UFO Hunting

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. 

Basting Spree

DH will be home in about an hour, and boy, did I stay busy while he was gone! He helped me layout the first quilt after we set up the basting tables.

Quilt top #1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

All of these are now basted, and the first one is almost half quilted. I don't pin baste as closely as I used to now that I have a machine with a larger harp. Where I used to shoot for a pin every 3-4 inches, I now shoot for a pin every 6-8 inches. I do pin closely on the edge, but the middle I don't, especially when I'm using 100% cotton batting since the fabric clings to it so nicely. I actually still have some pins left. I have four jars of pins, and I emptied three of them and went into the fourth. With DH coming home, I took down the basting tables, and moved all the living room furniture back into place. I'll be basting a couple smaller quilts, but I can do that on my cutting table in the basement. 

When I started basting, quilt #2 wasn't assembled, and I hadn't pieced the backing for quilt #3. I did those things while I was taking breaks from basting. I could have finished a couple more big quilt tops and basted today, but honestly, I think basting some smaller quilts makes better sense. One of the big quilts I had planned to baste needs borders, two of those are already cut, and the pieced border is partially assembled. The thing is, I've misplaced the cut borders. I know I haven't used them for anything else. I know they are in my sewing room, not the fabric room, and my guess is they are at the bottom of a pile. Rather than tear my sewing room apart looking for them, I'm working my way through the piles instead. I've found piles of quilt blocks I had completely forgotten about. Cooler weather is absolutely my favorite time to assemble quilts, so as I find piles of blocks, I'm assembling them into quilt tops. I've got three quilts worth of rows slung across my ironing board right now! 

I was thinking about why I have so many stacks of quilt blocks, and I think I've figured it out. In 2022, we we gone from home for three months. Before we left, I stuck was I was working on aside, and worked on deadline stuff when I got back. In 2023 we were gone for four months. Before I left I stuck what I was working on aside, and when I got back worked on deadline stuff. Last year we were home all year, but my priority was quilting UFO's and I finished 40 quilts. This year has been non-stop, and in total we've been gone for four months over three different trips. 

I do still have deadline projects, three of which are now basted! I have to make a baby quilt for a November baby, but I'm thinking it might be Christmas before the baby gets it. I still have Christmas projects to make for my family. In the midst of those projects, I'm going to be tackling the stacks of blocks all over my sewing and fabric rooms. Some of them are neatly in project organizers, but my goal is to assemble as many quilts as I can while the weather is cooler. 

I want to keep basting quilts as I have pins available too. I pieced a backing for a smaller quilt today, and I cut the batting for it too. I need a year (or more) to play catch up. That said, piecing is my favorite thing to do! So how do I slow down the piecing and start getting caught up on projects? I'm planning on tackling that from a couple different directions. I have a few piecing heavy projects that I've been wanting to do. I have two sampler quilts on my list, and those always take longer because all the blocks are different. I think 2026 is a good time to start those.

Scrap quilts are always something I allow myself to start otherwise the scraps take over. I'm thinking string quilts and crumb quilts are going to slow me down as well. Those require a LOT of piecing, so I can get lots of piecing in, but not make the blocks for that many quilts. 

If I can keep a stack of quilts basted, and consistently FMQ an hour per day, I will make progress on the backlog. I'm not sure how much travelling 2026 will have. We have at least one big trip planned, but a couple other options are on the table as well. Our plan is to stay at home for the winter. I'm not sure how likely that is with both my parents having health issues, but for now, I'm going to plan like we are staying home for the winter. Working on the things I prefer to do in cooler weather is what's important right now, because cooler weather doesn't last long in southern Arizona. 

Rally Sewing

 DH will be heading up a scooter rally very soon. Sometimes his scooter rallies for his club require great efforts from our whole family, and other times he takes the rally on the road and I don't have to do anything, or at least not as much. This year the rally is going on the road, and originally, I didn't have to do anything for it. The funny thing is, that even with no real advertising or anything, the rally has become much larger than he was thinking it would be, and we have several verified riders from other states and even from across the country. With so many out-of-towners coming, he really wanted to do something more than what he had originally planned. With all of our travelling, we were under a time crunch, so we were a bit limited in what we could do. I normally make rally bags for the scooterists, and we get sponsors to donate things to put in them. DH knew we didn't have time to get sponsors and such, but he did ask if maybe I could make smaller than normal rally bags. 

