The UFO Project

A UFO, for you non-quilters, is an UnFinished Object: A quilt project that has been abandoned (temporarily, you promise yourself...HA!) while other quilt projects are pursued. Different groups define UFO differently...anywhere from X months since you last worked on the project to Y years since you started it. I prefer the first definition (X > 12), because I have some hand-piecing that I've been stitching off and on since 2006 and expect to finish in time for Iowa's Bicentennial...maybe...but "will take the rest of my life" was always part of the plan.

Ten years in a box without a single stitch added is considered a UFO no matter who you hang out with.



I created this quilt top (and backing) in the summer of 2000, when I was wasting my life and throwing away my future in graduate school. I dyed the fabrics in the kitchen sink of my crappy student apartment, multiple baths for the purples and greens. I made three tops with that pattern--I cannot remember the name, it was a free block from the internet--over the course of that summer.

I pinned the layers together in the spring of 2002, at a quilt retreat (the part of the process that I hate hate hate)--I had every intention of finishing this quilt that year and giving it away. The intended victim recipient exited my life abruptly and the quilt ended up in a box, which I have moved four times.

I can finally look at it without crying until I puke--this is important for just about every hobby, not just quilting, right?--so here it is, under the needle. I'm actually about 25% finished with the quilting since the photo was taken. The thread is variegated and doesn't blend into the purples nearly as much as I had hoped.

FUZZ is not impressed.



My goal was to finish it up before the February guild meeting, so I have something for Show-and-Tell, but Mandatory Overtime will eat my next two weeks. Das tut mir weh.