UFO Finish: Fire & Ice

Woo hoo!  Another UFO carried to completion--with lots of credit to my quilting family!!  Back in June 2013, I discovered this gorgeous "Fire & Ice" quilt pattern by Amy Garro of 13 Spools and immediately purchased a downloadable copy.  Amy's instructions were well-written, easy to follow and included a time saving or fabric saving option for prepping all the fabric units needed for this paper-pieced design.  I proceeded to purchase/order all 16 Kona solids outlined in the pattern and cut out the rectangles outlined in the time-saving option!  But soon new quilting deadlines approached and my Fire & Ice quilt got put onto the backburner for another year and a half!!

Fast forward to February 2015 when I was invited to participate in a mini quilting retreat organized by a friend.  I packaged up my Fire & Ice project (and a few others) and managed to complete all the paper pieced rows, quilt top assembly and even removed all off the paper backing!  Once again I lost momentum as I contemplated how best to quilt it.

Quilt Top Complete and Ready for Quilting

A year or so lapsed and I would occasionally pull it out and make small progress:  piecing the quilt back, preparing the quilt sandwich, pin basting and even some stitching in the ditch with monofilament thread.  Unfortunately just as I was gaining momentum and starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel on this project, my machine started to act up and needed to be sent in for some servicing.  I packaged it back up and banished it back to the UFO pile.

Fast forward again to this past April 2017, when I won a gift certificate for customized Quilting by Marcia Wachuta of Marcia's Crafty Sewing & Quilting, as part of the Project Quilting Grand Prize drawing.  Marcia has been a long time sponsor and participant in Project Quilting challenges, so I've had numerous opportunities to see examples of her amazing quilting over the years, and was excited to see her work her quilting magic on my Fire & Ice quilt top.  I sent Marcia a picture of the quilt top and shared some of my original ideas for quilting:  snowflakes and flames.  Marcia loved the flames idea and suggested multiple thread changes to match the fabric gradation.  And with that I went to work removing the few lines of stitching I had managed to complete, pressing my quilt top and backing and packaging it all to send off to Marcia.  Once the quilting was complete, Marcia sent me several pictures via email and I was just in awe!  Wow!  Wow!!  WOW!!!

Amazing Quilting by Marcia Wachuta

Quilt top-check!  Quilting-check!  All that was left to do was add a label and bind.  And once again, my quilting friends to the rescue to help this quilt along to completion.  While the original quilt pattern used solid black for the binding, I wanted to explore some other options.  From my stash I pulled out a variety of multicolored batiks, ombres, dots and even some black and white stripes.  As I auditioned each, they each seemed to fall a bit short.  So I brought them all to my small quilt group and asked for their input.  They auditioned each fabric and agreed that none did justice to this quilt top.  Once again, I was stuck and worried that this quilt might return to its UFO status.  Just then, one of the members looked over at the other project that I had been working on:  a small wall hanging that had a zebra print binding.  She wondered how that zebra print fabric might work on my Fire & Ice quilt...so we tried it out and Eureka!  The solution was right there under my very own nose the entire morning!!  Excited, I returned home and got to work prepping and attaching some new zebra print binding!!

Finishing Touches, Many Thanks to My Fellow Quilters

Cool Stalagmites and Hot Stalactites with Gorgeous Quilting!!

Finally, after 4+ years of on and off progress, and lots of help along the way from my fellow quilters, my Fire & Ice is complete!  The only decision left to make is whether to hang it in my studio where I can admire it as I work or in the front foyer where it will welcome all who enter.  

"Fire & Ice", Finishes 46" x 54"