Friday, June 1, 2012

Fun For Friday - Butterflies are Free and UFO Report

I'm interrupting the usual FFF post to bring you a special report from my friend, Susan McD.

In her own words:
Finally!  My UFO Cupcake Challenge is done......late!  A major problem with UFO's is that U Forget.  I picked up my notes, cut out all the letters, fused the letters to two of the borders.....and then found that I had the wrong oath.  What??  One side of my notes had the Presidential Oath, the other the Officers Oath.  Why both in my notes?  I can't remember why I did that.  Redo.



The UFO curse continued while basting.  Went to the last section remaining to baste....short a few inches.  What??
I had not centered properly.  I could not bring myself to remove all those pins so I cut off some of the backing, inserted about 6 inches of another fabric and put it back on the table and finished basting.



This spring Gwen Marston came to NJ.  I took a wonderful class with her.  She mentioned that she uses a single width binding on her quilts.  I tried it here.  Perfect!  This worked beautifully with the stripe and saved lots of yardage.


So 'POTUS 1789 - 1901" is done!  When I told Barb and Jill the name of the quilt they said Huh??  POTUS means President of the United States.

My UFO had a baby.  I ended up with lots of black and white triangles, right sides together, when making the second block. Can't waste them!  Turned all of them into little hsts.  I accidentally put some of the together wrong forming white "flying geese".  Decided I liked that mistake, makes it a little more interesting, so they are at the top of this little quilt, 12" X 13", called The First Four.  It is now in my UFO pile.....



Butterflies are Free (FFF)

For the past 12 years or so Hanna and I have raised butterflies around this time of year.  This year we had 5 painted ladies and the best release ever!  We did it while coco was at school.  You can see last years release here.

It's alway a challenge getting them out of their house.


In the center of these bushes across the yard, one sat for quite a while.  Usually they fly out and leave our yard immediately.


This little one was the last to leave and didn't want to.


I finally got it on my finger where sat for a while.  It really was the best butterfly day we've had.  They stayed in the yard for at least 5 minutes.


Have a wonderful weekend~

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello, Barb!
I wanna thank you for your sweet comment on my Little Baskets (Jubilee Quilt Project)...
I wanted to pay a visit on your blog (I'm SO curious, HeeHee) and OMG this is such an inspiration !
love love your use of colors and I just added you to my bloglist ;>)

THANKS a bunch, dear !
XOXOXOXOXOX
NADINE

Judy in Michigan said...

I love your friend's comments on her UFO, especially the U Forget! Our extended family just had twin girls (which I had no knowledge of) and so I went to the studio to see what I could whip up. How about a 1/2 finished baby quilt with enough fabric to make a similar/matching one! I FORGOT it was even there. UFOs can be a blessing!! Tell her her quilt is awesome and the back is now much more interesting! as well as the smaller one. Enjoy seeing the activities that you and Hanna share.

Judy in Michigan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lori said...

Yay! How awesome Susan's UFO is done!! So, do you pick another one now?

Kyle said...

I can relate to Susan's UFO comments, especially the U Forget which than can equal to a few redos or result in creative designs. That's just part of the UFO story. Loved your butterfly story.

Janet said...

Your friend's quilt is wonderful! Good for her to stick with it. The butterflies are beautiful -what a fun tradition!

Karen said...

I like the challenge story with its ups and downs. Susan has "stitck-to-it-evness and ended up with two very good pieces.

libbyquilter said...

the "potus" quilt and it's offspring are great. it's too bad there were a few(!) minor(!!) glitches but i thought that the backing fabric mishap was solved brilliantly and looks wonderful.

love seeing the photo of the butterfly on/in hand. what a fun and appropriate traditional thing to do with one's daughter.

:-)
libbyQ

Rachaeldaisy said...

It's fun hearing from your friends. Susan's quilt is gorgeous!! I love it from the little Presidents to the stripey binding. I laughed about the U forget comment - so true. The little quilt is fabulous too, love those free thinking geese. You and Hanna must have had so much fun releasing butterflies, what a lovely thing to do.

Pat said...

Your friend's quilt is just wonderful - love the background information behind it too!

The butterflies are incredible this year aren't they? I have never seen quite so many around our gardens - and such a variety.

Have a good weekend.

Janet said...

Now that's a quilt with a story, it seems like it was cursed but it's finally done and looks fabulous. I love the words and the ufo baby that resulted.
What a treat to be able to release butterflies.

QuiltSue said...

I think POTUS is stunning, your friend did a great job, despite all the problems on the way.

antique quilter said...

I love POTUS, what a great story!!! I LOVE the leftover quilt too , wish I would have bought some of that fabric, that is so cute , great for this time of year.
So fun with the butterflies every year when I read you did this I keep saying oh I want to do that too!
have a great weekend
Kathie

Miriam said...

I enjoyed the story about POTUS and the UFO baby! Love the flying geese "mistake"!

What a wonderful tradition with the butterflies. I wonder if any of them ever make their way back to your garden.

Thimbleanna said...

What a great set of quilts. I loved the stories. And your beautiful little butterflies -- how fun!!!

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