Monday Motivation: Problem UFOs

Every January, well really every January, February, March, April…., I decide to tackle my overwhelming UFO problem. This will never happen as long as I continue to start new projects faster than I finish old ones. Each month, though, I do try to finish at least one old project. In January, everything is a UFO because they were all started prior to 2021. Now it is February already and time to set some goals on what I want to accomplish this month. Both of these projects I consider problem UFOs.

This quilt has gone through several iterations. The center is complete and now I’m working on borders.

I just love working with Moda’s Fairy Dust Ombres. These colors are so pretty and the gradations create some nice color combinations. I started with a jelly roll to make these blocks and had quite a bit of fabric left over so I cut the rest of the strips into squares to make a simple pieced border.

Now, it’s time to arrange the border blocks to make sure same or similar colors aren’t to close together or there isn’t a checkerboard effect or some other issue that draws undue attention. I hoped to have this top finished in January but it didn’t happen. It’s time to move it off the design wall so it is a February priority.

The other priority is the quilt that’s currently on the frame. It is an old, old UFO but I still love the fabric. This is such a pretty floral in the border and this grapevine background print is one of my favorite fabrics EVER.This quilt has been in the to-be-quilted pile for a long time. It is partially quilted so I loaded it on the frame and got busy. I barely started when I saw this rectangle of background fabric.

Ahhh, that’s why it was abandoned. I really thought this would be a quick finish. I didn’t realize it was one of my problem UFOs until I saw the piecing mistake. I’m not sure how to fix it this late in the game. Generally, I don’t worry too much about piecing errors and figure they get lost in the big picture but this one really stand out. I have not found any more of the background fabric in my stash so I will have to come up with Plan B.

There are some types of fabric that I no longer care to work with. Homespuns have been the first of those to go. I found some people who were looking for homespuns and shipped off hundreds of yards to them. What I have left is scraps and pieces fat quarter size and smaller. In January, I cut a bunch of 5″ tumbler out of these pieces. Tumbler quilts are very fast to make and I can piece a donation size in about a day. Even though this is not a UFO, it will get rid of some stash. That always makes me happy!

Tune in next Monday to see which of these projects progressed! Do you set weekly goals for quilting projects? I’m always interested to see how other quilters tackle their UFOs, especially problem UFOs.