No Longer A UFO!

I have avoided the accumulation of UFO's (UnFinished Objects) since I accepted the fact that staying home is the best way for me to stay able-bodied. It's much easier to start and stay with a project when you don't have the distractions of work or other outside commitments. So there was a bit of psychic discomfort over the fact that I started and then stalled on a quilt for almost two years.

It all began with this darling panel:

When I first started working with it I added flying geese across the top and bottom.

Then I made sawtooth stars with fussy cut centers to frame the panel.

It was after I'd sewn these stars together and to the panel that I truly got stuck. The flimsy hung in the closet for nearly a year. When I  brought it out again last summer I decided to make Bear Paw units to create another framing border. I chose a whimsical print that was just waiting for the right project to come along. I used fussy cut images from that print for the pads of the bear's paws...

But of course there weren't enough to go all the way around the quilt top. I was also concerned about sufficient contrast between the block and the background. So the paws and the flimsy were put away again.

I needed some fairly mindless work to keep me distracted from headaches earlier this week. I decided to just make more Bear Paw units out of the overall print I'd used for the claws in the fussy cut blocks. I also used a quieter background for the new paws. At the end of day one I finally had enough to go all the way around the flimsy. The next day I arranged the paws down the sides of the quilt, using more of that black Moda marble as sashing. Things were looking better by this time.

Yesterday I created the top and bottom borders out of the remaining bear's paws. That's when I also decided to frame the whole thing with a narrow border of the print I'd used between the stars and the paws at the top and bottom. There was just enough of that old print to do the job. 😀

Tadaa!

I was really worried about this project at various points during construction. Now I'm very happy with the way it turned out. It's officially a twin size top, so larger than I've been accustomed to making of late. I haven't yet chosen a backing fabric for it. I suspect this will be custom quilted rather than the usual meander or overall quilting my quilts generally get. James will have a chance to flex his creative quilting muscles for a change!