Sunday, September 30, 2012

Thank you!

Yay!  Finished my quilt.  Now I need to post it to flickr.  I just wanted to say how fun this challenge was.  Now that the quilt is finished.  I love all of your quilts.  Each quilt is unique and beautiful.  Thank you colorado lady for hosting this challenge and sharing your time and talents with all of us.  My quilt now sits on the arm of the couch and is well loved by my little people. 

I've completed the top

 

....for the In the Bag Ugly Fabric Challenge. I think I know what I'm going to use as backing, probably the same material I used for the thin stripe in the border. I didn't get it finished for the challenge but I had fun and learned lots by trying.

I have these leftover to play with.....

 

Thursday, September 27, 2012

A word about the deadline for this challenge....and what is to come!

Hello all!! Just a reminder that the Quilt Challenge is wrapping up. I myself failed at completing my quilt. The top is finished, not quilted. My second challenge that I signed myself up for, never even started. Life got in the way. Totally.

But...there is still a couple of days to get your finished quilted item submitted via Flicker to be in the running for many prizes. I stand no chance of a finish...even if there were two weeks packed into a couple of days.

I hesitate to show all that I have set back for this event...but here are a few to entice you. Each prize will consist of one of the quilting books and another prize to go with it. I have quilt kits by Moda, Moda thimble berries table runner kit, quilting thread, fabric bundles, and fat quarter bundles to name a few.

I plan to try and set up a Viewers Choice voting link and the winner of the viewers choice will win a prize package too. Now, please bear with me, next week is not looking good for me so I will have to figure out how to do this and get a post done....it will be done as soon as I can possibly do it.

Watch this blog and a notice on my Coloradolady blog incase I have to resort to a linky for you to add your pictures. I am not sure I can pull them off of flicker myself. If anyone has a suggestion on the easiest way to do that, please let me know. I hope you have enjoyed this challenge this summer....I have enjoyed looking at all the beautiful quilts that started out so ugly to begin with!!!

Make sure you have your photos submitted to Flicker....that is where the entries will be drawn from for prizes!!

My Ugly Fabric Quilt Challenge Quilt




Well, here it is.  This is my Ugly Fabric Quilt challenge Quilt.  I added the "What Cancer Cannot Do" blocks because when I think of UGLY, I think cancer.  My Mom has cancer and is in the final days of her battle.  I gave her this quilt as a birthday gift and as a reminder of what cancer cannot do.  She has it on her bed now and her Hospice Nurses love the quilt and it's message.
I didn't take pictures of the fabric that Martha sent me, but I used all the fat quarters and the ones that I didn't like so much or had extra of, I used to male the yo yo flowers.  They are made from pieced parts of extra fabric.  It was a fun challenge although I'm not so sure Ill be doing it again.  I think once might have been enough!

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Completed top...on to the quilting

I finished the top a few days ago and got my 9 year old to help with the photography.  I am not patient enough to take 100 shots until I get a good one, so bear with me on the quality, or lack thereof, of the photos.
Overall I think the quilt turned out pretty good. 
Placement of the border strips were to be scrappy, but I should have looked at it before just sewing them on.  I would have moved some of the striped fabric. Originally I  had the 2 upper stars diagonal from each other but in the end they ended up next to one another.  However, this did not bother me enough to rip it out and start over.  Remember this was going to be my learning/teaching moment quilt!
This is a close up of one of the stars the contains all 4 ugly fabrics.  Teaching moment ......color value really does make a big difference. The 2 greens and 2 burgandy fabrics are too close in value and blend in and make it mushy looking.
This star turned out fairly well in my opinion.  This was another teaching moment .....Don't use stripes for the middle of the star!
I have the quilt pin basted and ready to start quilting.  I plan to simply outline each ring of the stars and then straight line quilt the open spaces radiating out from the star.  As for the borders, I have no idea what I will do.  I realize I probaly won't get this finished before the deadline, but I have had a wonderful time participating in this challenge.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

I started this challenge with the following fabrics:

 
 
I have to admit that I have been totally stumped with these fabrics.  I really tried hard to find patterns and come up with a plan.  I finally decided to work with circles and create a modern design.  I added the solid navy fabric and pieced together the challenge fabric for the backing.
 
 

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Yes, I know it's ugly, but I'm gonna try!!

Well, this is the Fabric I got from Kim in Pennsylvania. I must say I really thought it was ugly, really. But I have been looking at it for these last few months, wracking my brain with what can I do with this God awful stuff, well, nothing like waiting till near the end, but I think I have come up with an idea!! I cut the skulls and crossbones into squares and the green into strips along with some of the other 5 charms into some starter strips. I think I am going to add Orange since it does run through the greens and see what I can come up with this weekend. It is so fun seeing you lucky ladies that have completed your challenges. Nice work!! Wish me luck! :)

Ugly fabrics received


My ugly fabrics were received quite timely and not quite ugly in my opinion.  Perhaps they aren't the prettiest but surely not the ugliest and they even somewhat coordinate, so thank you to my swap partner Cathy in IL.



Then I shopped my stash for additional fabrics and added these to the mix

I had my pattern picked put long before the swap even started.  I am still new to quilting but wanted a challenge so I selected a lonestar pattern.  My thinking was "if I screw this up at least I didn't waste good fabric"  In the end, I wasted some good fabric but only because the pattern was printed with some incorrect measurments. This quilt tested my patience, my perfect/not so perfect 1/4inch seam and I really learned ALOT about color value/tone and placement of stripes!  I wouldn't change any of my choices. (although I did have to pull more fabric from my stash after the cutting errors)  So my flimsy is done, but the photography is not.  I have started the quilting on my DSM, this is only the 3rd quilt I have machine quilted so that will be uglier then the "Ugly fabrics" and another learning experience and challenge.
So far I have had a blast in this challenge.
Barbara

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Uglies tumbled

Isn't an imminent deadline a great concentrator of the mind?? Having thought that I would not manage to finish my Ugly fabric quilt in time I found that once I put my mind to it I can piece and quilt a quilt in a matter of days! Who could have guessed that that might happen :)


So here it is my Tumbled Ugly quilt!


To say I am delighted to have finally used up those fabrics would be an understatement :)

Monday, September 17, 2012

First UglyFabricsQuilt Finished



My quilt is finished!!! I handquilted it and I´m very pleased with how it turned out. What more can I say :)
Gun, Sweden

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Chevron Picnic Quilt Finished!

 I'm finished!  Thanks to Patti in Canada for swapping fabrics with me.  I had lots of fun making and quilting this quilt.  I'm pretty excited to have it finished and posted before the deadline!!!


Of course, I have to show the back quilting detail.


I like how rotating the quilt gives it a different look.
Thanks for looking!  Check out my blog for more pictures. Linda in Iowa #51


Monday, September 10, 2012

Tumbling Uglies

Having thought that the challenge ended at the end of October so I still had lots of time left to come up with something for these


You can imagine my horror when I discovered that submissions have to be made by October 1st! Cue some frantic cutting :)




Check out here what I am hoping to do with these Uglies!