Category: WIPs and PhDs

Last year, participating in the first UFOvember made me take stock of my unfinished objects (UFOs). I decided that there were some that I very much wanted to finish in 2021. Here is one approach that I have found very effective.

I noticed that I felt overwhelmed with where to restart UFOs and how to keep moving. I decided that I needed a way to “break the surface tension” and get moving. In 2020, I made a couple of 100-day quilts. For the 100-day quilts, you piece one block or one section each day for 100 days, and at the end you have a quilt top. I allow myself to do more than the minimum, if I want, but I schedule about 15 minutes a day to work on the project. I found it was a great way to keep moving forward on one project and finish in a set amount of time. And I wondered if it would be helpful in tackling my UFOs.

The first UFO I decided to finish was a wedding quilt that was due three years ago. I took the two finished wedges of the Bluebonnet Broken Star and worked on adding one strip a day. Sitting down to the machine every day, I found that I often did more than the minimum. In a couple of months, the Bluebonnet Broken Star was pieced. I used the same approach of doing one piece a day to assemble it, add the borders and finish a scrappy pieced back. Then I sent it off to Prairie Folk Quilt Co. to get it quilted, so it did not go back into my UFO pile. Here’s the finished quilt:

I love the way the quilting shows off the piecing.

Next, I decided to tackle a Double Irish Chain that was partially pieced and sitting in a box. Originally, I planned on using this as a weight loss marker quilt with one block for each pound. Unfortunately between the stresses and life and the pandemic, I was not losing weight. Looking at the quilt made me upset that I did not meet my original goal, which wasn’t helping anything. I loved the color combinations and still wanted the finished quilt, so I decided to redeem it and finish it using the 100-day method. I already had about 30 blocks finished out of the 122 planned. I started making one block a day and finished the blocks and borders in a couple of months. I also sent this king-sized quilt to Amanda at Prairie Folk for quilting.

This quilt is now my Zoom background for teleworking. My November goal is to get it bound so I can put it on my bed. I’ll be sure the share the finished quilt with all of you.

My current one-step-at-a-time quilt is my Singapore Sling quilt. You can read in my earlier blog how this was designed and how I won a pack of Good Vibes Fabrics designed by Christa Watson for Benartex. I used the one-block-a-day approach to finish the blocks, assembly, and pieced backing. I got it basted and quilted according to my plan. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in how the quilting turned out. It clearly needed much more quilting than I originally planned. I put it aside as I finished my QuiltCon entries, then I looked at it again. While I still had questions about my quilting choices, I decided to keep going and quilt one line a day. At this rate, I should have the quilting done by the end of November. I already have the binding made, so once it is quilted, it is a quick finish. Check out my progress on Instagram.

Approaching my UFOs one day at a time has helped me complete three major, bed-sized quilts this year, in addition to the new projects I started and finished. Just 15 minutes a day or less. Which of your UFOs could use the one-day-at-a time approach?

The 50 days of works in progress challenge is finished. From February through late March, I (and a bunch of others on Instagram under #50daywipschallenge) committed to only working on projects that were already started. I thought I should share the results. There is one quilt that I have finished, but I can’t share because it is a gift. Here’s the sneak peak:

I also got two other big quilts finished. I realized that in our current pandemic situation, I was not likely to be able to rent time on a long arm, and have a coach help me with some of the techniques that were beyond my experience (which is everything except simple edge-to-edge quilting or a basic meandering free-motion quilting). So I sent all three large quilts to long arm quilters.

My 100-day transformation quilt was sent to Sesvold Designs. Carmen is a friend from the Friendship Star Quilt Guild. She created a masterpiece, following the diamond shape on the quilt front with exquisite lines of quilting. Just look at the detail:

This quilt was a lot of fun. I started it June 1, 2020 as a block-a-day, 100-day project. I used up all of my strip scraps, and even took scraps from projects I worked on during that 100 days. The back is also special. For Labor Day 2020, my daughter wanted to do some tie dyeing. I decided to try ice dyeing. I had a patterned, white-on-white 108 inch backing that was the wrong color for the project it was intended for, so I decided to dye it. Here’s the result:

Not too bad for a first attempt. Carmen did a great job of lining up the center on the front and back of this extra large (112 x 112 inch) quilt. We are using this on our king-sized bed – the first quilt I have made that my husband and I can sleep under!

