Thursday, May 23, 2013

UnFinishedObjects, better known as UFOs

Every week, usually on Mondays, my BFF, Teresa, and I spend the afternoon working on quilting projects.   The first few weeks (back in January and February), we worked on her project that began a year ago.  After about 5 weeks we completed the quilt top except for a border.  When we made our trip to Coleman to deliver the Curves Quilt, we went shopping at the Quilter's Patch in Santa Anna and found some fabric for the border with plans to use a black or purple sheet for the backing.    In the interim, we've also been working on blocks from past and current Blocks of the Month patterns that I have accumulated over the last 4 years.  Our ultimate plan is for each of us to make a quilt top utilizing a panel with the portraits of  Civil War Confederate Generals and adding blocks made up of muted prints and tea-dyed muslin.....more to come on that.  I am also working on a project for the Coleman Heritage Hall Museum using some donated flour sacks.  While at Santa Anna's shop, I found some purple and yellow fabrics that compliment the flour sacks.....more to come on that too.
Finally, another project I hope to finish before the end of this year is to make a Memory Quilt for each of my 4 grandchildren whose father, James F. Hyde III,  passed away in March.  I have 5 bags of shirts from which to work......yes, more on that too.   TO BE CONTINUED....... 

A Curves Memory Quilt

After I finished the practice piece, I decided to take on a project that had been on the 'back burner' for over a year.    After Curves of Coleman closed, I promised a loyal member that if she would gather up her Curves T-shirts for me, I would make her a T-shirt memory quilt.  She promptly provided the T-shirts last fall before we started the move back to Granbury....so the t-shirts were packed away until March.  I worked on this in spurts:  cut the logos out in large squares, apply stabilizer to the back, cut again in 12 1/2" squares, design placement; then I discovered (or re-discovered) a bolt of purple fabric I bought when Kelly Corder was selling her inventory.  It was perfect for finishing the borders and backing.  I had started working part time in an office in January, plus we were still settling in our new environment, so this was a slow-going project.  I finally got the borders applied and it was time to quilt.  So, it went onto Frenchy.   It took me a couple of day to work up the courage for the quilting phase, but it was successfully finished and ready for binding within 6 hours.  I used a bright green floral print from my extensive stash for the binding.  It made a pretty contrast against the purple.  I sewed the binding onto the front in preparation for hand stitching the binding to the back.   

At this point, I ran into a major obstacle:  a broken hip immediately followed by hip surgery on March 31, 2013.  I was in the hospital from Friday night until Tuesday afternoon.....the following weeks are a bit foggy since I was on heavy pain meds......but I managed to work on the hand stitched binding sometime during that period.  I prepared a label and applied it to the back and it was ready for delivery a couple of weeks before my friend's birthday on May 30, 2013. 




My BFF, Teresa Harrison, drove with me to Coleman so I could deliver the quilt to Carolyn McClellan.  We spent the day visiting many of my Coleman friends, but we made a lunch date with Carolyn; Teresa took our picture with the Curves Quilt.

Happy Birthday Carolyn!