Backed, Batted and Pinned

Day 12: With only two "units" left to make and sew into the "Ring Cycles" quilt, I decided it was time to address one which has been in the queue for some time. I only recently re-discovered it sitting lone and lorn in the bottom of a box of fabrics, still in unjoined blocks, so I sewed them together, made an epic journey to Ben Franklin to get backing, and the parts have been sitting on top of the dryer ever since. Y'see, I have way more Help than I need, so I had to find time when Merry had to be confined in the bathroom so that I could spread it out on the living room floor. The heat pump issue provided the opportunity, what with a repairman coming and going (but not fixing). I stretched the backing fabric, weighting the corners with dictionaries and field guides, then spread the batting out over it and made sure everything was smooth and square. Then I laid the quilt on top of that and set to pinning the layers together. It didn't take as long as I'd expected (I'm using a new type of batting which is more cooperative), and now the "Autumn Quilt" (aka the "Orange Quilt") is ready to go on the frame. Time to get this one done, done, done! Some of the fabrics in it were purchased forty years ago!

Closet Archaeology

Day 319: I pride myself on not having the crafter's usual surfeit of UFOs (UnFinished Objects) other than those currently in progress. However, occasionally something will relocate itself to the back of the queue. There's usually a good reason. Perhaps I needed something which was out of stock or backordered, or maybe I couldn't find exactly the right colour, so I laid the project aside until I had all the necessities in hand. In the case of this quilt, I hadn't figured out how I wanted to finish it. Did I want to join the blocks with "streets and alleys?" If so, did I want to go with another orange, or try to match the yellow? Other quilts came and went...close to a dozen, if the truth be told...and twenty finished blocks of Dresden Plate moved from a quilting box to the trunk in the closet, "trunk-ated" until recently when I was looking for something else and came across them.

This quilt's history goes back a long ways. I started collecting orange fabrics for it over forty years ago. Orange has never been particularly popular with most people and therefore was hard to find other than at Hallowe'en. I wanted to steer clear of the spooky-themed prints (Hallowe'en is not my favourite holiday). Orange prints began surfacing in greater number during the 1990s, and a lot of these fabrics came from that period. Evenutally, I had enough to make my long-awaited orange/autumn quilt. I machine-pieced the "plates" and then appliqued them to brown squares, the usual method of construction for this design. And then...well, I went through some difficult times and the quilt was forgotten.

That said, I am now under a geas to put my UFOs to rest. That's not to say I won't be working on other projects simultaneously, but it's time to get some older ones out of the way. This morning, I sewed together four sets of five Dresden Plates before deciding I'd put in enough time at the sewing machine for one day. I'll zip the remaining seams together tomorrow and then I'll be faced with a new problem, i.e., where to find backing fabric without going to Cult Corner. One thing is certain: the quilting frame is going to get hard use this winter!