One of my latest addictions (last couple years)- I like to find other people’s antique UFO’s (unfinished objects)a new home.   I must be nuts because – YES, I have plenty of my own UFO’s – LOL. The antique UFO’s  include

• Machine quilting a finished patchwork top (have a bunch of these, did I tell you I never find time to quilt my own tops – LOL)
• Re-arranging an antique top to make it easier to find it a new home (this type of puzzle is one of my favorites)
• putting antique orphan blocks I’ve collected together to make a quilt using both reproduction and modern fabrics

So, although it’s not quilted this is my latest, re-arrangement of an antique top. I decided this antique top was meant to come home with me upon discovering the center star fabric matched a feed sack (http://www.rickrack.com/feedsack.html – 1920s fabric) that was already in my stash (what were the chances???).  And, as you can plainly see, the scraps used to create the Lone Star are – “beautiful” in their arrangement, well – I like it!!

What wasn’t quite as pleasing was the stiff printed (not woven) red & white gingham border and the white sheeting background. Bringing this home created an excuse for a family quilt trip (YEAH!!!) – my Mom, Sister (Jackie), Aunt Wendy and I traipsed off to A Notion to Quilt (now closed – boo hoo, miss you Becki) on a quest for background replacement fabric.  We tried about every solid they had, and although red is one of my favorite colors it was furthest from my mind.  In fact, Jackie was the one who, after eight other colors brought the red to audition.

We all think the quilt top looks much happier now. I’ll quilt it up soon and try to find it a good home.  What’s good about this project – I remembered to take before and after pics, what’s bad – I really think it’s amazing now and I’ll miss it when it leaves 🙁   Keep an eye out for a photo of it quilted – hopefully soon.

MACHINE QUILTING TIP – please don’t use sheets in your quilts unless you are tying them, sheet thread counts are so different from regular cotton fabrics it creates machine quilting tension nightmares  = lots of thread breaks.  They are also very hard on the fingers of hand quilters.