UFOs No Longer


With thanks to my friend Branky, the machine-quilter in Hoosick Falls, New York, I'm making a dent in my list of UFO quilt projects. I'd sent her four quilts a few weeks ago and they've all come back and been bound! I'm really tickled to have made such progress. This first one is a graduation gift. My wonderful friend Polly's wonderful son Mark graduated from Abington Friends ten days ago, and I thought he should have a warm quilt to take away to college with him. This quilt is made from flannel; the blocks came from a swap that I participated in almost more years ago than I can count (something like nine!). I'd put the blocks together with the lattice and cornerstones and felt like it needed something else, so I hand-buttonhole stitched the stars in place. The top was finished and tucked away for just the right recipient. When Mark's graduation came around, it seemed he was the one. Branky quilted shooting stars and loops all over the quilt and I was delighted!
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The blocks for this quilt came from a swap that was called "Almost Amish." Again, I have had the blocks for about seven years. Five years ago I put them all together in just these plain rows and tucked the finished top away until the right recipient came along.
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My girlfriends, the Good Guys, have been together for more than twenty years. At one point Dottie suggested that when our daughters married, we should have Good Guys showers with just us, and the daughters, and no one else. Dottie hosted the first shower for Laura M. and Katie. Cessie and her daughter Caeli held a lovely tea for Sherry when she married. And so on. Donna's daughter Laura S. is being married next month and the brunch for her was held yesterday. I wasn't able to attend, and won't be at the wedding either. I hardly know Laura and really knew nothing about her taste. But it seemed to me that most people like the Amish look of solid colors on black, and so off to Branky the top went. She quilted it in a bright blue thread and I found the perfect confetti fabric to bind it.
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Another group of blocks were farm animals from two swaps. The first one was run by Desertsky about eight or more years ago; the second one was run through my own swap list. I had 18 very nice farm blocks hanging around and decided that they would make a pair of cute baby quilts. I need to have three baby quilts ready before September, two for friends at work, and one for a cousin. So I put the tops together using some terrific chicken fabric left from another project. Branky did some wonderful quilting on them. I had thought this particular quilt was going to be for someone at work, but once it was finished and bound, I knew I couldn't part with it yet, so it is going into the chest for the next grandchild, whenever he or she appears.

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