Lesson learned from UFO's

MAKE NOTES!

That is the lesson. I stopped quilting the pineapple quilt months ago because my old machine's tension and stitch length were all over the place but I didn't make any notes for myself.

The first thing is I often lightly and sometimes more heavily spray starch the backing and top if I am going to machine quilt. I just was so excited to jump back into basting that I didn't even stop to think if those steps had been taken. As I was quilting the first panel I realized no... I could tell by the stretching of my backing that it was not starched enough. Then I had to decide...do I take it apart and re-baste? 

Nope! This quilt is for my bed. It will be used and jumped on and abused and regardless if things are a bit wavy here or there or stretched out a bit that is OK. I am still going to love it. It was never meant to be a masterpiece. 

Then I got the first panels all put together and the strip on the back hiding the seam sewn down, flipped it over and realized the quilting doesn't look the same in the centers where the blocks meet. That was another note I should have made. Obviously looking at it I decided to add one more line of quilting in the corners of each block and only managed to do a few of the blocks that way. 

I will have to go back and add a few short quilting lines after I give those seams a good pressing.

The quilt is close to getting finished and I can't wait to sleep under it!

Then I started thinking about the next UFO. I had pieced together a bunch of tumbler blocks from my favorite Aunt Sharon and I had a vision. Make them into a strippy quilt. Well time has changed my mind quite accidentally. I was laying a few strips out on the floor to look at them and measure them to get a sense of size. 

I thought, I like that. So plan B was born- I took 5 tumblers off the end of each strip. That will give me 2 more rows of tumblers. Sew them together as is lining up centers and add wide borders to top and bottom only to make a nice lap size/ napping quilt. 

That will be the next UFO I tackle. I want to piece the top but the actual quilting will wait until after Christmas. I have a couple small projects that will take up my time. 

I wonder how many people make notes if they put a project away for a while? 

Happy Stitching!