Tuesday, May 05, 2020

The Stashbusting Ugly Quilt

 The Stashbusting "Ugly"Quilt on the design wall.
Auditioning the layout of blocks for final placement.

The last quilt top is still hanging underneath it.  Looks like that particular orange-y rusty border would also work well on this one.  I'll have to see if I have any left to make a border for this one, too.   



Too many balls in the air.  I just happened to come across this video  by Just Get It Done Quilts on Pinterest, and thought it would be a good, quick way to burn through some of the fabric in  my stash that I'm tired of looking at.

She calls it The Ugly Quilt Pattern.   But that begs the question: Why bother with an ugly quilt if it's a waste of time and money?  She explained that the Ugly Quilt is the one that winds up going to the hospital with her family members to offer comfort.   It has a very important job, and it soaks up life experiences just by being there in someone's time of need.

So I chose 20 fabrics (10 lights, 10 darks) and followed the directions.   None of these fabrics are ugly, per say -- except maybe that rooster fabric.   I ironed them and cut them to a standard 14 inch square (a few needed to be pieced to make it the minimum 14 inch size).

Stack - Cut - Sew - Shuffle - Repeat

Somehow the shuffle directions didn't quite work for me, I was not ending up with a nice mix, so I had to do some additional shuffling.   And I ended up with an extra block that was kind of confused -- half dark and light and not in the appropriate quarters.  That one is left out for now-- a true orphan block.

Basically, you're making a wonky 9-patch with a finished block size of 12-1/2 inches after they get trimmed.   The blocks came together in an afternoon--lightning fast-- making me think this would be a good Quilt Retreat project some October to come, if the Covid-19 Pandemic ever ends.   Or if my mom ever wants to quilt again ...  It's a fast quilt to make.

This is one of the blocks in isolation.  
See -- It's just a wonky 9-Patch.

Here's another sample block in isolation.

This is a shot on the design wall from the other side of the room.  
I can't  get far enough away from it to get a straight-on view.

I still need to square up the blocks and settle on final placement before stitching the whole top together. 

1 comment:

The Idaho Beauty said...

It's giving me vertigo! I've run across this stack slash shuffle technique more than once but never got around to trying it. I can see how it would be a good exercise for those of us that spend way too much time trying to decide which fabric should go where (random scrap quilts never random arrangements for me!). And that it makes a goo comfort or charity quilt.