Quarantine UFO Series #5, Vintage Modern Quilt

Vintage Modern Quilt

 

This quilt… so beautiful… so frustrating… so glad it’s finished.

 

The short story for this is that I love doing my own quilting but I don’t really have the right machine for it. I love following stencil patterns and creating flowing meanders across individual blocks and borders. Don’t get me wrong, my machine is pretty good. But over the years, it has given me trouble and its age has shown. That’s how this quilt got hung up on the UFO shelf for so long.

 

It started in May of 2014 when I found a beautiful jellyroll of Vintage Modern fabrics from Moda. I first blogged about it here, and explained my ideas and inspiration. I was so excited! You know those moments when you have a brainstorm idea and you can’t wait to get to it and see it to completion? I got to work and was doing great, but hit a wall when I ran out of grey fabric for the base of half my blocks. It took me some time but I found more grey and finished the stars! Yeah! I blogged about completing them and preparing to complete theproject here. That’s when I hit a new wall.

 

This quilt is a twin size, which for my little machine and cramped quarters, is quite a beast. I quilted a few blocks and was so disappointed and frustrated with the quality that I decided I’d rather put it away and wait for the right machine to complete it than to continue ruining the top with the quilting. Into the closet it went. Since then, it has been shuffled around and moved about and pulled out of the way of other items that we’ve needed over the years. But there it continued to wait for the “right time”.

 

After completing a couple of UFOs and feeling more confident about finishing projects, I decided it was time to finish that quilt. Nothing has changed. I still have the same machine in the same cramped quarters. I still find it awkward and difficult to accomplish what I envisioned it being. At the end of the day though, I really love this quilt and I wanted it finished so I can enjoy it.

 

I got back to work with the same stencils, the same efforts, and with each block, I felt more and more confident with the process. By the time it was all done, I was actually pretty happy with how it turned out. I am glad I pushed myself to make it happen and get it done.

 

I finished the binding by hand and added a 2020 label. I may have started in 2014, but I finished it in 2020. I washed the quilt in the gentle cycle to get the last of the stencil markings off, and to my surprise, they didn’t come off. What’s going on? I pulled it out of the washer and got a soft toothbrush to try and rub the stencil off.  Nope, still not working. I tried ironing it off, nope. I washed it again and hoped that it would be good enough. I’m a little bummed that I finally finished this project, and I couldn’t get the chalk out. The blocks that had marker on them came out no problem. Such a disappointment. Oh well, fortunately it matched the rest of the quilt well enough that it’s hard to notice. Maybe it will fade in time or wash out next time. Either way, I have finished this project... finally! I love it and am so happy with the design.