Thursday, November 19, 2015

Holiday Lights---From UFO to Quilt Top!

I purchased this "Holiday Lights" quilt kit from the Quilt Vine in Trappe, MD last November. This was my Black Friday splurge and I did it over the phone! They mailed it and I started putting it together until I had problems...... Then it sat in a UFO (UnFinished Object) box for most of the year.

"Holiday Lights" (48" x 52") was designed by Alex Anderson.
The Quilt Vine tweaked it and sold the kit and pattern along with their changes.

The kit came in a clear box with a color photo. 
I LOVE the neutrals they chose for the background in this quilt.
I would never have been so daring to choose the red and green dot fabric as a neutral.

This was my problem. My half square triangle border didn't fit.
It was too short because my seam allowance was a hair too wide.

PLUS I pieced all the green triangles pointing the same way.
The top and bottom borders need to have them point the other direction. OOPS!
There was NO WAY I was going to use a seam ripper and undo all that sewing.

So I thought about using a tan fabric for the inner border instead of the triangles.

But I do like the triangles so I just added extra bits of fabric until it fit.

This is the original pattern and all the little lights ready for appliqué.
To make appliqué easier I sewed the green fabric to all the colors and then cut the bulbs as one piece.

One border at a time gets ironed and appliquéd while the rest is rolled up.

One cute Sponge Bob bulb!

And I've got "Whos" from Whoville on a tree or two.

Yay!! No longer a UFO!
I may try to machine quilt some snowflakes on this quilt. It already isn't perfect because I messed up the triangle border and therefore the outside border didn't match up with the inner border but really who cares? Right? I still love this quilt. GREAT fabric choices from the Quilt Vine! Thanks!!

Linking to Finish It Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.



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4 comments:

  1. UnknownNovember 21, 2015 at 5:31 AM

    I love your enchanted forest and the Sponge Bob light bulb. Thanks for a great idea to extend the triangle border. I would have never of thought of how to fix this problem. Now this simple solution will help me if (and I know it will happen) I have this same problem with a pieced border. I love the quilts you make.


    Susan

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  2. ClaireNovember 21, 2015 at 5:00 PM

    "Really, who cares?" sounds like the right attitude to me. Very few who see your quilt will have seen the pattern. And to those who have, you can always claim creative variation. Very cute quilt. I agree--i'd not have thought of all those fabrics as "neutrals" either. But they sure work that way. claire aka knitnkwilt.wordpress.com

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  3. AnonymousNovember 21, 2015 at 6:53 PM

    So hard not to unsew when things don't go just so. It turned out lovely!

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  4. LaneyNovember 22, 2015 at 9:22 AM

    Love your Christmas quilt! I agree with your problem solving method! I read this in a book by Gwen Marston: if it's too short add to it. If it's too long cut some off. Works every time. ;)

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