Quilt Factory: UFOs Turned Into Finished Quilts

Over the last year, I’ve been working to tie up some loose ends. I've got way too many UFOs. If you’re not a quilter, you may be asking what I’m doing with alien aircraft, and where do I keep them. In quilt language, UFO stands for un-finished objects---meaning quilts that were started, but not finished. I prefer to call them WIPs—works in progress.

       One day in a burst of organization, I gathered all my WIPs together, and hung them on hangers. I had 12! A couple of them were still in the piecing stage, but most were quilt tops that needed to be quilted. They ranged in size from bed sized to table runners.

I made a list and separated out the ones that I needed to finish quilting by hand. I’d work on those while I watched TV at night.

Top priority in the hand quilting pile was a Hawaiian quilt wall hanging that was supposed to be a wedding gift for my sister and her husband. In a nanosecond moment of delusional hope, I thought I could finish it in time to enter it in the Puyallup fair.  I missed that deadline by more than a month, but I missed the wedding deadline by a lot more. As I was stitching the finishing binding on, I thought “Looks like it’s going to be a fifth anniversary present instead of a wedding gift.”

Ulu quilt made for Cynthia and Bruce Iverson.

The bed sized quilt tops would be a lot easier to quilt on a long arm machine. Shoving a queen-sized quilt through the 7” throat of my sewing machine, while trying to keep my stitches even in a creative quilting motif is not an easy task.  I’d need to make an appointment at one of my favorite quilt shops, Trains, Fabric, Etc. to rent time on their long arm quilting machine.

Everybody always asks why I don’t have my own long arm machine.  I’ve got the room, but not the cash. They start at about $10,000 and go up to $30,000. That’s several semester’s worth of tuition, or a car! And owning a long arm is similar to owning your own swimming pool—lots of complicated maintenance for a little bit of fun. For now, I’d rather rent. When I win the lottery, I may feel differently.

Back to my WIPs. To get through them, I needed some discipline. I made a rule that I couldn’t start a new project until I finished three WIPs. I didn’t go overboard and say “until all the WIPs were complete,” because that would just turn quilting into drudgery and punishment, stifling any new ideas. Of course, making the rule guaranteed that I’d have to break it, but, it sort of wasn’t my fault.

Last year around this time, my Zumba class had a fundraiser for a Zumba gal who was going through a really tough time: cancer, no health care insurance, two small children, and a husband who left her.

My contribution was to make a quilt to be raffled. It could raise some money for her, and use up some of my Christmas fabric. Another one of my quilting goals is to shrink my fabric stash. It wasn’t really breaking my new project limitation rule, just bending it a little. Besides, it would be for a good cause. I’d have to complete it, and it would be quick.

I was pleased with how the quilt, “Home for the Holidays” turned out. It hung for a couple of weeks in our gym while people bought raffle tickets. Other people must’ve liked it too because it raised more than $500.

"Home for the Holidays" raffle quilt

I got back to my WIPs. I finished two of them.

Then Sarah requested a music quilt (new project) to hang in her apartment. It was done in time to put it under the Christmas tree for her. But, as often happens, one quilt leads to another. Sarah’s quilt led to Jerica’s quilt—same quilt, different fabrics. (More on this in a future blog).

Sarah's music quilt

I’m finishing up Jerica’s quilt now. Even though her quilt was a “new project,” it helped me knock two WIPs off my list. When I packed my bag to quilt Jerica’s on the long arm, I also optimistically tucked in two wall hangings in case I finished hers, and still had time.  The long arm was all mine from 10 am until 6 pm.

The owner of the shop helped me load Jerica’s 48 x 70” quilt. I don’t get on the machine often enough to remember what goes on which roller, and which way to crank those rollers. I chose the thread and quilted until 1:00, then took a break to eat the lunch I’d packed.

Jerica's quilt on the long arm quilting machine.

There wasn’t much left to quilt, so I was sure that I’d get to at least one of the wall hangings. It would be “That Fall Feeling,” a wall hanging. I designed it after taking a reverse appliqué course from Nancy Lee Chong a few years ago.

At 2:30 I asked the gal who was quilting on the other long arm to help me load the fall quilt. It measures 42 x 42. It’s not big but I hadn’t planned how to quilt it, so that slowed me down a little. I never seem to get inspired with quilt designs ahead of time. I always try to plan ahead, but nothing comes to me until I’m standing there gripping the handles of the machine. And it did come to me: swirls on the night sky, echo quilting on the pumpkins, and pumpkins in the border.

"That Fall Feeling" on the long arm machine.

At 4:15, it was done. Just the binding and label to go, and it would be hanging before Halloween! I was pooped, but enjoying the feeling of accomplishment. Two quilts done!

I was unpinning the orange and black quilt from the rollers on the machine, when the other quilter came rushing in, “Oh good! I came in to help you load your last quilt. Hurry up!”

I’d convinced myself that I could quilt the last one, a fourth of July wall hanging, on my home machine, later. It was a long time until July. I was tired.

I took a deep breath, and tried to rise to her expectations. We loaded it up. I found a spool of red, white, and blue thread and wound some bobbins. My pressured “inspiration” was to quilt loops and stars. Some of the stars aren’t twinkling very brightly (maybe they’re dark holes), but they’ll do. I’ve always said that I don’t make perfect quilts, I make good ‘nuff quilts. At 5:30, I was done and had a half an hour left to do a little shopping.

Fourth of July quilt, just needs the binding sewn down

Four of my WIPs are now officially complete! The stack is shrinking, only five left! What’s that? I think I hear a Christmas quilt calling my name.  

If you click on the photos, they'll get bigger and you can see the quilting. 

Laura Keolanui Stark is eyeing her stash of Christmas fabric with glee! She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com.