I love a good blog hop and hops sponsored by Carol of Just Let Me Quilt is no exception. At the bottom of this post are the other bloggers, be sure to visit when you get a chance. I am sure that Born to Be Wild is will generate some awesome projects. Before I show you the one I specifically did for today, I have a few old ones that I would like to share. I expect there will be a lot of quilters humming “born to be wild” all week long!
Drum roll…before we continue I do want you to know that s there is a giveaway (a group of coordinated fat quarters), so be sure to scroll to the bottom and do as I ask to be entered.
Songs often come into our minds when we make quilts. “Wild thing, you make my heart sing” is one that entered my mind when making this quilt. It was from a adored this fabric line, from Island Batik, and this was a project I did when I was an ambassador. It was a double sided log cabin and you can read about the quilt here and a tutorial of sorts on the technique here.
Another favorite project in this category was made from some larger pieces from this line. I called the quilt “Wild Baby” as we all know those babies that have a wild streak in them. You can read about it here.
Today’s project is called a “John’s Wild Things”. It was begun probably in 2000 as a hand piecing project with my son, John, who enjoyed some quilting for a short while. I am not sure why we stopped working on it, but we did. I guess my mother’s dream was we would get back to it, but we never did. So, this was a perfect opportunity to finish it.
The idea was simple. We would sew triangles on the brown squares and turn it into stars. I precut a bunch of the black and brown and the squares. The lines were drawn and all we had to do was sew. In the bag there were 4 completed blocks.
From what was there, I think I knew that it was not going to be a big project, although if it took off I had a lot more brown squares available if it did grow. As I got ready to make the remainder of the square in a square blocks, I realized I had no more of that black. So, the project size was determined.
Because the feature fabrics touched the outside, it was hard to pick a border (with the fabrics on hand), but this orange and some greens worked pretty well. I decided to keep it as a sweet, small quilt and only added one border and the binding.
For the quilting I used frogs – it seemed perfect that there might be other wild things needed to romp across the quilt. You can find the design “Ribbit” for free on the Urban Elements website, it is part of the HandiQuilter Library.
The binding was a favorite fabric that I saved for a long time (and I still have a little left). I don’t know where this quilt will wind up, but for now it will stay with me. Call me sentimental, it’s okay.
John’s Wild Things
Begun in 2000 with hand piece by John McCormick
Finished in 2021 with machine piecing and quilting
30″ x 36″
Pantograph: Ribbit
Batting: Hobbs Poly Down
May 17th
Creatin’ in the Sticks | Vroomans Quilts | Homespun Hannah’s Blog |
Scrapdash | Kathleen McMusing | Just Sew Quilter |
Just Because Quilts
May 18th
MooseStashQuilting | Selina Quilts |For The Love Of Geese |
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs | Quilt Schmilt | Life in the Scrapatch |
Sewing Up My Fabric
May 19th
Ms P Designs USA | Patchouli Moon Studio | Beaquilter |
Hill Valley Quilter |Quilted Delights |Stitchin At Home |
Sew Many Yarns
May 20th
Samelia’s Mum |Inflorescence |
Becky’s Adventures in Quilting and Travel |That Fabric Feeling |
Words & Stitches |Websterquilt | That Fabric Feeling
May 21st
Just Let Me Quilt |Days Filled With Joy |Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting |
Quilting Gail |Lianne Makes Stuff | Quilt Fabrication | Food for Thought
In the comments below, please tell me how old your oldest UFO is and will you finish it? If you have none, tell me your favorite project in the hop. The giveaway open until Sunday the 23rd at midnight.
Coming Up on the Blog:
Tips and Tutorials on the 22nd! – 5/22
TGIFF – 5/27
12″ House Block/s
International Sisters #2
Follow Your Own Path QAL
Linking up:
Free Motion Mavericks
Midweek Makers
Finished or Not Friday/TGIFF
My oldest UFO is from 2002. It is halfway hand quilted and I’m considering making it a jacket.
What a special quilt “John’s Quilt” is. Filled with memories and love. You have some very cool wild life quilts, and they all speak to my heart!
My oldest UFO is from 1978! I started to learn to quilt by hand piecing a Grandmothers Flower Garden – why???- cause that’s what Mom suggested. I still have the cut out
pieces and every so often take my little kit out just to enjoy the memories of Mom and me.
Oh my goodness! My oldest UFO is from either 1989 or 1990, still not finished. It is on my list to finish, maybe this year. It needs more quilting and a binding. The most amazing part is that I still have the fabric set aside for the binding, LOL.
I think my oldest project is at least 25 years old. I have 2. Both were BOM from a company called Ben Franklin Crafts. Yay for your finish, and love how it turned out.
Great projects! I know how it is to finish up an old UFO, I have several of those and when one gets off the list it feels so good. My oldest UFO is from 1999, about a year after I started quilting. It is a Yellow Bordered 4 patch quilt, as in each 4 patch is bordered with yellow. I was buying my fabric from Walmart at the time and they always had this one yellow print I used and then they just didn’t have it anymore. I tried to find it online, but people offered ridiculously high prices for it. In my stubbornness to only use that one yellow and not pay more than $20 a yard for it, it became a UFO. I think it’s about time to mix up my yellows and get this one finished! 🙂
Well, Kathleen, since you asked so nicely, let me tell you that I have no UFOs. I do have some audition blocks, orphan blocks, leftover blocks and so on. Once they reach a critical mass, I will make an Improv Quilt like Pandora’s Box. As to when, lets’ see, after the Positivity QAL is over, I will reassess my block situation. Trust me, I will keep you posted 😀
I probably only have a year old UFO, when working with Michael Miller fabrics last year I got some Christmas gnome fabrics way too late, so I’m slowly working on that project. It’s EPP and is a good portable project but I just haven’t felt motivated lately, maybe in the fall?
My oldest UFO’s are from the 80’s! And I fully intend to finish them! Thanks for the inspiration! Beth
This is great Kathleen! I love the sweet memories of special times contained within it. That frog design is a great one too. My oldest UFO is probably 20+ years old egad, a stack n whack and although I think of it from time to time tbh I am not sure I will finish it.
Hi Kathleen. Love your quilt and the memories tied up in it. I will confess to having parts of a UFO from 2007. It was my first quilt ever and started at a quilt retreat. Barkerville Spools was made from 3” pieced spools (hundreds of them ). I never did make the quilt after finishing the spools. . Instead I have used some of them for spool borders in other quilts. I checked and there is still over 200 of these lovely spools so perhaps I should finish them up to at least flimsy stage and see what else I can do to make it mine
What a relief that must have been to finish after all this time. Beautiful finsh.
So cute!! love all the animal prints!
I would likely NEVER give that quilt away, if I were you, Kathleen!! Nice job on finishing up that UFO for the Hop. My oldest UFO? The oldest that I can recall off the top of my head is 22 years old. I will finish it… Eventually!! Thanks for offering a chance to win a prize.
Very cool quilt and perfect for this hop! xx
Love, love, love the frog quilting! So fun, and a great choice for an animal/wild themed quilt!
Hello Kathleen,
Congratulations on getting such an old UFO finished. What lovely memories you must have of stitching with your son. My son would have been a disaster with a needle, so I’m really impressed that you had a project going with yours.
Wild Thing, The Troggs, 1966. They were from Hampshire. Remember it well. Showing my age.
Thank you for linking up with Free Motion Mavericks!
Love, Muv