Day 272: Finishing UFOs

For the uninitiated, UFO stands for “UnFinished Object”, and is a common term quilters use to describe a variety of projects that are still in progress. Kind of like how “WIP” (or Work In Progress) is used by writers and other Creatives.

In my case, I finished yet another quilt today. The top and back were done weeks ago, but I just now managed both the time and energy to finish it.

Although I’m somewhat reluctant to post a photo now, since I haven’t sent it to the recipient yet, I’ve decided to go ahead and brag on myself a little.

This is a baby quilt for a dear friend I used to work with, who just had her first baby (a boy). I’ll have to ask Spousal Unit to mail it for me, so it will go out tomorrow, rather than wait until next weekend. They should be home from the hospital by now, and I hope all is well. I’m still waiting to hear.

So, without further ado, here’s “Forest, Field and Stream”:

 

Day 272: Quilt Front
Day 272: Quilt Front
Day 272: Back
Day 272: Back

The pattern is based on a simple Rail Fence pattern, but this one uses interlacing “ribbons” to make a sort of basketweave pattern. I strip-pieced the ribbons together, then cross-cut the ribbons into squares, then sewed them into strips, alternating the ribbons to get the woven effect.

The new mom had requested “earthy” colors, so I chose greens, browns and blues from my stash of cotton batik precut 2.5″ strips. The back is made from a variety of cotton fabrics I had on hand, then pieced together to make the back large enough to cover the front (and then some). The binding is some blue batik strips I had leftover from another collection of batik strips. The batting is 100% cotton, and thoroughly washable (also great for a new baby). The finished quilt measures about 34″ square.

I chose a (mostly) diagonal quilting pattern to balance all the horizontal and vertical lines. I quilted the whole thing with a variegated blue quilting thread I’ve had for a couple years. So, the entire quilt is 100% cotton. Hope the new parents like it, and the baby gets lots of use out of it!

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