For the year 2022 I have promised myself to finish off all those UFO projects in the ’roundtoit’ box! The best way to achieve this will be to alternate new projects with UFO’s. Let’s see how I get on.
When my sister and I visited the Caribbean in 2018 we took with us some hand sewing patchwork blocks to work on whilst the Cruise Ship travelled from one island to another.
I completed the quilt once we were home but that left some half-a-dozen ‘orphan’ blocks that I put away and promptly forgot all about!
I rediscovered the blocks around the 14th January and found that some had already been put together in ‘quilt sandwiches’. Around 3 or 4 had been quilted but the remainder were just the plain blocks. I added some 80/20 polyester/cotton wadding and calico backing before spending a few hours quilting in the same designs.
I put 9 blocks together using the method of butting the blocks and then joining with strips of sashing cut to 1¼ inches wide. As the backing calico sheets were not all the same and the reverse of the quilting left a little to be desired, I covered that with a large rectangle of Taupe/white check fabric that was a remnant from a polyester cotton duvet cover used for a dressmaking project. I used the same fabric as the sashing to make a binding for the quilt. The finished size is 24½ inches square. Then I added a sleeve and is now a colourful wall hanging for our cloakroom.
I still had 4 ‘bird’ blocks left and these were combined to make the front of a cushion cover. I used echo quilting on the plain sections so that the ‘birds’ were more pronounced. The 6mm thick piping is covered with bias cut check fabric (the same as the backing for the wall hanging). Backing of the cushion cover is plain calico with a lapped zip inserted for the closure. The cover is approximately 16 inches square and filled with a feather pad that I have re-purposed.
Conclusion: I am very pleased with the end results and have been inspired to make more blocks with the Drunkards Path dies using my Sissix machine. Watch this space for the next patchwork project that has already been named ‘Chaos’!
Project #5 completed 17th January 2022