I am a firm believer that for every UFO in my closet, there is a good reason that it’s still a UFO. And, the most common reason is “I just don’t know what to do next.”
I got my Row Houses quilt together this weekend. And, I added some borders. Not the pieced borders that Flavin Glover included in the pattern, but nice borders. After all, this was all about the finish. And I pin basted it to a nice, respectable brown back and this morning, I started the quilting. I plan to quilt a small pointy meander all over it that reminds me of wind, eddying back and forth, catching and turning on itself.
I’m anxious to get started on the free motion part. But, first some structure. This quilt was a UFO because I ironed when I pieced it. (I didn’t know better…didn’t know there was a difference between ironing and pressing). It was nice to hear Patricia say she’d done the same thing and I knew exactly what she meant. I ironed it and the bigger the log cabin blocks got, the rounder they got along the edges.
There is not one straight seam in the quilt. Made it very hard to assemble. There’s puffiness everywhere that will need to be evenly distributed by creating an ever smaller and smaller grid, and then quilting my meander over that grid. As I quilt the grid, I force the seam lines to appear straight and sew them down that way. And, it’s working. But, it took a whole lot of pins to hold those lines straight until I can quilt them.
Kath was impressed by my decision to finish just ONE UFO, and not chide myself for the rest.
Well, when your UFO pile looks like this, you kinda have to come to terms with it.
Accept it for what it is. Embrace it. This is my body of incomplete work. One day. Maybe. And, for some of it, maybe not. This is just the ones that are started. There’s an equal amount of shelf space above for the kits that have fabrics gathered and patterns selected, but haven’t actually been started.
Yes, you get to see this photo because I got into the studio closet and finished the clearing up. I spent hours sorting piles of books that I’d gathered from around the studio and getting all my embroidery floss organized…not sure why that was important, but now, it’s done. I’m no longer ashamed to show pics. The UFO pile is about as bad as it gets in there right now.
As usual, I worked myself this weekend until I could barely stand, and then rewarded myself with some miniature piecing. And, then I had misgivings about whether it is better to re-create someone else’s quilt or strike out in my own direction, using the other person’s work as inspiration.
I guess you probably know where I came out on that one, but you can still look forward to the blog post anyway.
See ya’. Have a great Monday. Lane
5 comments:
The house quilt is coming together and you worked hard on your passion this weekend. I am starting to get unfinished projects piling up and I have to get them done. For 3 days I have just been cutting up fabric and I am almost to the finish line. I probably need 2 more days to complete the box.
The row house quilt is really charming. I'm still struggling with pressing vs. ironing. In fact, when I get upstairs today, that's the first thing to tackle with the French lavender quilt...
I have a knit UFO, a lovely soy-wool variegated hoodie that is three, now four sizes too small for my granddaughter. The hood stripes didn't line up properly, so I set it aside and now I'm planning to frame it as a work of art.
Embrace the UFO!!
PS the framing is also a UFO! :-(
Isn't it so interesting to look back on our earlier works and see how much we learned?
I love my first little hand quilted lap quilt. I had no idea how to bury the knots and my starts are all just oversewn stitches on the back!
But I can see with every quilt since, different skills have improved.
Well done for rescuing your quilt. I should be interested to see the quilting.
Way to go, that is looking really nice. Many vintage quilts that are beautiful aren't perfection as often they lacked a lot of tools available now like an electric iron beside them and all this nice measuring jazz of today. I am glad you are finishing the house one. On the flip side I think sewing or quilting should be fun and one should do whatever in the hey day they want in the sewing room so just pull out a ufo when inspired or put them to rest if doa by donating or turning into dog bedding.I've been sewing for a long time and you can't squelch creative spirit by hating what you are working on. It does leave a sense of accomplishment to get call a project done if it has been lingering forever. If I had a few ufos, I think one is a good goal. A creative spirit can only stand so much deprivation from doing what they want to do.We can cheer you on but it is your sewing/ quilting room and that is the place the one sewing needs to call the shots. Lol!
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