Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Stack'N Whack Christmas - Completed to Flimsy Stage

The borders are finally completed on this monster. I thought I would never get this one done. This is my Stack'N Whack Christmas quilt, completed to the flimsy stage. I have been trying to get the borders onto this quilt in between helping the "painter" all week. This quilt ended up 89 1/2 " wide by 111" long.

I finished stitching the last border after supper tonight and headed upstairs. I called out, "I need help." Silence followed. The TV was going but no one was in front of it. I knew that my husband and daughter were home, but they were very, very quiet. I had to leave shortly to attend a meeting about the quilt show we are putting together for our guild this fall so I didn't have time to do much searching. I improvised by pinning the quilt to the deck lattice and taking the picture from the ground. The light is not the best, the sun was getting low and so the lower part of the quilt is in shadows from the tree in the back yard.

Miraculous that after the picture was taken the quilt "helpers" materialized. My husband says my mistake was saying that I needed help. He said if I really needed his help, I would have sought him out and found him. How would I have suspected that he was in the office, light off, in front of the computer? Was the TV left going to throw me off the trail? Not to worry, I am not easily discouraged. I can come up with plan B at the drop of a hat--after all, I am a mother! I am used to solving problems for others!


I have been asked to post again about what a flimsy is. Flimsy is a nicer way to say, UFO. However, not just any UFO qualifies as a flimsy. A UFO that has been completed to the stage where the next step would be to sandwich and quilt it is a flimsy.

One of our guild members was on the ferry traveling to Vancouver Island one time when she encountered some quilters from another guild on the ferry traveling to the same quilt show that she was. They were responsible for telling her what a flimsy was. She came back to our guild meeting and asked us at guild meting one night if we could define the term, "flimsy". Of course none of us had ever heard that term before. She went on to describe flimsy as a completed quilt top before it is quilted. Now doesn't that sound a little better than, UFO?

I think quilters are great--we can justify just about anything. Look at how many UFOs most of us have on the go at once and we still manage to justify starting something new. Look at how much fabric we have hoarded, I mean, "stashed" and yet we continue to search for that special fabric. And to top it off we create new words and language at the drop of a hat to describe our craft and keep it mysterious to non-quilters. Do you speak, quilter? Posted by Picasa

11 comments:

  1. I love that term flimsy- it has gone straight into my vocabulary! Thanks for sharing that.
    And really they are rather 'flimsy' at that stage arent they? I have about 5 at present, because I am poor, & cant afford to have them done proffessionally, & now I have arthritis -which is not helped by blogging really!- & I am currently quilting a flimsy for a friend of my daughter. How did I let myself in for that?? Dont ask!
    I have really enjoyed visiting your blog. I am not sure how I came upon it, but in my blog travels, there you were!

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  2. I love your border treatment on this - I always think - how will this look on a bed? Because - well, I use my quilts on beds! It is BIG!!!

    Cheers!

    Evelyn

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  3. Flimsy is a great new vocabulary word -- I'm going to start using it *s*

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  4. Your stack and whack is just gorgeous! I love the term "flimsy" - very fitting!

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  5. Good job! Technically I count completed tops as UFO's but they don't bother me - I actually like to have a stack of tops on the shelf. It's the the UFO's that haven't made it to the top stage that really bother me.

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  6. A completed quilt top is not a UFO to me! A UFO is a bunch of patches not sewn into a top yet.
    Quilt blocks are called patches by my DGD. She'll ask me if I'm going to sew quilt patches together for a quilt.

    I love your Stack and Whack. Red is my favorite color for a quilt.

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  7. That is a beautiful quilt. Red is such a striking choice of background color. I haven't been brave enough to try anything like that. And it's huge!! Haven't been brave enough to tackle anything that big either!

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  8. your Stack and Whack is lovely. I like the border fabric you have used.

    "Flimsy" ..what an interesting word. I'll have to remember that one:-)

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  9. I've heard them called a flimsy here in Tennessee too - both the unquilted but finished top, and used also (by a much older woman) to mean a summer quilt that was top and backing but no batting. Guess you'd need them down south for a hot summer!

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  10. It looks great, and Flimsey is a great word. Next time you need help call out "Fire Fire". Works a treat!

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