Honestly, at this point, I don't even remember when I started this quilt. It has to be at least 20 years, if not longer.
The blocks are made from homespun fabric. If you've never used homespun, it is meant to be 'old fashioned' looking. It has primitive design (all some sort of plaid), and a loose weave. The loose weave makes it incredibly soft after a washing or two, but it also means that the fabric unravels very easily as well.
Ironically, I gave up on it, not because of the unravelling. But because I ran short of the cream-colored fabric, and could not find anything similar that I was happy with. I put the blocks into a 'time-out' bin, and left them there for a few years while searched for more of the elusive cream fabric. I never did find it, so I altered my plans and instead of more blocks with sashing between them, I used up my green homespun, and went with this checkerboard layout instead.
I still was not overly thrilled with it. So back it went into the time-out bin until I could figure out what to do with it. This thing has survived 2 moves, and countless attempts at culling my crafting surplus. I wasn't happy with it as-is, but I wasn't unhappy enough to get rid of it - so there it sat.
Flash-forward to January 2020. In another attempt to organize my crafting stash, I pulled out every UFO I had. I organized them, made sure they had all the fabric needed to finish them, put them in Ziploc baggies, wrote them all down on a planning sheet, along with the 'next step' for each one. This quilt once again hit my radar. I had just folded a piece of sunflower fabric that was perfect for the backing on this quilt! And bonus, it was large enough for the backing! My excitement started to rise again. Now, how to quilt it?
After spending way too much time on Pinterest, I decided to give 'big-stitch quilting' a try. I thought it was the perfect addition to this primitive looking quilt. Now, after so many years, I have the 'spark' back in my eyes for this lovely quilt. I am still not finished, but I work on it a bit here and there, whenever I have some spare time, or when there is a good movie I want to watch, especially now that it is getting colder - hand sewing with a big quilt on your lap is wonderful this time of year!
I will keep plugging away at it. Someday, hopefully soon, it will be a quilt, and no longer a UFO.
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