Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Feeling Flowery

 The latest AdHoc Improv challenge is "Feeling Flowery" - make something flowery.   I have something in mind that I've wanted to make for a very long time but while I plan that out I thought I had better move along a few flowery UFOs. 

This is as far as I've gotten with this pansy quilt. I started making those six inch blocks in 2013 and stashed them away for a long time. In March of last year I combined those blocks with some squares of large print fabrics and ended up with a top 42 x 54.  Now I want to add a solid border and some broderie perse. 
 I don't have any large pieces of any one purple so I guess I'll piece together several different small and wrinkly pieces of purple I found in the stash today for a border. I just have to decide how wide. Six inches? 
 I have several scraps with large pansies I'm going to cut out for the borderie perse. I'm kind of scared to do this step and that's why this has been sitting around as a UFO. I love broderie perse but have never done it on a large scale - just a few bits and pieces here and there mostly on crazy quilt blocks.  Today I told myself anything I do will be better than leaving the darned thing laying around unfinished for several more years. 
 I think I have also found a use for these old worn out pillowcases I made long ago. There's still some good parts with flowers I can use for the borderie perse! 
 Flowery UFO #2 , Moon Garden, started out as a medallion quilt along where everyone starts with their own center block and then every month we are given instructions for a new border. I started out with moonflowers for my center. All went well with the first border but the instructions for the bow tie border were incorrect - bow ties were supposed to be made of 2 inch pieces and not 2.5 inch pieces. I modified my border to use the bow ties I made with incorrect instructions and notified quilt along hostess of the error.  After that I lost interest in the quilt along. 

So now this is a design opportunity. I can add what I want for borders. But I can never think of what to add and that is why I thought a quilt along would be nice to try out some new and different border ideas.  (Sigh). 

I had decided to make the entire quilt in black and white and call it Moon Garden and quilt it with some glow in the dark threads I've had glowing in my thread drawer for ages.  So today I dug out some black and white fabrics...
 ...and I decided the next border will be these little 4.5 inch finished flowers. I'm not sure I have enough of that black polka dot for 40 blocks but I'll use it until it runs out and go from there.  And I have an idea for the next border too.  I'm not sure how many borders there will be. I don't want a big quilt...maybe a nice throw sized one. 

Flowery  UFO #3 has been thrown in a box for awhile.  All the pieces and parts are cut and made but I ran into a problem when I went to assemble all those pieces and parts. (Boo hoo)
 Quilt is called Now and Later by Kathy Doughty. I don't think the instructions are right. I went looking for errata but found none.  I also searched for anyone else that had made this quilt so I could see if anyone else had problems with the instructions. But I couldn't find anyone else that has made it. 


The pieces don't fit together correctly.  Today I took out all the pieces and parts and measured them to make sure I cut the right sized pieces that are cut twice on the diagonal and I did.  I've appliqued all 12 tulips to the triangles and center square and I don't have much of that background fabric left but I'm going to try to figure out how to get all these parts into a top.  (I think I can, I think I can, I think I can). 



My reward for getting the three UFOS to flimsy stage will be a new start - that new flowery quilt I've been dreaming about. I've been taking lots of flower garden pics as part of the planning process. 

9 comments:

MissPat said...

I remember the pansy quilt because I know I commented that I also had a lot of pansy fabrics different from yours, but you replied that you had more than enough. I still haven't done anything with my pansy fabrics, other than use a piece or two for blocks in a floral quilt. I also remember the Moon Garden quilt because I admired the flower block, and low and behold, Angela just used that block for a tiny Tuesday block, so I've now made one. The last one is new to me. Maybe you should write Kathy Doughty and ask her about the problem you had. Or you could just continue along and work something, which I have no doubt you will. Fun projects you are working on.
Pat

Linda said...

Great flower fabrics! The old pillowcase fabric is so pretty. I like your idea to use the “good bits “ for broderie perse. Waste not, want not. Frustrating for the quilt instructions to be wrong. I had a similar thing recently with a baby jacket pattern I’d seen on the Internet. Fortunately a friend who’s an excellent knitter worked out the problem for me.

Claire said...

Love the look of Now and Later (I think that was the title). The mix of saw tooth and diamonds made of squares is very nice. So I hope you figure out how to finish it. Looks like a great way to use scraps.

Kleine Vingers said...

Interesting quilts, I like the one Now or Later. But it is difficult when there is a problem. Just try to fit it together, I think it is better to have a not perfect quilt then a box with pieces.

Louise said...

Very frustrating when a pattern is incorrect! The whole reason to use a pattern is to skip the step of figuring out all the sizes. If I'm going to do all the math myself anyway, why bother following someone else's steps? It sounds like you've mentally moved the Moonflower piece from "kinda mindless, just follow the pattern" to "oh well, mine will be truly unique" and it's moving along :)

gayle said...

I'm still amazed at the variety of pansy prints you have! Who knew there were so many?
I hope you can puzzle out Now and Later - it's a real beauty of a quilt and I'm anxious to see your spin on it. That pink is such a fun background!
And can't wait to see what your new flowery project will be!

mangozz said...

Gorgeous pansy fabrics! As for the Now and Later quilt, you need to e-mail Kathy Doughty regarding the problems. I would love to see your version of it.

Carol- Beads and Birds said...

Oh the pansy top is wonderful. I always love seeing your garden. I'll wait patiently for you to stitch your flower quilt.
xx, Carol

---"Love" said...

I love seeing your photos, and that pansy quilt is really pretty! ---"Love"