SheriR

Here is the UFO I'm finishing up this month. I made the top two years ago when my sister came to visit. We each got two charm packs and a yard of our favorite coordinating fabric. Then she took mine and I kept hers and we were to make each others quilt and have it finished by mom's next birthday. (She had passed suddenly the summer before my sisters visit.) I found the pattern I wanted to make sis and traced it out. This was my first REAL quilt and I had no idea the pattern was a "tumbler". And because I'm weird I can't stick to rules and bought a few more charm packs and the floral print. Sis had picked the yellow. I cut and sewed and put together the design I'd come up with, which you see below. My plan was to quilt it myself on the new sewing machine sis had helped me pick out, that mom paid for, thanks mom <3.

Well you see it turned out HUGE. What was suppose to be a snugly lap quilt ended up 105" x 110". It took me a week to pin the sandwiched quilt together. My other sister had told me I needed to pin it every 3" at least. So 1000's of pins later..... Then reality hit. How was I, a newbie quilter, going to quilt such a beast. I couldn't comprehend it and was advised to send it to a real quilter. I could easily have done that. BUT....that would have taken away from the whole memory point my sister and I shared. So, this bright beast sat bagged for two years. Sometimes I stole pins off it for other projects.

This UFO group has forced me to battle sis's quilt. I've been thinking about it for weeks and decided I had three choices. 1- remove the pins and send it out for quilting. 2- cut it down to a manageable lap size. 3- put on my big girl panties, go with my original quilting plan, and make the beast work! (Thanks Fraew for the encouragement. LoL) she practically forbid me to cut it up.

Wow sorry for the long story. I started tackling it yesterday. I did the simple design you see in the outer yellow border. Next I did the wavy stitch in the ditches on both sides of that. I really don't know what I'm doing. I taught my daughters to start in the middle and work to the outside. But this is nothing I've done before and I'm just trying to make it work! I started doing the wavy stitchintheditch on every long seam. After I finish those I'll maybe have an idea for each long section. Tomorrow I'm actually taking a free motion class at the store where sis and I bought my machine. Maybe they'll teach this ol dog some great tricks and I won't totally ruin my sisters "Happy Birthday Mom" quilt. Whatever happens at the class, I will finish this and have it mailed by moms bday on the 21st.

The pics are 1- the bright beast, 2- quilting I've done so far, 3- an example of the pinning I did.