UFO Sightings, Volume 4!

Hi Quilting Friends,

We’ almost at the end of 2019! I’ve enjoyed taking the time to finish several of my UFO’s this year, and so here are the photos of my UFO finishes (with a link to each post, if you click the photos) for the first three quarters. I’ve also finished up a significant stack of shop samples, but I’m not counting them here since those projects were all started & finished within less than a year.

First Quarter, Project #1

Second Quarter, Project #2

Third Quarter, Project #3

Fourth Quarter, Project #4

The long-awaited stained glass dragonfly wall hanging!

I probably bought the pattern and some of the fabric for this wall hanging at the Houston International Quilt Festival, more years ago than I want to remember. The pattern is called “Dragon Fly” by Lovenest Designs, with the copyright dated 1999, so I’m pretty sure that everything has aged enough to be ready to sew. I’ve taken the pattern & fabrics out of the stack of unfinished projects many times, thinking that I might finish it up, but I didn’t do anything until I challenged myself to finish at least one UFO per quarter this year.

I recently purchased fabric for the background, a beautiful light tan Northcott Toscana, and the leaves, Moda Grunge in shades of olive green with a hint of plum, and the dragonfly bodies, a sparkly dark gold fabric.

I started out by tracing the design onto my background fabric with a pencil, and then tracing the colored “glass” fabric pieces (reversed) onto fusible webbing. The “glass” pieces were then fused into their places on the background fabric. Next it was time to add the “leading” around the “glass” pieces”, using fusible bias tape. Sections of the “leading” were applied to the quilt top, and then stitched down using a double needle. I wasn’t able to find any really narrow black bias to use around the dragonfly bodies, so I improvised, using a frame made with black cotton fabric that I appliqued around the edges of the body pieces with a blanket stitch.

And here it is! I love it, and my finished quilt now decorates the wall in our master bathroom where I can enjoy it every morning as I prepare for the day ahead. The colors are so peaceful!

Thanks for joining me today!  Do you have a UFO that you’d like to finish?  I’d love to hear all about it, so leave a comment here.

Happy quilting,

Sharon