NewFO, and a Finish

November came and went just as quickly as every other month this year, but I'm happy to report that I actually started work on an old 1950s era quilt top found several months ago.  Curiously, the online seller didn't bother to mention that the top, which looked perfectly wonderful in her photo, actually was nearly 7 inches longer on one side than the other!  But my bad since when it arrived I just unfolded it about halfway and it looked about like it had in the photo so it was promptly put away for later.  It does have a wonderful array of 1940s and 50s fabrics in the alternating triangles which were apparently cut from "approximately" 4 inch, or was it 3 1/2 inch squares.  No matter, the quilter forged ahead and pieced it all together with fairly large machine stitching, bless her heart!  After all, if that quilt is meant to cover two people, one is bound to be taller than the other, right?  Of course!!

After deciding that I just couldn't bear to waste time hand quilting this vintage piece, nor was I about to take the entire thing apart and re-piece it, what next?  Laying it out on the carpet it became clear that it would never lie flat, but at least the longer area was mostly contained in the last three vertical rows.  After cutting those away, the remainder was down to "only" a two inch difference in length from one side to the other, but it was also now only about 44 inches wide.  So, after adding some wide plain brown borders from my stash, here is the resulting top.

It will be interesting to see how all those ripples quilt out!  I've pretty much decided that quick and simple is the way to go, so this one will be meandered into submission, even the borders, although I might go "fancy" on the borders with some variegated thread.  As of now, there are about three square feet quilted, and I'd love to see this one totally finished this week.  Batting is an old, really old, Mountain Mist 100% cotton batt that has been languishing in the stash closet for several years.  That ought to shrink up nicely and give a nice vintage look to the finished quilt, hopefully disguising the inevitable ripples and bumps!  Here's what the quilting looks like so far.

There was one additional November NewFO, an Advent banner for church, which was finished a couple days before Thanksgiving.  Now, how can it be that I don't yet have a photo?  It finished too large to hang anywhere in the house but I'll hopefully get a shot of it next Sunday after service.

One finish to report for November, that being little Zachary's quilt, completed just a couple days before I traveled to see him, along with his big brother and sister!

Photobomb!  At least he knew he wasn't supposed to lay on top of it!

I loved quilting the borders, and they went relatively quickly.

The back

Name quilted into the border.

That's about it for the month.  Linking up with Barbara at Cat Patches, where you can see lots of other NewFO's begun during November, and even enter your own.  Now, back to meandering through December, and looking forward to hand quilting some gorgeous vintage Mennonite quilt tops I acquired over the last few months.  Well, just as soon as I finish the Checkered Past and Bow-Tie quilts that are piled up on the quilting hoop stand.