UFOs from Others

I have been practicing quilting for the last two days....trying to make my hands re-learn how to free-motion machine quilt, working hard to get around the fact that I can't feel my fingertips and thus have less control over what I quilt.

Hopefully, I will be able to get the KenQuilt 622 set up soon.  I have to move a ton of stuff so that we can tear off paneling so that my husband can access the wiring to re-wire it so I can have the sewing side of the basement lighted independently of the other side....and so that he can put a new light fixture in the ceiling and put an outlet in the ceiling to plug the machine into.

In the mean time, I have been watching eBay to pick up some other people's UFOs to practice on.  This one intrigued me.  In the eBay shot, it didn't look this pink.  This is an interesting, if rather unsuccessful quilt, for  a couple of reasons.  The quilter chose red and blue bandanna prints to mix with solids to make this Ohio Star.  It was set without sashing so that one piece bleeds into the other. Because the bandanna prints have large areas of lighter print mixed in with darker, the star doesn't hold its edges well.  The white is set in the center and on all four corner.  I'm not much of a one for pink and red together.

This is a huge quilt, almost king size.  This is the best I could do to show you what it looks like, hung over the  Bannister of the second floor landing.

Although the seller sold it "new, without any problems," this was not the case.  The quilter wasn't careful to make sure she had adequate seam allowances.  My guess is that she didn't pin anything or really watch what she was doing.  I have several areas which I am going to have to re-sew.  In reality, I should rip out the row and re-sew it...but I won't, I will just go back in and close up the hole with the appropriate seam allowance which will probably mean that there will be a pucker.  Since this isn't a good design to begin with, I don't mind.  Once I finish it, I'll probably donate it to a shelter, or to the Red Cross to give to family's who have suffered a fire.  But the best part is that it will give me a chance to practice and whatever comes of it will be fine.

This piece probably dates to the mid-1970s.