I had a couple different license plate fabrics in stash, and cut those up for the cause. All of that single fold bias tape I had sewed up while making luggage tags earlier this year made great drawstrings! 

I am always keeping an eye out for fast and easy things to sew, to use for gifts or giveaways for DH's business. I found a tutorial for making lip balm holders, and I knew they'd be quick to sew up. I had purchased the clips before our last trip, and the lobster clips are the only thing I needed that I don't normally have in stash. If you are looking for stocking stuffers and have some extra jelly roll strips lying around, this might be something you want to try making. 

These were very quick to sew, and for the loop to attach the clip, I used the sewn up bias tape scraps again! I used scooter fabrics for the rally, but just an FYI, you end up folding the fabric, so not only do you need a small scale print, but you need to use caution if it's directional. We bought blank lip balms on Amazon, and he made labels with the graphic for the rally on it. It's the same graphic as the t-shirts. I had four different fabrics I used for the lip balm holders, so just like with the rally bags, not everyone will get the same thing. 

Now that the rally sewing is done, and I'm partially finished with the Christmas sewing, I'm taking a break from that and assembling some of the queen/king quilts. I baste the giant quilts on two eight foot long folding tables which completely takes over the living room. If I can do that while DH is out of town, then he isn't inconvenienced by the mess. He wouldn't complain if I did it while he was home, but to even put the tables up I have to move all the furniture, and you can't see the TV, and...it's just a lot. If I can do it when he's out of town, at least I'm only inconveniencing myself, but basting on the big tables is easier, so it's only sort of inconvenient for me. I have four queen/king quilt tops ready to baste now, but there's one more I'd really like to get basted and I haven't even started assembling it (blocks are done). I also have two more big ones that only need borders sewn on, and another that has blocks that need to be sewn together, but will get no borders. 

I just finished quilting a quilt this morning (it's a Christmas gift), so all of my basting pins are free. I don't know how many big quilts I can baste, but I know I've done three queen/kings at once before, and I'm sure I had some pins left. My goal is to baste until I'm out of pins. I've got a whole closet full of quilt tops, so when I know I don't have enough pins to baste another big one I'll switch to something smaller. Three of the big quilts are my top priority, two others I'd like to get done soon-ish. The other big quilts can wait, and none of what's hanging in the closet is a priority. Actually, my next deadline quilt is a baby quilt that I've barely started. As soon as I've got these big quilts assembled, that baby quilt will be my sewing priority, maybe mixed in with some Christmas projects. By the time I get the baby quilt top done, I should have reclaimed enough basting pins to baste it! FMQ one hour per day may not seem like much, but it does keep things moving along. 

Finish #8 Simple Yet Striking

 Not all quilts need to be complicated. Sometimes it's the simplest of quilts that catch my eye. My latest finish was a quilt top I sewed in a hotel...in 2023. I sewed so many quilt tops in the three months of living in that hotel, I'm not even sure I've quilted half of them yet. I'll take any finish as a win these days, and I really like this quilt.

The red squares and the whites with black designs are all scrappy. The black squares were leftover backing fabric, and the amount I had of that determined the size of the quilt. I know it's just four patches alternating with squares, but I think the quilt is quite fun.  I used a black and white striped binding. I was going to use red, since the backing is red fleece, but when I auditioned the red, I decided I liked the stripe better. Who doesn't love a striped binding? 

I made other quilts with this same pattern at that hotel. That trip was all about using up my 2" cut squares. After quilting that denim quilt, my arm needed a break, so for this quilt I put the walking foot on the Janome, and just did a crosshatch design by quilting diagonally through the squares. It was easy on my arm, and crosshatching just looks good on anything. I'm sure the color choice makes this quilt more striking, but even in the other colorways I did, it was still a fun, simple design. 

