Making Old Things New

Let me start by saying that I didn’t want to do a “rework” project for UFOvember. When Bobbi Gentili from Geeky Bobbin sent the sign up sheet, I was on vacation and by the time I got home, the only slots left were for “rework” or “rehome”. I knew I didn’t want to give any of my UFOs away, so I signed up for “rework”.

I knew exactly which project I would work on. These 25 quilt blocks were first made between 1992 and 1995. The original plan was for a king-sized Bear’s Paw quilt for our bed with cream sashing and cornerstones. I finished all of the blocks, started sewing some sets of two together with sashing before I got busy, packed all of the blocks and the fabric in a large paper bag and set it aside in our basement. (Note, that was before 1995 and I still do not sleep under a quilt I have made!)

Unfortunately, around 1999, we had a 100-year flood in our town and sewage backed up into our basement. Yes, the same basement where I stored a paper bag full of cream, navy, blue and green fabrics with my blocks.

It took a few days to find the bag and we promptly threw all of the fabric in the washing machine on the hottest water to disinfect it. At the time, we were washing every piece of clothing and fabric we found, so it was quickly washed, dried and put into a plastic bin. When I got around to looking at it, the navy had bled onto the cream on almost all of the squares. Here are a few examples:

I really loved some of the fabrics in this quilt and I wanted to find a way to redeem and reuse these blocks. So I sorted them, pressed the blocks and the fabric, and put it in a bin until I decided what to do with it. Over the years, I raided the bin and used the navy border fabric for other projects. When I needed a patch for a quilt made with fabric that matched one of the blocks, I snipped it out of a block because the washed and worn block was a closer match to the quilt than the new fabric.

When I pulled out the box, I had 25 blocks (including the one with a square missing and these fabrics:

So, I decided to make a quilted jacket. My style is pretty tailored, so I took this jacket pattern, which I already had at home.

I cut out some oversized backing pieces from plain muslin, then fitted quilt squares to them. I used some of the existing sashing strips to extend key parts of the pattern. I also discovered that when quilt squares have been washed, they create these lovely nests on the back.

I had a nest this size for every couple of squares.

I decided to quilt a chevron on the back center panel, cross hatching on the front and back side panels and the sleeves, and angled lines on the front center panels.

I even got my serger out – I don’t think I have used it for at least 5 years!

I finished it with facings cut from the border prints. On the straight hems at the bottom and for the sleeves, I did a wider border print.

For the facing around the neck, I cut a narrower strip to accommodate the curve of the neckline.

I like the overall look, but it is still stained. (Check out Bruce the cat in these photos, when I am turned to the back, so is he!)

I decided to overdye the whole coat.

I wasn’t sure I could get this done in time because as of Monday noon, the dye hadn’t been delivered. But it came in the afternoon, so after dinner I boiled up some water and had a dye party.

At one point, I was very worried that it would come out dark blue, but I got the effect I wanted. Here are some pictures of the finished coat.

I carefully used Aurifil 100% cotton threads so they would dye the same as the cotton fabrics. You can see above that the serger thread was not all cotton and stayed cream-colored.

I like the subtle color and you can’t see the stains anymore. I may add buttons, but I am declaring this a FINISHED project!

Check out all of the other great UFO blogs this month to see other ideas for cataloging, resuming, reworking and rehoming your UFOs:

Sunday 11/1	Bobbi Gentili	The Geeky Bobbin
Monday 11/2	Becca Fenstermaker	Pretty Piney Quilts
Tuesday 11/3	Joanne Kerton	Canuck Quilter Designs
Wednesday 11/4	Sue Griffiths	Duck Creek Mountain Quilting
Thursday 11/5	Ashli Montgomery	Storytelling Tees
Friday 11/6	Anne Boundy	Said With Love
Saturday 11/7	Sarah Ruiz	Sarah Ruiz Quilts
Sunday 11/8	Teresa Weaver	Your Sewing Friend
Monday 11/9	Karen Brown	Just Get it Done Quilts
Tuesday 11/10	Bobbi Bridgeman	Snowy Days Quilting
Wednesday 11/11	Raylee Bielenberg	Sunflower Stitcheries and Quilting
Thursday 11/12	Althea Gyde	Blue Heron Quilting
Friday 11/13	Kenzy Hogan	Sewing Corals
Saturday 11/14	Leann Parsons	Devoted Quilter
Sunday 11/15	Jessica Caldwell	Desert Bloom Quilting
Monday 11/16	Laureen Smith	Tourmaline & Thyme Quilts
Tuesday 11/17	Karen Kehl	Better Done Quilts
Wednesday 11/18	Stacey H	Two Terriers Studio
Thursday 11/19	Cinzia White	Cinziawhitedesigns
Friday 11/20	Laura Piland	Slice of Pi Quilts
Saturday 11/21	Rachel M	The Barefoot Crafter
Sunday 11/22	Kathryn LeBlanc	Dragonfly’s Quilting Design Studio
Monday 11/23	Judit Hajdu	Quiltfox Design
Tuesday 11/24	Lyra McCabe	Quilting McCabe
Wednesday 11/25	Jill Therriault	Stitching in Heels
Thursday 11/26	Cristina De Miranda	Ships & Violins
Friday 11/27	Katie Starcher	Katie Mae Quilts
Saturday 11/28	Valerie Prideaux	Cozy Funky Cool
Sunday 11/29	Kim Mastomartino	Line Design
Monday 11/30	Natalia Knowlton	NerdyQuilter