Winging It

Quilt projects and planning are inseparable to me--draw it out on graph paper, write down the measurements, determine the number of pieces to cut, etc.  This project, however, was pretty much on the fly, so there was no knowing from the beginning how it would turn out in the end.

At my quilt group, we have a large tub of quilt beginnings that people have donated that were never completed.  Sometimes they consist of a few blocks, but sometimes it is just cut pieces.  UFO's, we call them (Unfinished Objects), and our goal is to turn them into quilts. 

One of my ladies (W) put together a few nine patches from some cut pieces, but there were not nearly enough for a whole quilt.  She came to me for ideas on what to do with them. She and I pulled together some fabrics, and I asked her if she was willing to wing it on this project, and she said to just tell her what to do.  

We started with the five green and white nine patches and created a large nine patch with the pink fabric.  After that we kept adding borders until it was large enough to be a little throw quilt.  Bright, happy, wild are some of my adjectives to describe it, but it turned out all right.  And W was a great sport in taking on the adventure.  

So here is Winging It...

 I did a double circle loop meander in the nine patches--a new favorite design.

Swirly flowers and leaves in the purple border.  I have since used this design again.  It is fun and pretty.

This design, a Dahlia type flower, was one I had seen and wanted to try. It is in the pink squares of the large nine patch, but the thread match is so close that I had trouble seeing it as I quilted it, so here it is from the back.  It turned out to be more challenging than I expected and really too dense for our Tuesday quilts.  Once I start, though, that is what I go with.  No ripping out unless the design is a complete mess. 

I added leaves and a looser version of the Dahlias in the outer border so it would go faster.

A little swirl and leaf in the dark green border (again from the back).

A little three leaf ivy in the light green border (from the back).  I did more double circle meandering in the outer nine patches, and that finished it out.  

Three cheers to a cheerful quilt.