UFO Bonanza: One Down, Many to Go
I’ve continued sorting my UFOs and there are several I am really excited about. A couple of ideas have evolved along the way. (If you’re not a quilter, a UFO is what we call an UnFinished Object. It’s a project you started but didn’t complete.) Here are the takeaways so far.
- It will be more interesting, more challenging and more fun if I finish these projects creatively. In other words, they won’t necessarily look as they might have five or 10 years ago. Blocks, borders and units may be put into other quilts entirely! This gets me jazzed in a big way!
- If I work on UFOs all year, I can create a new program for guilds with the finishes. How much fun would that be?! I need to come up with a catchy title. The working title is A Year of UFOs, but that’s not clever enough. If you think of something, please let me know!
I have quite a few of these little baskets. I used a free tutorial on a blog called See How We Sew. The baskets are from Cuddle Me Quick by Christine Porter and Darra Williamson for That Patchwork Place. The technique is very clever and I was clearly having fun making little baskets.
I tried some different arrangements until I realized that I had some wonky flower blocks in a similar color scheme to the baskets.
These eight blocks were from a pattern I purchased called Daisiez by Jan Mullen. She was making improv patchwork long before it was widely recognized. These were also a lot of fun to make.
I messed around on the design wall until something clicked.
I liked this idea: grouping the baskets in fours and sprinkling them in with the flowers. The flowers are 10″ and the baskets are 4″ blocks, so I’d need to add some coping strips. Not a big deal.
I just sewed four baskets together and then I added 1.5″ strips to each side to make them match the 10″ flower blocks. I decided to add a scrappy yellow border to help tie things together.
My next border idea was to create a pink and green checkerboard. I made a little bit and auditioned on the design wall. What do you see as the problem?
For me it was that the rest of the quilt feels free-spirited, a little wonky and mischievous. But then the checkerboard is very precise and regular. It doesn’t fit the mood of the quilt center.
My next two ideas were to make a hot pink and red piano key border and to add some baskets in. The baskets fell flat but I liked the piano keys. So I spent about half a day making it, which I consider a worthwhile investment of my time.
So here’s where I ended up on Saturday afternoon, Dec. 28. I’m pretty happy with it but I think I may cut curves into the edges after it’s quilted.
It’s not easy to draw a beautiful line with a mouse but you get the idea. Wouldn’t that add a nice touch of softness to the finish? And since the quilt is wonky already, I can make the curves wonky, too—or not. Wonky or sedate, they’ll need to be gentle because the border is only about 4″ wide.
I thoroughly enjoyed moving these blocks out of the UFO pile. I’m excited for the quilting to commence. And I think this will be the first quilt I’ll add into the new trunk show: One Year of UFOs (working title).
Color me jazzed. 😁
Tags: improv patchwork, scrap quilts, stash bandit trunk shows, UFO
Lucy Rognes
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Love your thought process in creating a fun, colorful quilt that any little girl (or big girl, too) would love.
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Beth T.
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I like it! 2020 will be my year of completing languishing projects, and I love the idea of finding a new spark by combining some of them.
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Diann Jones
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I like your final quilt, but don’t you still have 16 blocks left? I counted 36 blocks in the original setting. What will you do with them?
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Diane Harris
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Yes, ma’am! This weekend I put them into an improv sampler. Photos coming up soon! 😊
Anne Wiens
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Re: a name for this guild program:
My guild has an annual U.F.O. work day we call “Space Camp.”
“Space Odyssey” would be another idea.
How about “FIFI: Found It, Finished It”?
Or (I REALLY like this one), since you are doing something other than you had originally planned with some of these blocks….drumroll…. “On Second Thought…”
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Diane Harris
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You, my friend, are a genius!
Pam Carlson
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I enjoyed reading and seeing your design process as you used your UFOs!
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Ramona Johnson
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Love this quilt! Two projects turned into one spectacular finish! Can’t help with your “title“. When I hear UFO, I automatically think of “Take me to your Leader” 😂
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Shasta
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I really like it! You can finish two projects at the same time. It will look fabulous with a curved border. I think a lot of times UFOs are waiting for us to develop a skill level or to be able to think outside of the original plan.
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Jan Turner
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I do really like the baskets and flowers quilt. The piano keys boarder is sharp, especially with the curvy edge.
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