Making the dolly quilts to accompany the personalized dolls is a wonderful idea. I have never heard of A Doll Like Me before but a tremendous cause.

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  20. I love that you have gotten all of these done, it gives me hope for myself :) All of these are beautiful and I'm sure will be well loved when they make it to their new homes. I can't tell if little chocolate kitty is staring in awwe at the quilt or possibly plotting on how to keep the quilt in the first picture.

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  21. I love all these colourful finishes. You're doing a great job of getting through those UFOs :)

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  22. Oh man...I especially like your rainbow quilts!!! Thanks for the details on the rainbow swirl...it actually sounds easier than it looks to make.

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  23. What a great post! So many wonderful finishes. Love your colourful spirals. So generous of you to make such sweet little doll quilts for such a great cause. They will be cherished.

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  24. Hi Louise: You are still keeping up the good work. It's wonderful to see all these fun and bright quilts. I had to zoom in to see those adorable dogs with berets and bandanas! Love the colour Wheels.

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  25. You've been really moving along with those UFOs. Congrats on all the progress! Some kiddos are going to have some fun quilts to cuddle with.

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  26. Wow, you are really rocking the UFO finishes. Trying to bump up your numbers before the end of the year, huh? I would love to comment on each and every finish, but wow! You've motivated me to get back to making "A Doll Like Me" quilts!

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Please feel free to leave a comment and I'll reply as soon as I can.