UFQ Challenge

A couple weeks ago I joined a UFQ Challenge with 12 Tips to help you finish your UFQs. It is like a 12 step program, but for quilting. First step, count your UFQs and list them. I was sure I would be the queen of that one. But no a couple someone else's had more than me. What a relief! I was not at the top of the pile, which made me feel better.

I have 93 items on my list, though I know there is one more out there that I cannot find. Most of these are finished tops in need of quilting. My grandmother called them summer quilts, because you decorate the bed but not make it too warm during the hot summer nights. I have several summer quilts, partially due to size and in some cases they need backing fabric. I can only quilt smaller quilts on my Pfaff and it costs to send them out to be quilted so some are just sitting waiting until it is time for them to visit the quilter. On the other hand some of them are still in need of borders and in a few cases I just cannot decide what to do for a border. The fabric is there stacked with the unfinished top waiting to be bordered. There are one or two I was bored with so I stopped and put them aside, but now I am looking at them with fresh eyes.

In the pile of UFQs are also projects that I was side tracked from, due to other quilts, or life in general. Some are long-term projects because I am hand quilting them or hand appliquéing, and that takes time. After all there are only so many hours in the day and work is an inconvenience.

I picked my ten to start with and one is done, a few others are closer to being done than they were when I started, and more are moving toward completion. I think my favorite tip so far has been to take 15 minutes a day to work on them. That is an easy task. It is easy to find 15 minutes a day while the laundry is swishing, dinner is simmering, waiting at the doctor's office, or even at lunch. I remember about 10 years ago I hand quilted a wall hanging between September and December just working on it at lunch. I devoted 10 -15 minutes a day to quilting. I was also more relaxed in the afternoon classes just because I took that time out for me.

At the moment I am off on medical leave and using the time to do things around the house and work on my UFQs, hoping to get caught up before I return to the classroom to finish off the school year and my career. I am hoping that once I retire my pile of UFQs will diminish to nothing and that I will only have the current projects I am working on those in waiting. But as I quilter I know that this is probably only a dream.