UFO busted! 13 Gags at 11

"13 Gags at 11"
50x60 in
Marissa's first quilt, pieced summer 2011
and quilted summer 2013 in Niceville, Florida
Minky/cotton front, minky back, poly batt

I think it's a cute, snuggly quilt with nice colors. Marissa, 13,  crinkles her nose all up because it's totally unappealing to her now.  Nevertheless, she seemed happy to have finished her very first quilt and sees it as a fun memento of what her tastes were when she was 11.

Two summers ago, when she pieced the top, she thought the fabrics were awesome - So awesome, she wouldn't let me sway her from sewing her first quilt with minky as one of the checkerboard fabrics.

She giggled at one point after finishing a row and waiting for me to finish helping her advance the quilt on the farme: "What I like about this quilt is that it even looks like a little kid made the flowers."  This is her favorite "little-kid-looking flower."


I love this heart. Nope, it wasn't on purpose.  :)
















I like the binding she chose from my stash










I've talked about the minky being an inferior quality - not fun to work with, and disappointing in feel after working with high-quality minky. You can read about that and see her at the frame at the previous post.


Still, it's a cozy quilt and would be fabulous to cuddle under at the tv - in Colorado, maybe! In Florida, it's a bit much. Maybe it will be happiness in January for a couple of weeks.  ;D

My WIP 19 - Marissa at the Frame :D

I am still super excited for yesterday’s finish (Sailing with the Flying Needles)!!

At this moment, the top WIP is Marissa’s Minky Checkerboard. 

She actually sewed this top two summers ago, and this summer when we took it off the hanging rack to get it quilted, she grimaced. “Why did I choose *those* fabrics??”  She didn’t want to quilt it - really doesn't like the colors. But she agreed that it would be fun to look back at what she liked when she was younger and see how much things had changed. And I wanted that idle quilt frame and short arm to FINALLY actually start working (long dorky story of why it’s not been in use, we’re not going to say how long it has sat there), and this was the perfect jump-start flimsy. 

Only it’s not so flimsy!  Minky alternates with quilting cotton on the front, and the back is minky.  But this is not “real” minky – it is the cheaper stuff you find on sale at JoAnn’s. Coarser fibers makes for a slightly stiffer, bulkier feel than what I now call Real Minky.  And the seams are very, very bulky at the corners. Not nice to needles!  lol

So, this quilt has issues. It looks like you’d expect when an 11yo stubbornly refuses to let Mom talk her out of using minky for her first piecing project. But as a 13yo she readily grasped the concept of having a finished first crazy-made quilt to chuckle over later in life. We’ve been able to tame a fair bit of the slack areas down as we go along, but there are still bulgy parts. Live and learn. Sometimes it really is good to listen to Mom. Other times, you just love it so much that it doesn’t matter if it’s not perfect.  :D

And, by the way: This is how you eat pretzels during the summer!

~*~*~*~

A big "Thank you!" to Lee at Freshly Pieced for hosting WIP Wednesdays 

It really keeps me motivated to keep those UFOs going! (Go check out what everyone else is doing - there are some really neat projects out there!)

Also, Check out my BOMs AWAY Mondays regular link-up.  

This week's stats:

New Projects – (Burnin’ Up the Slopes in design mode)    

Completed Projects This Week -  2   (Around the World Heather, Sailing with the Flying Needles)

In Active Progress - 2    (Devon’s Owls, Marissa’s Minky Checkerboard)

UFO Firing Range - 33.333          

Finishes for 2011 - 22  

Completed tops awaiting quilting:

Marissa's Minky Checkerboard (in progress)

One charity wheelchair quilt

Center of Marissa’s Moment of Freakishness

Marissa’s Moment Pillowcase panel

Dreamy Unicorns

Wagon Wheels West #2

Be Attitudes

We Love Kelly

Devon's Silk Spinners

Kelly's Thirties Hand Quilter

Kelly's Calico

Poor Forgotten Orphan from 15 Years Ago