My stack of UFOs

I'm the type of quilter that loves piecing, but hates quilting.  This means my stack of UFOs just keeps getting bigger and bigger.  Out of the 10 quilt tops that are laying around, I've got a stack of 8 that I'm determined to - I don't want to say finish so how about - crack, attack, make a stab at.  Here are 4 of them.

New Wave
This one is a "New Wave" quilt from Oh, Fransson!  I went literal and made it from Hawaiian prints I got in Hilo several years ago.  It's a poly blend so it sort of feels icky, which means I lost interest once I got it to this stage.  It's near the top of the stack to get done so I can post it in Oh Fransson!s flicker pool.

Crazy Nine Patch Lattice
The next on is also an Oh, Fransson! pattern too, the Crazy Nine Patch Lattice Quilt.  This one's in the greens that my big half square triangle quilt is done in. 

I sort of regret the light green squares in between the lattice.  I may end up replacing them with a darker colour or maybe a crisp white.  That pale green is a "lost opportunity".  I got that phrase from the "Modern Quilt Workshop" book by Ringle and Kerr.  They use that phrase about choosing your binding.  A safe or boring binding is a lost opportunity to make the quilt spectacular.

Sock Monkey Gallery
This one features some sock monkey print that I really like.   I framed the little fussy-cut monkeys in white, then added a wide floral mat then a blue or gray frame to make this quilt a gallery of finely framed monkeys.  Classy and silly.

VMQG Challenge 1

Challenge 1 from the VMQG
The last one for today is a challenge quilt from the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild.   The guild has been meeting for 2 months now and I volunteered to come up with a challenge for the first meeting.  I had bought other colours of the sock monkey fabric, so I fussy cut 40 monkeys and supplied a strip of white to frame it.

The challenge was to improv piece from your own stash around the monkey fabric to come up with a 12.5 inch wonky block.  We got 28 blocks back at the next monthly meeting with a promise of another 10 for the upcoming meeting.  We laid out all the blocks and tried to figure out how to divide them into sets that would go together.  We sent 12 ones that had a polka dot fabric theme with a guild member to put together.  I took the rest home and put this one together.  Since there was really no rhyme or reason to try to match the blocks, I ended up pulling out the 4 lightest coloured blocks and was left with all the darker ones.  I had used a drop shadow effect on a baby quilt and tried it out again.  I think it works well on the blocks that have a solid colour frame around it (bottom 2 rows), but sort of gets lost on the ones that have busy edges (top 2 rows).

photo by Sonja Callaghan

Once the rest of the blocks come in, I may put some on the back of this one if there's extras.

Here's the blocks and their creators from the August meeting of the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild.  I'm at the back left with two blocks.