Welcome to another edition of Wonderful Wednesday here at The Joyful Quilter!! I'm back with yet another completed UFO from my Fall 2025 UFO Club list. It's my FOURTH for the Fall 2025 UFO Club and it feels SEW good!
This project began in the Spring of this year. Well, sort of...
Maggie issued the 2025 Chubby Stash Challenge back in January, but I didn't get started right away. Since we were given just shy of a fat quarter to work with, I wanted to make sure that I had enough fabric for the design I chose. The fabric was this gorgeous batik:
The Birthstone prompt during Project QUILTING Season 16.4 gave me my first prototype. It was inspired by the Pecking Order quilt. The original pattern can be found HERE:
It was a fun pattern, but I thought I might like to make something else for my entry. About that time, I saw a selection of block layouts for Bonnie Hunter's County Clare Leader/Ender Challenge from 2024. (I saved the blog post in a tab, but my computer crashed and ate all the open tabs. My apologies the its author for the lack of credit.) One in particular caught my attention. Of course, Bonnie's blocks wouldn't make for an interesting quilt in our size parameters, so I shrunk the blocks a smidge. A half-inch makes a BIG difference!
Thus another prototype was created...
This one was made using my friend Tiffany's scraps during our Spring Mini-Retreat since I had finished the other projects I took to work on. The NT Halloween Retreat provided the time and motivation needed to complete the quilt:
I was pleased with my Mini County Clare so I decided to expand on the theme...
My entry was worked on in dribs and drabs over the Summer. The original idea was to make a 4-block wall hanging. That would have been fine, but I opted for adding half-blocks on the top and bottom:
Our retreat gave me the perfect opportunity to complete the "expansion project":
Another month passed...
With the deadline approaching, I chose a scrap of batting and a (fairly compatible) backing fabric:
Threads were pulled for quilting and more were pulled when most of these didn't work:
After quilting, I auditioned binding options...
Then wondered if a faux-piped binding might be a better choice:
If you saw last week's ScrapHappy Saturday post, you might recall that I made a decision to seeking "professional guidance" from my "Design Consultant" (Britt) and DS2, my former in-house "Design Assistant", both available via text. They both weighed in on the scrap options from my Big Bucket of Batiks. (Thanks again, you two!)
Based on their suggestions, I sewed some sample binding to make sure I had the dimensions set in my mind before cutting into my challenge fabric and tested it along the edge:
Hanging the complete quilt on my gallery wire was the natural thing to do, but the evening lighting...
Did absolutely NOTHING for my sweet finish! So, I took this photo at my Weekly Quilt Group meeting the next morning to show it to its advantage:
Thank you for issuing our group's 2025 Chubby Stash Challenge, Maggie! With only a size range and a fabric to use in potential entries, the design was wide open. It was a sneaky way for you to move some unused yardage out of your fabric stash, but participants were SEW pleased to help you with the task!
Until next time...
Mark another UFO off the list!!
What a great finish! Thanks for sharing your journey with it!--TerryK@OnGoingProjects
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