I don't think I know a quilter who doesn't have a few ufo's (for the non-quilting readers, a ufo is an un-finished object) just waiting to be finished, given away or thrown out. At our Quilter's Retreat we have a fund raising auction every year and we all take stuff to donate - fabric, books, patterns and ufo's. As I was making a pile of stuff to take I found a bag with about 30 pineapple blocks, lots of cut fabric and some flannel squares. As much as I loved this project I knew it was way down my priority list to finiah. So into the auction it went.
I was thrilled that my good quilt friend Anne Morrell Robinson "won" my ufo. Anne is one of the most dedicated and disciplined quilters I know. I knew she would finish it and she has!
I just love the touches of turquoise and how they add some "spark" to the quilt. I hope Anne will bring it to this year's Retreat so I can see it in person.
This has inspired me to dig out another ufo and really put my mind to getting it done. Several years ago Anne came to the Mahone Bay Quilter's Guild to teach a workshop on her "Antique Flower Vase" pattern. I loved the applique and decided that this had to be a full queen sized quilt. I finished the centre, added a couple of highlight borders then a hand pieced border. The next border would be an applique vine. I have one finished, one almost and then 2 more to go.
The triangle border is hand pieced and had to be "fudged" in to fit!
I used this ruler, Terry Thompson's The Vine Line to draw the vine and it is wonderful, makes the drawing of the vine for the placement so much easier.
The applique border is hand appliquéd, the flowers etc on each side will be slightly different I will add another pieced border but I am not sure yet what that will be. I just want to really at least get the top finished to take to the Retreat in September.
The beige background fabric is a Jinny Beyer print. When I started this project I had no idea it was going to be a full sized quilt. The centre piece was pretty much all I had. Once the vase and flowers were appliquéd I soon realized it wasn't quite big enough so I took out the stitches around the bottom of the vase and added the border print for the vase to sit on, a tablecloth perhaps? I had just barely enough of the beige for the triangles. I looked on Jinny's website to see if they still had the fabric, there it was but there were 2 or 3 that were similar. In the meantime we had decided to go on a raod trip to the Virginia and Washington DC area to meet up with our friends from England. Cheryl, who is also a quilter, was keen to go to Jinny Beyer's studio so I took my quilt top with me in hopes of matching the fabric. Long story short, I was able to get another 4 yards, lots to finish the quilt! Now to get back to work. Thanks Anne!