The second quilt I finished is a sampler quilt that I started in February, 2017 when the National Quilters Circle issued a block challenge for the Snowy Day Sampler by Andrea at Happy Cloud Creations. Each week a new block pattern was released. I had not made any quilts for about a year and a half and decided this would be a good choice to get me back into quilting. I had blue, purple and teal scraps from other projects, and found the pansy print to tie them together.

The fabrics included scraps from my childrens’ 4H sewing projects, my son and daughter-in-law’s wedding quilt and other quilts I have made. I wanted it queen sized, so I added borders. I loved making the big 16 inch blocks. They went so quickly and the quilt came together easily. After I finished the top, it sat in a box until this spring. I did make a back that lists all of the fabrics and their original use.

When I first learned how to use computerized long arm patterns, I developed an elaborate plan to quilt this, but I was told that it would take me years to gain enough skill to execute it on my own. Fortunately, I found Amanda, at Prairie Folk Quilt Company. Amanda and I have never met in person – I “met” her on Instagram when she hosted a contest for free long-arm quilting. I didn’t win, but I was so impressed with her work, and her comments, that I decided to send this quilt off to her. And I am so glad I did! She was great to work with, asked me a lot of questions about the look I wanted, and even looked at my original design for the quilting and incorporated some of it into her quilting design. I am so happy with how this turned out (and so is my daughter, who claimed it). And she finished it lighting quick. Look at this detail.

All in all, I am pretty happy with what I got done during my 50 days of works-in-progress. And I am very glad I have discovered the joys of collaborating with talented long-arm quilters. Now I am off to working on a new quilt. What are your spring quilting plans?

Unfinished objects (UFOs) and works-in-progress are a normal part of my quilting life. I do have one friend who only works on one quilt at a time. She works on it until it is finished then picks a new project. She is very successful at making high quality quilts. I envy her focus, but I don’t understand how her mind works. I always have so many ideas floating around that I want to work on. I definitely have SOS (Shiny Object Syndrome) where I always want to flit over and look at the new shiny project (or gorgeous fabrics). SOS seems to be a common issue for many quilters, so there are a lot of UFO and WIP challenges out there. I had decided to switch some of my long term UFOs to 100-day projects this year when @flyinggoosestudio issued a 50 day WIP challenge. The idea is to work on nothing but UFOs and WIPs (in other words, not start any new projects) for 50 days. It is a low-stress challenge and one that really appealed to me right now.

So far:

1. I finished piecing a wedding quilt that was due three years ago and am finishing the back before I send it off to a longarmer.
2. I prepped a quilt top and back that were started four years ago and sat in the closet since 2019 to ship to a longarmer who offered to use her art to enhance my piecing.
3. I finished my quilty Valentine’s Day cards for my family.
4. I got major work done on a wheelchair quilt for a presentation on March 1st.
5. I made progress on my Double Irish Chain quilt that was untouched for three years.

I’m pretty impressed at the progress in 17 days – I can’t imagine how much will get done in the next 33!

How are your UFOs and WIPs?

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:

Something about seeing the calendar turn so there is only one more new page left makes me think about what I want to get finished this year. I know there is power in numbers, so I have joined with other quilters for UFOvember. If you are on Instagram, you can follow us on #UFOvember.

My posts this month will all be focused on UFOs (Unfinished Objects), WIPs (Works in Progress), PhDs (Projects Half Done) and my progress. We will see if I get my “big” UFO done before my assigned blog on November 17th.

If you want to follow all of the fantastic quilters and bloggers participating in UFOvember, here is the list:

The first few days are focused on making an inventory of your UFOs. You can’t finish it if you don’t know it is there. I actually keep a list of UFOs, WIPs and new quilt ideas on my phone, so I can add to it when I get a new idea. Here is my current list. I included every project where I have started sewing and that is not ready to be used. Fabric purchased for projects that have not been started doesn’t count in my book.

Writing it all down is always revealing. First, I didn’t think I had 12 UFOs. I would have guessed about 6. Second, quilting is an issue, with 1/3 of the projects needing quilting, and another that I sent to a long-arm quilter. Finally, I see is that if I am driven by deadlines. Quilts without deadlines get set aside, as do quilts that were not done before the deadline. But deadlines also help me complete important projects.

What is your oldest UFO? Is there a UFO you want to finish in 2020? What are your UFOvember goals?