Unfinished Quilt Stories
 

I went through my boxes of unquilted tops the other day and counted them up. I was pleased to find I had less than 20 (ok, 19 but who is counting) and that doesn't count work in progress so the numbers will be going up soon.. Took pictures of all, and had various thoughts. Most of them haven't been quilted yet because I just haven't gotten to them. For the last couple of years I've been able to use a friend's long arm but that access isn't what it once was so I'm looking at ways to get more things quilted.

A lot of time I'm just quilting because it's what I do, but some of these unfinished tops have unfinished stories so I'll share them here. Please join in with your own stories if you wish.

Unfinished Quilt Story 1 -- Delectable Mountains/John's Quilt

I started this top for my Hubby's dad. He didn't know what to think about his son up and leaving his whole life to marry some woman from the internet, but we were able to meet and he was sure that I loved my hubby and would take good care of him, even if I was taking him from "home".

John had a good life, part of that was taking care of his aged father from ages 70-96+, one thing he learned from that was he didn't want any extreme measures. When confronted with some basic health issues (diabetes, heart, etc.) that could be controlled by medication he opted not to treat, and he died within about 2 years from the doctor's warning in his mid-60s, he thought he'd have a couple more but we didn't.

I don't know when/if I will finish this top. I want to do sort of a swirling wind design in the background but don't really know how to achieve what I want, and then a radiating spiral out of the stars. When I took the corner shot, I couldn't find the backing fabric (which I later did but that box was already packed) so I shot the binding on a pillow since I felt the kraft paper was too close to the background.

Unfinished Quilt Story 2: Tennessee Waltz/Jerry Springer Wedding Quilt

This combination of the Snowball and 54-40 or Fight was made popular in Judy Martin's book Scrap Quilts which really changed my quilting life -- even though this is a "planned" and not scrap variation.

Dear hubby asked me to make him a quilt for his niece who was getting married. She's actually the daughter of his best friend but niece is closer in many ways. Hubby moved away from Michigan to be with me in Seattle and hadn't seen her at that point in about 5+ years, really didn't know anything about her other than when she was a little girl and knew nothing about the husband-to-be so couldn't tell me anything about the couple. It wasn't a lot of notice on the wedding, about six months. I didn't have any projects going on and while I really don't like making a quilt for someone I don't know and I didn't have anything I wanted to do, I love my hubby so I said yes.

Went to the LQS for inspiration, and was taken by the background fabric. My design changed, went back to get more fabric (two days later) but it was gone, of course! But I did find another piece from the same line in a lighter colorway that I pieced into the border. You can see it if you look for it but I'm not going to point it out. I'm not really happy with the blue I chose, it needs to be a little bit stronger.

I paper pieced the star points so they'd be nice and crisp. While I say I'm not good at paper piecing, I can do this sort of thing especially after all this practice! It's the tiny little pictorial stuff I have problems with. I got the quilt top finished, it was about a month before the wedding and I was pleased. And then the phone call came...

The wedding was called off. Bride and groom had a huge fight. We have only gotten bits and pieces but over the years we have now heard multiple sides of the story and pieced it together like an episode of the Jerry Springer show. So this is how I understand it: Bride-to-be accuses wild older sister of sleeping with the groom. Older sister had dated groom-to-be but he was not the baby daddy of either of her kids and she didn't want him. Groom was dating younger sister just to get back at older sister and it sort of got out of control and he never really asked her to marry him, she just started planning the wedding.

I will eventually finish this quilt. I'm not sure how I'm going to quilt it, I'll probably have a reason to finish it off in a hurry and just do some sort of all over edge to edge design. Maybe heavy stippling or pebbles in the white? Dunno. Designing the quilting is the Achilles heal of my process.

thanks for sharing, they look great

Unfinished Quilt Story 3: Roman Stripe/Cousin Michelle

This quilt is pretty much a direct lift from a traditional one shown in the Pellman's book The World of Amish Quilts. I really like working with solids, always have even before my vision issues got more pronounced. I've done a number of "almost Amish" projects over the years. I also like working with dark backgrounds instead of light.

My cousin once told me that I should make more quilts in purple. Oh, I replied, is that so I could give them to you? And she shot me the big grin and the "you got it!". She has an artistic flair and does crafts herself but is more modern than dainty floral. I do love wild backs and she will appreciate the op-art flair of it.

The background color is Kona Midnight Purple. It's funny how colors react to each other but every set of stripes has at least one purple in it.

I fully intend to finish this quilt -- it nags at me constantly. I had saved it to get my skill up high enough to do what I want. I've designed a nice triangular scroll with hearts and loops and such that will be done in each half of the triangle.

I want to do a cable in the border, have a bunch of stuff ready to figure out how to fit the design in perfectly.

Right now unfinished top 20 is in process... it's another purple quilt and I'll post pictures in a week or so. A very different approach and color set made from 42 different purples in the blocks with a 43rd as a border, and about 16 different white on whites. Most of the time, even when working with solids, I'm working with scraps!

I may have to borrow this idea for my donation quilts. looks great

Forty three different purples! I can't wait to see that quilt.

Great stories... albeit sad. Can't imagine not treating diabetes! For the two quilts with sad stories, I would finish them up and donate them to a good charity, making good come from sad.

Thank you for sharing. Your quilts are beautiful but it's the stories that make each one over-the-top awesome. You've inspired me to take a second look at my unfinished quilted projects . . . and maybe even finish a few.

Roman Stripe - I started that same quilt, from the same book, in the same colors, for my son's first twin bed. He is now 43 and I still need to finish handquilting the border. Not a twin bed in the house! Will probably go to charity when finished (if I get it done in my lifetime!).