Am I finished my Christmas sewing or deadline quilts? No, but I am making progress on them. I just finished quilting one of the basted deadline quilts this afternoon, and I've already trimmed it so it's ready for binding. I've got the baby quilt I need ready to sew, and the last of the fabric I needed for Christmas gifts just arrived. Most of the grandkids gifts are finished, on my end at least, DH is still working on his part. I've got stuff to make the adults, but I'm feeling pretty good about my timeline.
If you've read my blog for any amount of time, you know I'm always working on several projects simultaneously. I do have a new project I'm cutting for, but overall, I'm UFO hunting.
UFO hunting? I have a closet full of quilt tops that need quilting, it's not like I need to look far to find UFO's. Those aren't the UFO's I'm hunting for. A lot of the UFO's I'm hunting are in plain sight, but I haven't been seeing them. How many times have I walked into the sewing or fabric rooms trying to ignore the numbers of UFO's hanging about? Too many to count. I ignored them so long I stopped seeing them. Piles of quilt blocks everywhere, that I never seemed to have time to work with because I always had another deadline quilt.
I think everyone has common places to get stuck. For me, it's borders and sashing. If I decide a quilt needs borders or sashing, it often gets set aside, because I don't want/have time to cut those. Does it take a long time to cut those? Not usually. If you are using one of those border prints and you have to to fussy cut a long strip, ok, that takes a while. I know, I just did that! If you are just cutting regular fabrics, it really doesn't take that long, but somehow, I make it a big deal in my head and I get stuck.
When I got home from this latest trip, I started realizing how many UFO's I actually have lying around. I started by thinking, for every deadline quilt I assemble, I'll assemble a UFO. Good thought but right now I have way more UFO's than deadline quilts. I don't enjoy assembling quilts in the summer, but the weather is finally cooling off, and I don't mind it now that I'm not sweating in the sewing room. I started assembling quilts that didn't need borders.
I don't want a border on this one. It's made from one of my jelly rolls mixed with some strips I was given. This one is now assembled and in the quilt closet.
This one is assembled too. I've debated a border for it, but it's big enough as is, so I think I'll forego one.
I think I've assembled at least six quilt tops in ten days or so. I didn't take photos of all I've been doing.
This one is currently on the design wall and will be the next one assembled.
I'm working on the easiest to get to quilt tops first, but I'm also hunting down other ones, stuck in containers, totes, or project boxes. I have a few that are only a cut quilt, no sewing has been done at all. Those can get done as leaders/enders later. Right now I'm looking for the ones that need sashing and borders and making plans. I just cut a border for one quilt top that I just assembled, and I'm piecing a border for another one I just assembled. I'm trying to problem solve as I go.
All the hangers in my quilt closet already have a quilt top on them, but since I've used up so many king sized battings, I have room on the shelves in the quilt closet and for now, I'm piling the quilt tops on the shelves. I've basted two more quilts this week, and with my FMQ every day, I'm constantly reclaiming pins so I can baste more. I'm piecing backings, assembling quilt tops, and problem solving every day. Sometimes I'm using my UFO as a leader/ender, sometimes I'm using a deadline project or Christmas gift as my leader/ender and the UFO is the main thing. What I'm really doing is making progress. I've made piles go down, even emptied some containers! It's going to take a long time to work my way through this mess, but I'm thinking this could be a really productive winter for me.
I love Bonnie Hunter quilt mysteries, and I read the introductory post for this year's mystery. It looks like fun, I like the colors, but no, not this year. I keep getting emails on next year's murder mystery quilt. It's a Murder on the Orient Express! So fun! But no, not this year. I'm not doing them because I'm actually excited about tackling my UFO's, and I don't need the distraction. I'm sure there will be mystery quilts in my future, but not right now.
I feel much better about having piles of quilt tops than having parts of quilt tops everywhere. I have plans for quite a bit of non quilt related sewing, so if I can keep a pile of basted quilts, and do my hour of FMQ every morning, I will start seeing those quilt tops get finished.
Anyone else feeling the UFO pull? We could encourage each other on the journey.
