Working on an Un-Finished Object #5 today!

My Quilting and Sewing Arts Studio 

My Fabric Closet

Here I am in my quilting and sewing arts studio today working on my UFO #5 today.  It's a child's quilt for our Bright Star Quilts for kid's project for my quilt guild.  I had started this quilt top a few years ago when I lived in Tennessee, it was packed away with other unfinished quilts when I moved here to Virginia 2 1/2 yrs. ago.  I just opened the box 2 weeks ago and boy what a delight to find.  I looked in my Fabric Closet and found material that matched some of the blocks, so I pieced them together for the backing and used batting given to me by the guild.  Oh my, I am so glad to be finishing this quilt and to have it go to kids in need is perfect.  

Perfect, because it was started for my quilting group in Tennessee called Bags of Love.  We made quilts for children separated from their parents, so they had something of their own during a stressful time for them. 

pinning the quilt 

The Backing

Here I'm sewing a decorative
stitch over the seam line of the backing to give it strength.  I then pinned a "quilt sandwich" together consisting of the sewn quilt top, batting and the backing. this is getting it ready to be quilted on my Sit down longarm.  Then I outlined each block with stitching before the final Quilting.  I use my ruler to help do the straight stitching around my blocks.   

Quilting Wavy lines to finish the Quilt.

Using a ruler while quilting the straight seams is helpful to get better lines.  I'm finishing the quilting with free motion quilting of wavy lines to give it dimension.  After completing this part of the quilt, I will square it and then apply the binding and a label.  

My Quilted Irish Scarf A New Mini Quilt

My Quilted Irish Scarf A New Mini Quilt Wall Hanging

The Irish Scarf Mini-Quilt Wall Hanging
on the Living Room Wall.

The Scarf hanging from its special Branch

In 2008 four friends and I traveled to Ireland for a two-week vacation.  We had so much fun and bought back many treasures.  One of these treasures was this scarf pictured above.  This scarf was beautiful and I loved wearing it to work or out and about.  In recent years (since retirement) I have not worn this scarf very much. Its beauty was hidden in the folds of it and only the end corners were seen so it took up residence in my scarf drawer.  

It is now 2021 and I have been retired since 2010, I am now living with my daughter and son-in-law in Virginia and really love it here.  A month ago I decided to reorganize my scarf drawer and came across my Irish scarf.  Inspiration hit me!  My son-in-laws Birthday was coming up in early March and I wanted to give him a present and thought about his Irish Heritage. I took the scarf out of its retirement, (in my dresser scarf drawer) and thought it would make a nice wall hanging for his reading area.  I love to quilt and had been watching YouTube videos from Helen Godden a quilter known for her "free-motion Quilted" wall art using painted fabric and silk scarves; (FMQ for short.) I had purchased a sit-down Long Arm from Bernina last Feb, this would be an opportunity to play, and play I did. 

I did FMQ on the scarf 

This is my Bernina Q20

I enjoyed quilting this scarf.

I had my son-in-law search for a branch I could to hang the quilt from... He chose a very fun branch full of Mushrooms growing along the branch.  Perfect! I sealed it with modgePoge and it looked wonderful 

The Irish Scarf Wall Hanging on the special branch

He had decided to Place the wall hanging in the Livingroom area - Now I can enjoy seeing the scarf in its entirety.  This was a fun quilting project for me.