UFO Parade
When Bobbie from geekybobbin.com asked me to be a part of her 2nd annual UFOvember event, I was overjoyed. Firstly because Bobbie is awesome, and secondly because I have a LOT of UFOs.
53, to be exact.
Don’t worry, I won’t go through all of them, just the few that stand out as more notable to me.
For those unfamiliar with the term as it relates to quilting (or projects, but for me it’s quilting), this stands for UnFinished Objects. Those projects you start and then, for one reason or another, you decided to let them percolate.
Maybe it was out of a desire to think on the potential ways to make your project the best it could be. Something better than you thought possibly could come from your own creative abilities.
Maybe it was because you got bored with it.
Maybe it was because if you didn’t put it down, you were in danger of drop-kicking it right into the trash can.
We all have our reasons.
As I started to go through my UFOs (or WIPs, as some refer to them (Works In Progress)), I initially planned this to be a post about shame. After all, these are unfinished things that I had high hopes about at some point in the creative process. Isn’t it something to be ashamed about - that I start so many things without finishing them?
NOPE.
No. This is not a parade of shame. There are no shame parades in quilting.
From now on, I’m going to think of UFOs (or WIPs) as a living exhibit of creativity. This is a chance to take stock and celebrate all of those wonderful things you thought of doing once, and even went so far as to try.
There is no shame in trying.
We start and stop things at different times for different reasons, and they can all be valid. Sometimes it’s important to take stock to see if you’ve changed enough to where you’re ready to move some things along or finish them up, or let them go ahead and percolate for a while still.
They’re not “forgotten in a drawer”, they’re aging slowly. Like whiskey.
Starting off the UFO Parade is my oldest UFO.
So old, it was two sewing machines ago. I forgot it even existed because I’ve been storing it in a different closet. Because back when I put it in that closet, I didn’t even have a sewing room yet.
I made this from a kit from Craftsy, back in 2018. The original quilt pattern was for a large throw (I think; ye olde memory isn’t the best) but as I was planning to adapt it to be our king-sized comforter, I changed it up and added little borders and sashing, and extra blocks.
This was before I was comfortable choosing my own fabrics, so I only felt safe with kits.
I put it away because I wasn’t physically able to quilt it on my tiny machine (I could have rented time on a longarm, but I wanted it to be custom quilted, and couldn’t afford to rent that much time).
(2018)
This next one is one of my most recent makes. I was playing with crumbs (tiny scraps) and using them to improv piece. I put it aside because after all that improv piecing, I needed a mental break. But I’m really excited to quilt it. I might bump this to be next in line.
(August 2021)
I made this one using the pattern “Pathfinder” by Sarah Ruiz. It was a really fun make, and I loved how the fabrics feel. Larger pieces make me want to hand quilt, so I paused on this one because I wasn’t ready to jump into a hand quilting session just yet.
(May 2021)
When I store quilt tops, I attach a little note to them that tells me the measurements. This way, when I’m ready to quilt it, I already know how much backing and batting I’ll need without having to take it all out and measure it again.
This one is special - it’s nicknamed “The Clamtastic Friends Quilt”, and there’s another one just like it in Nevada. My dear friend LaVerne (@vernerific on Instagram) and I grew to know and support each other over the pandemic. LaVerne sent me duplicate pieces to the quilt they were making - the “Glam Clam" Quilt by Latifah Saafir. LaVerne thought it was a great fit to make it with Tula Pink’s “Zuma” line, and I totally agreed - so these two friendship quilts exist, but neither are quilted yet.
(July 2021)
These two (below) have been hanging out in my drawer for a while. They’re both patterns by Amanda at Broadcloth Studio, and they were great mini quilt tops to make. I just never got around to quilting them.
(2019)
The tops below were originally meant to be a series of 12 mini quilts, each one showcasing an Aurifil thread collection from the 2021 Color Builders (Endangered Species Theme). The quilts were made in the style of Carolina Oneto, after taking her online workshop with my local guild.
My original idea was to quilt a single line drawing of each animal onto the corresponding quilt. This quickly proved to be a task I wasn’t up to, and I changed my idea into making a series of decorative stitching instead.
I have the tops still, and I love them. The missing ones from the original 12 were the ones lost to the learning moment that I cannot, in fact, draw with thread in a way that looks halfway decent. I haven’t yet decided what to do with these tops.
(July 2021)
I had so much fun making these, but I’m not sure what to do with them now. I had an idea to turn them into small bags or zipper pouches. Maybe I will.
