UFOs Are In My House -- Again

Actually, many of these are technically USOs (Un Started Objects). But they just keep accumulating, and the end of the year is coming, and there are gifts to make, and....

My Gracious! It's a jacket, not a quilt!

I'm blaming my cousin, Barb. She was here for a few days this past week, and she is an art quilter. She makes small quilts to hang on the walls instead of pictures, or to be used on flat, horizontal surfaces as objets d'art. She got me all jazzed to quilt again. It's her fault. 

We went out to lunch one day, and had planned to go to one or two of our local wineries for a tasting and ended up at one of my favorite quilt stores, Quiltmania, where we each bought fabric. Then we went to the White Bluffs Quilt Museum, then back to the house where we talked quilts, fabrics, ideas, and drank wine I already had. 

Placemats and quilts

At the Quilt Museum, I saw a small quilt on the wall I really liked, designed by Ricky Tims, and bought his book on making Convergence Quilts. I now have a UFO on my kitchen island. The main pieces have been cut, and today will be sewn. then cut again, then sewn again, then.... Yes, lots of cutting and sewing and keeping track of what goes where, but when it's finished it should be a small work of art!

Quilts - Lap and Bed Size

At Quiltmania, we found a panel of 4 placemats that will be beautiful in my kitchen. We each bought a panel, and now, as Barb says, when we use them we'll think of each other. Of course, every time I work on a small project, instead of bed or lap sized, I'll think of her.

Another Bed Quilt in Black

And I have, quite literally, boxes of USOs to start working on. Once I get the Winter Gifts done, I have a "commission" to make, and then there oh-so-many projects in the box. About half of the quilts I "finished" before are now complete. The edging has been hand stitched, and they are either folded and put away, or are being used.

Lap Sized Quilts

I don't know a single quilter who is ever DONE. I like the slightly snarky sense of one quilter I heard about when I first started quilting. She says every time she starts a project, she puts it in a plastic box labels it with the name of one of her friends, or in some cases, one of her frenemies. The quilt may not be for that person, but if she dies, the UFO will be given to that person and she can finish it, and have warm and kind thoughts about the newly departed. The really hard and complicated ones go in the latter category. She had a marvelous sense of humor. Perhaps that's what I should do. Since I don't really have any frenemies, at least not that I'm aware of, maybe I'll put those in boxes labeled with the names of people I know who don't quilt and or barely sew.