Is it # 23 or # 24?

Guess what I found... Yep, it's another UFO - either # 23 or # 24... I just had to open that mysterious container and look inside, didn't I? Well, here it is.

 

 

Last year I won two charm packs of Andover fabrics at retreat. Now, I love Andover, but I hate charm packs. For those of you who may not know, a charm pack is an assortment of 5" squares. At least they are supposed to be 5". Anyone who has ever bought precut squares can tell you that the size seems to be approximate. Most of my squares ranged from 4 3/4" to 5 1/4". This is why I prefer to cut my own fabric. I did not want to take the time to cut down all of the squares to a uniform 4 1/2" (especially since most of them were not actually fabrics that I would have bought), so I decided to just sew them together and get them used. Most of the fabrics looked more masculine than many of the fabrics that I buy, so I figured I would make a men's throw quilt with them. I did not have enough squares, so I bought another charm pack that I thought would blend well and added a few fabrics from my stash.

 



 

I actually rather like the simplicity of this quilt top so far. I decided to sew on some border fabric then add another row of squares before ending with a wide border. And I just so happened to have bought some beautiful, neutral colored fabric at Hancock's just the other day... What good fortune!

 

So here's my lovely, neutral fabric for borders. And a shout out to my lovely assistant Callie for holding down the fabric for me so it didn't escape.

If you look back at the two earlier photos, you'll see that I took these pictures after I added the first border. Unfortunately, once I started sewing on the outer row of blocks, I realised that I needed to have cut the borders 2 3/4" instead of 2 1/2" wide. I won't go into the particulars of my really basic math error; I'll just say that I was thinking of 4 1/2" unfinished squares, not 5". Oh well. I cut some new borders last night before I could change my mind and decide that it isn't worth the bother of trying to fix. That means that tonight I have a date with a seam ripper. It's a good thing that it's too early in the semester for me to have papers to grade yet. : )

I'll let you know how it goes...
Debbi