This one is barely a UFO, only because I’m not finished with my plan for it yet.
I made this quilt from the Kitchen Sink pattern by Flustered Turtle . I made it super scrappy and love how it turned out. For the quilting, I wanted to combine free motion machine quilting and hand quilting. I machine quilted most of it, then bound it and took it with me on a camping trip, where I could do some slow hand quilting by the campfire. I love this way of binding quilts that aren’t finished (but are quilted enough to be secure) to protect them while they get extra embellishments added.
It looks finished, but there are still open sections that need hand quilting.
(May 2021)
On to the holidays…
I’m not really one for holiday themed quilts, but I’ve made a couple of tops and never finished them.
Below was a Valentine’s Day themed quilt (Art Gallery Fabrics “Love” Quilt), designed by Maureen Cracknell and Sharon Holland. Making the hearts led to some large scraps, so I made them into flying geese and incorporated them into the design.
(February 2020)
Below was a planned Christmas quilt. I went low volume with it, and very scrappy. No pattern, just random log cabins. I made it about a year ago, planning for Christmas 2020. We’ll see if I have it done by Christmas 2022.
(November 2020)
Another thing I do to store my UFOs is store them in the bags that sheet sets come in. I don’t buy that many sheets, but my mom has tracked some of these clear zippered bags down and sent them to me, and they’re perfect for this!
Storing things in sight is a good move for me to remember things. They’re protected from dust, and stored with the backings (if I have them).
More scrappiness, and my second and third oldest UFOs. I made these quilt tops for my two oldest sons (8 and 10). They both wanted machine quilting, and when I made these I didn’t have access to a longarm (and wasn’t ready to tackle them on my domestic). They’re high on my to-do list; I’ve just been distracted.
And don’t worry about my sons - they each claimed about 5 quilts to themselves. Every time I make one, one of them calls “dibs” and then adds it to their bed, like a dragon sleeping on a pile of treasure.
(March 2019)
This one is the Birthstone Blocks series by MJ Kinman. I pieced this entire quilt over the course of 2 days in the summer of 2020, when my husband was preparing for, and then in the middle of, sinus surgery. Because of Covid, I was only allowed to drop him off at the hospital and go home to wait for them to call me back. I was so stressed, I had to distract myself, so I just sewed and sewed and sewed.
He’s totally fine and healed up now, but I’ve yet to quilt this one.
(July 2020)
I made this one in one evening - I just sewed together pieces from a Kaffe Fassett jelly roll (strips precut to 2.5” wide by 42” long). I planned to hand quilt this one, in the style of a Kantha quilt. It’s definitely out of my comfort zone in terms of color, but I had fun with it.
I’ve come to peace with the idea of making something just to make it. If I’m honest, I have no desire to finish this one. I think I’m ready to part with it completely.
(May 2021)
Onward, to the EPPs! English paper piecing (EPP for short) is a method of piecing fabric together by securing it around paper, hand sewing the fabric together, then removing the paper before quilting. The quilts below are sewn entirely by hand.
(I have more EPPs in my UFO stash, but they’re gifts for people, so I can’t share those yet.)
The first one is Pollinate, by Kitty Wilkin. My parameters for this one were: “blue and white”, and “scraps.” I’m making this one in the midst of my “No Fabric Buying” self regulation, and I have not bought any fabric at all for this one. I’m only using from my stash.
This is my progress over 3 months (August-October 2021).
Below is an unfinished Celestial Star Quilt, pattern by Lilabelle Lane Creations. I used all fabric by Ruby Star Society, and the plan is for the end result to look half night sky, half sunrise.
This is all hand sewn, and is my progress over 3 months (January - March 2021).
Below is my own EPP pattern, set to be published in February 2022! This top is finished, but not quilted yet. This one took me one month.
(April 2021)
There are many more UFOs in my possession, all in various stages of “planning” or “finished”. I counted them all up and found that I have 53 (!!) UFOs.
So while there is no shame in having that many, and each one is a little capsule of the time in which I made it - that many unfinished things certainly weighs on my brain, even if I don’t realize it.
I think it’s time to finally air these out, finish them once and for all, and move on.
Sometimes, clearing out space is what’s needed to allow room for growth.
Thank you to Geeky Bobbin for including me in the UFOvember Blog Hop! There are lots of other makers participating this year, one for each day of the month!
Go check them out here:
