November UFO

I've finished another quilt at the eleventh hour. This was the UFO for November. I had a hard month and did very little quilting, so I thought I would make the effort to finish it by the end of the year. And I did! So I finished all twelve of my UFOs, not exactly on schedule, but close.

This is a detail of the quilting. The border consists of cotton squares with a sheer polyester squares superimposed on them. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Making a binding out of sheer polyester was a real challenge, but I did it. Happy New Year!

Bastrop quilt top

I made the inside of this quilt top many years ago. I invented a quick piecing method to generate reversed squares. The four-triangle blocks were quick pieced but planned in a way that would place triangles of the same color around every square. It was a complicated method, but I gave a workshop at the Herring Run Quilt Guild anyway. Someone actually made one of these by following my directions. I have made several, but this was the largest. The original piece was longer, so I removed a few rows to save a bit for myself.

This top was shifted among various boxes and drawers for about 20 years. When I heard that Judy Laquidara was volunteering to put together quilts for the people of Bastrop, Texas who lost their homes in the fires this summer, I decided to finish the top according to her specifications and send it to her along with a backing and binding. I thought this would take half a Saturday in September, but I underestimated how long it would take to assemble the parts. I had to find an appropriate border, which was hard, because colors and styles have changed in twenty years. But here it is, ready to go.

Here are the backing and binding in the shipping box. I am going to buy a nice batting to pack it up tight, and ship it to Judy in Texas tomorrow.

December UFO

I bought this quilt top at a flea market in Arkansas when my little sister was working there many years ago. It was musty so I washed it, and it started to fall apart. So my intention was to pick apart the seams that were not sewn well and sew them back together. This ended up being almost all of the seams. My project for 2011 was to finish putting it back together, and I've done that. It is a wild and crazy strip quilt. I like it very much; I hope to quilt it someday and keep it for myself.

Tie-dyed towels

I made tie-dyed towels for Christmas gifts for my kids and my nieces and nephews on my husband's side of the family - eight total. Three of them are wrapped already. I used up the rest of my dye plus some yellow, turquoise and red that came in the kit I had to buy in order to get soda ash. It all worked out for the best. I was out of yellow anyway, and turquoise is such a great color for tie-dye. I had some nice purples, dark blues, orange, and subtle greens. Next time I tie dye I will have all new colors.

Tie-dyed Socks

These are nine pairs of tie dyed socks that I made for my nieces and nephews. The cuffs came out well, but the foot was washed out. The socks were 80 percent cotton 20 percent polyester, however the polyester was all on the outside of the foot. Inside, the socks are all cotton and brilliantly dyed. Next time I will find 100 percent cotton socks. At any rate they are nice and I hope the kids like them.
I added an origami wallet containing a twenty dollar bill to each gift box.