OMG it's August Already!

Not  a great photo -- apologies!

I spent the day canning antipasto relish, but did have time to take a photo of the current UFO (attached).  I sewed this top back in the early 90's and it hung on the living room wall for a long time (I'd hung it during the xmas season and Mark liked it so much he wouldn't let me take it down).  I'm afraid a lot of my unfinished quilt tops suffer the same fate, although at this point there are only five on the walls and a sixth that is an actual quilt with batting, binding, and everything!!

This particular top came about in two stages.  The four rows of houses on snowy streets came first and that's what hung on the wall for such a long time.  Then I finally took it down and added the stars border, which I am totally in love with.  It's only 43" x 62" so I can pin this up at home and hope to have that done by Sunday.  First I have to piece together the batting using batting scraps I've been saving.  The backing will be a dark navy celestial with gold stars. 

Pardon My French

Sometimes things just don't work out, right?  That's why so many of us have unfinished projects lurking in our sewing rooms.  So far this year I have been very lucky to complete many of my UFOs with great success, but this one was not to be.  It is a piece of -- pardon my French -- merde.

Navajo quilt top designed by me in 1979.

It looks innocent from far away, but this top was a mess from the get-go.  I made it back in the 70's from 100% cotton solids, which were not that great back then.  There was a lot of fraying and coupled with my incomplete understanding of "best practices" in quilting, e.g., handsewing the pieces together without reference to the 1/4" (or ANY standard, consistent measurement) seam; failing to ensure pieces were cut on the grain;  failing to pay attention (as demonstrated by the center row of mismatched blocks -- although I have to admit I like this variation better) . . . merde happens!

Navajo quilt back, a huge mess!

Pinning up the quilt was an adventure as there were lotsa lumps and I thought, "Oh, that's okay.  I'll quilt them out".  Wishful thinking.  There are some small puckers on the front but the back is a sea of puckers.  After I started quilting the top and the back shifted so I had to add backing fabric to both long sides -- not a pretty sight.

Merde!  This looks grey but it's actually sage green.

Here is a section of the back that is the worst.  You can see the huge pucker (I think you would have to call that a pleat, it's so big!) and the fabric I had to add to the back.

So, it's a mess, but it is finished!  I had the option of taking all the blocks apart and resewing and squaring-up the blocks.  The blocks were sewed by hand so I felt some sentiment and decided to keep it "as is" no matter what the outcome.  It's a quilt--not a good one-- and it won't win any prizes but the design is good.  It was inspired by a Navajo rug that I had back in the 70's and I made all the templates out of cardboard, probably not too accurately.  Quilting was not yet the huge industry it is today, 100% cotton fabrics were hard to find as the market was inundated with polyester, and I could go on baying excuses but the bottom line is merde!