UFO Rebirth...

Last week I mentioned that I was working on a UFO -- you might think I mean Un Finished Object. Actually, in this case... it was an Ugly Finished Object. Here is the before shot.

Maybe not "ugly" but certainly not successful. I made this soon after we moved to Maine for a challenge at the Freeport Public Library. There were several requirements -- include a tree, use a winter theme, use at least 5 forms of mixed media or techniques, include words... etc. Clearly I tried to do too much. Those loops at the bottom held an old tree branch, but the library lost it after the show was over. Anyway... the quilt was folded up in one of those plastic drawers that I cleaned out last week.

I still like the colors, the general feel of the quilt and the free motion quilting. I don't like the beaded safety pins in the crooks of the tree, but it was a clever idea at the time. So I decided to cut it up! Coincidentally, the theme for my ATC swap group is "recycled." Perfectamundo.

Here is a shot of the pile after the slicing. Postcard size pieces at the top, ATC size pieces (2.5 x 3.5 inches) at the bottom of the cutting board and trash on the bottom right.


Of course, the pieces ended up looking like landscapes. Everything looks like a landscape to me lately. Some horizontal some vertical. They needed some surface treatment, so I used freezer paper stencils and added some leaning leaf shapes. That was really fun.

I'm thinking about using a similar technique on the second door quilt. It can be scary to think about putting a whole mess of paint on top of a finished composition, so this project gave me some confidence.

I always struggle with bindings. Even though these pieces are very small... I think they seem so much more finished when they have a nice binding. I used a few different techniques. I used some sheer fabric folded over and sewn to the edge on several. My friend Becky inspired that technique. She uses tulle for binding very succesfully. It's a tight binding but doesn't completely distract from the main composition since it's somewhat transluscent.

I zigged a few and used some other decorative stitches on others. Now... if you are a member of the ATC swap group you may wish to avert your eyes. Here are some of the finished pieces.

I like the safety pins here. Just a tiny element of dimension and sparkle.

Here are the others. I kept the original binding on one side of some of the pieces. I added words to each piece. I kept trying to resist the word idea... sometimes it feels like a kitschy title, but I kept coming back to the idea of "determination," "patience," "solitude," "intention." I'm not sure what that says about my current state of mind, but there they are fused right on the each piece.


Here is a close up of "intention."


And here is "patience."


I've got several more pieces cut from the original quilt that I did not finish with this go-round. They went back in the plastic drawers.