Ugly Quilts?

I decided to go ahead and sew the 'ugly blocks' together. Since they've been pieced into flimsies, they don't look as bad as I feared. They'll never be favorite quilts but I won't be ashamed or embarrassed to donate them.

Last week you all gave me several good suggestions as to how to set the blocks but I decided to just keep it simple with easy patchwork.

The first finished flimsy measures 59" by 79".

There are forty-eight 8" finished blocks in the center, set 6 by 8. The narrow brown fabric is leftover from a long ago project. The outside border is fabric from my mother's stash so it's old, from the 80's or 90's.

Here's the flimsy displayed on the grass.

I didn't mean for the quilt to become as large as it is but that is what the quilted wanted to be, why argue with a quilt flimsy?

The second quilt is made from the same blocks, again arranged 6 by 8.

This time I didn't add the narrow border, just the dark brown fabric so it's slightly smaller measuring 58" by 72".  I'm not sure why this flimsy is that much shorter than the first quilt, I probably measured wrong, oh well.

The dark brown border adds some zing to the flimsy. The first quilt looks more dull and muted but the same fabrics were used in both quilts!

I know I had said I had over 100 of these blocks pieced but guess what, I miscounted! I needed to piece three more blocks for this quilt which was okay, I'm glad to not have leftover blocks.

The backings for both quilts have been pieced, a soft yellow fabric that was gifted to me years ago with the understanding it be used in charity projects. 

The binding for both quilts has also been sewn. It's going to be very scrappy, using whole and partial strips that are similar to the fabrics used in the blocks.

Sometime next spring I'll spend a month or so quilting compassion quilts to be delivered to the cancer center at our local hospital. 

Someone commented last week that they only sew with pretty fabrics, they don't have any uglies. I didn't buy all those yellow toned background batiks, they were gifted to me by Nanette. She joined in some summer sew-along several years ago, I don't remember how long ago but it was before covid. She became frustrated with the project, took all of the bits & pieces and shoved them into a bag then mailed the whole mess to me. I looked at the pattern and decided I didn't want to deal with the pattern. That was my evening work that winter, taking all those blocks apart. That is where all of the yellowish background fabrics came from.

It feels good to have these fabrics out of the 2.5" box. Now I need to finish piecing the blocks from the 2" box, I might as well go ahead and get those blocks sewn into a flimsy also.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, Free Motion Mavericks, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts