Sunday Quilt Inspiration: No-UFO

Here we go.....a little inspiration to help you get going on that UFO that's been sitting around for years, or maybe to get from idea to fabric to quilt sandwich, or perhaps to try your hand at free-motion quilting.  Whatever it is that's got you stonewalled, I have a few thoughts on ways to get off the wall and on the machine!

Quit calling them UFO's!  I know, it's cute and all, but the problems sometimes lie in the labels.  Instead of labeling the quilt a UFO, call it a quilt or quilt section.  The sections will be a quilt one day soon, if you think of your work as quilts rather than something that you won't finish.

Forget the original thought of the project.  Sometimes a quilt wants to be a table runner.  Sometimes it wants to be a lap quilt, not a queen.  Honor your work and listen to it.  I worked for weeks on this blue paisley quilt that, in my mind, had to be queen size.  I struggled and struggled, put it away and came back to it months later, still unable to figure out how to get a queen sized quilt out of what I had.   I finally listened to the quilt and saw that I was pushing myself to make a large quilt only because I always made full or queen.  I gave in and made a pretty little twin quilt for a granddaughter to sleep under.

Remember how to eat an elephant...one bite at a time.  In the case of quilt-making, it's one block at a time.  Don't fret over the whole thing.  Instead, focus on the one part you are working on.  Sure, there are times when you look back at what is complete, but don't let the big picture blind you from the focus of what is important right now.  This small quilt is made up of many left over pieces from other projects.  I knew only that I wanted an AAQI quilt with a theme dealing with being broken or fractured.
 

 Give it away, go on, give it.  Finish the sections by turning them into pillows, bags, or baskets and give them to friends as gifts.    Again, not every quilt must be, well, a quilt.  Once a section is sewn together, it can be any quilted project.  And quilt parts would much rather be gifts than UFO's!  The Christmas stocking here became a giveaway gift for a blog hop sponsored by Quilting Gallery.

Want to give it away but don't have a recipient in mind?  Donate small quilts made from sections to AAQI or make lap quilts for a nursing home.  This is an AAQI quilt that I made from a log cabin block I'd made for a project that just didn't work out. 

Finally, just do it!  Yes, jump in and finish the thing already!  Regardless of whether you change directions, create a gift, or finish by using your original plans, just get to it.  I finished several projects last year (2012) by forcing myself to work on UFO's.  I promised myself that I would finish one UFO before starting any new project.  This allowed me use the new projects as incentive to finish the UFO projects.  It worked--I wrapped up all but one of the UFO projects in the closet.

You can do it, too!  It's a matter of getting to it and staying there.
Have a great week of knocking out those no-UFO's!
Happy Quilting,
Mary