I really need to do a basting spree and get a pile of quilts basted and ready to quilt. I had hoped to baste a bunch of king sized quilts while DH is gone later this month, but I only have one of those quilt tops done. I've been working on some projects for DH, as well as Christmas stuff, so assembling quilts hasn't been on my to do list. A basting spree while DH is gone is still a good idea though. Instead of basting the big quilts, I'm thinking of digging out the scrap batting, making Frankenbatts and basting whatever I've got that fits the Frankebatts. I've got a closet full of quilt tops, and too much scrap batting, so doing a basting spree that deals with some of that is almost as helpful as basting the big quilts. If I still set up the basting tables in the living room, it will leave my cutting table clear for trimming up batting scraps so I can piece them together, and allow me to figure out some pieced backings too. 

With my new plan in mind, my current goal is to get as much of the Christmas stuff made as I can before DH leaves, then make a huge mess with batting scraps, pieced backings and basting while he's gone. Piecing batting together is always a messy chore for me. I tend to wait too long in between times where I piece batting, so then when I do, I'm sorting it into similar sized pieces, trimming straight edges so I can sew them together. Times like that I wish we had a full basement instead of a half basement, because I end up with piles everywhere! It's definitely a matter of making a bigger mess to clean things up, because once I finish, I've got empty or near empty bins for scrap batting, I've used up orphan blocks and misc. fabrics by piecing backings, and I've managed to get piles of fabric put away now that I have more room on the fabric shelves. Nothing busts fabric better than backings! We'll have to see how far I get!

UFO or New Start or It's Own Category?

 In my quilting log, I keep records of my finishes, and I like to note whether a finish was a UFO (for my purposes a UFO was started in the prior year or earlier) or a new start. If I am working start to finish on a quilt over January 1st, I tend to annotate it as a WIP, so I know it may have been started the previous year, but never languished waiting for attention. 

When I got back from the last trip, I had a few basted quilts waiting for me. One of those was a denim quilt I wanted to finish for DD#2's birthday. DD#2 started asking me for a new denim quilt a couple years ago. Her old denim quilt was one of my first bed-sized quilts, and she was just a young girl when I made it. I used a juvenile sheet set to back both it and it's twin, and I added all kinds of fun girly patches on the front. DD#2 still loves that quilt, it's a good childhood memory for her. Her husband is not a fan of it, however. He thinks it looks like a little girls quilt, which of course, it is. Since they don't have any girls, he's never been immersed in girl stuff, so he doesn't get it. DD#2 loves the weight of a denim quilt (I made her a weighted blanket but she doesn't like it as much) but she wanted to know if I could make her a new denim quilt. I have plenty of denim, I could likely make six denim quilts, but what I don't have a lot of is time to make said quilts. 

My sister and I were trolling thrift stores looking for craft supplies a few months ago, and I came across a denim quilt top that was finished. It was unremarkable in pattern, but was well sewn. I knew DD#2 would get a denim quilt a lot faster if I just bought that quilt top. Since piecing and quilting are two totally different lists in my life, a finished quilt top could jump the line. 

I basted the quilt before I left on the last trip, knowing that I would only have two weeks or less to get it quilted when I got back if I wanted it done for her birthday. Since I didn't piece the top myself, and DD#2 is all about the actual quilting, I decided to quilt something different in every area.

I ended up with some bunching in the sashing strips between rows. Funnily enough the border is OK, so maybe the borders were a little short. I used every shade of purple thread I had, including every variegated thread that included purple. There are about 100 different quilting designs on this quilt, all done freehand. 

As usual, the quilting show up better on the back. There is no bunching on the back, so maybe the front is just a matter of denim not being amenable to "quilting it out" as far as imperfections go. 

No matter how much I played with the color in editing mode, I couldn't get the close ups right. The purple in the photo where you can see the whole back is closest to the correct color of the minky backing. It's a blue-purple, not a red-purple.

I quilted many long hours, much to the chagrin of my RSI, to get this done in time. I did, however, get to give it to her on her birthday! It was someone's UFO, but not mine. It was my finish #7 for 2025!