I’ve always been a serial project starter, but unfortunately that doesn’t mean I finish at the same rate. In an attempt to work through my UFO pile, I started a challenge over at the Boulder MQG.

This is an ongoing series of posts with different prompts and activities to work through your UFO pile, starting with listing out all your projects.

I separated my list into different categories.

SMALL PROJECTS

Sashiko Tote

I made the rainbow sashiko project as part of Try Something New Every Month and I’ve long intended on turning it into a tote bag. It’s a very easy finish, I just need to get my act together.

Heather Ross Tote

I made panels for a tote bag from Heather Ross several years ago but never finished it. I’m not entirely sure what pattern I want to use or how I want it to turn out, which is why I set it aside.

Cotton + Steel Pouch

I made Kristy a pouch from tiny Cotton+Steel HSTs a few years ago and started making one for myself. I just need to get it assembled.

ENGLISH PAPER PIECING PATTERNS

Hexie Quilt

I’ve been slowly trudging along with a red, pink, and orange hexie quilt, though I kind of consider this a forever project. I plan on just continuing to work on it until I get bored with it, which hasn’t happened yet.

Cotton+Steel Hexie Panel

I’m not entirely sure what the plan for this is. I had gotten a charm pack and was making hexies and joining them together. It could probably be made into a pillow or pouch, I just need to make it happen.

Little Rainbow Triangles

I really loved the idea of making a quilt from rainbow triangles that made hexagons. When the templates came they were a lot smaller than I expected, so I decided this wouldn’t be the quilt I had envisioned, but I still made a panel with the intention of turning it into a pillow or mini quilt. Again, just need to make it happen!

Big Rainbow Triangles

So after the first templates came I went and ordered ridiculously huge ones for a quilt. I did the math for a quilt 60″x72″ and I need 16 full hexagons and 4 half, so far I have 8. Which actually doesn’t seem so bad.

Mischief Quilt

I received the kit for the Mischief Quilt from NAME. I am no good at planning an entire quilt, so I decided to just pick a couple colors. All of the blocks are purple and teal with an orange center. There will be low volume white kite shapes in between the blocks. I have 50 of 100 done.

Diamond Thing

Another EPP project that I just stitched a bunch of shapes together until it became a big panel and then I abandoned it. It’s looking like I’m going to have a lot of mini quilts or pillows by the end of the year.

Rainbow Hexie Tablerunner

This has been on my UFO list since YEAR, it might have been the first EPP thing I made. I had the intention of it being a table runner and then just never finished it. For this one, it was largely because I wasn’t sure what my plan was.

FlowerPOW Blocks
When I first started EPP I made a ton of these FlowerPOW blocks. I need to either finish them or appliqué them onto something.

Triforce EPP
I made a Triforce EPP panel with the intention of making Josh a DS case, but then I miscalculated the size and it wasn’t right. I already quilted it and everything, I should just make it into a pouch, even if it won’t be the right size for a DS. Because that’s just ridiculous.

1000 Cranes Quilt

Another forever project, my 1000 crane quilt. Originally the goal was for it to be finished in July of this year, but that’s absolutely not happening. I have 585/1000. For awhile I would get really discouraged and upset whenever I would count and the number was lower than I thought it should be. But once I let go of the original deadline it got easier, and now I’m just refusing to let myself feel bad for not being further along. I only work on the cranes when I’m out of the house, and I’ve finished a lot of other projects in the meantime. It’ll get done eventually, but until then I’m just slowly stitching away.

QUILTS IN PROGRESS

By far the biggest UFO category for me is quilts that I’ve started and not finished. I’m not counting anything that I have the fabric for and plan to make, I’m only counting projects that I’ve actually started making blocks for or cutting fabric for.

Add It Up Quilt
A few years ago Josh got me a quilt kit for Christmas. I got all the patterned fabric cut but I also need to cut hundreds and hundreds of white squares. It’s very hard to get motivated to do that, so sadly this quilt still sits without a single block assembled.

Rainbow Scrappy Star Quilt
Last year I participated in a block bee and one of the blocks was this scrappy star. I had the idea it would be a fun rainbow block and made a test one. I’ve since cut most of the strips, all of the fabrics are different. When they’re all cut I’ll get them assembled.

Improv Rainbow Quilt
Last year there was a Boulder MQG meeting on improv quilting and I started using scraps to make different blocks for what will eventually be a rainbow improv quilt.

Wonky Cross Quilt
I’ve always loved the look of wonky cross quilts and I started one that quickly got set aside. I wanted to do different sizes and the math threw me off and it became exhausting to work on.

Crazy Rails Quilt
I don’t even know how long I’ve been working on this quilt at this point, but it’s been years. I saw Crazy Mom Quilt’s tutorial and it seemed like a great way to use up even small scraps. So whenever I’m cutting fabric or putting away scraps, I always cut the small pieces I have left into 1.5″x4″ strips and then use them as leaders and enders when I’m chain piecing.

Cotton+Steel Hourglass Blocks
I love this Missouri Star hourglass tutorial and I’ve been slowly making a scrappy Cotton+Steel version. I tend to do a lot of Cotton+Steel quilts because their fabrics all work so well together and even though they’re scrappy, the colors all compliment each other really well. I only have a handful of the blocks made, but whenever I’m cutting other fabrics I cut squares of the C+S to eventually sew together.

Christmas Star Quilt
I don’t have any Christmas quilts and last year I was determined to change that by starting two quilts at the same time. And then I didn’t finish either… The first is a sawtooth star quilt, I think I only finished three blocks. The biggest problem was I cut and assembled HSTs for about 6 blocks and then realized they were the wrong size. I got frustrated and haven’t worked on it since then.

Christmas Triangle Quilt
Another Christmas quilt I started was an equilateral triangle quilt. I love the look of it but I find construction so much more difficult than other quilts and I don’t love cutting them out. So it got set aside.

Heart Quilt
I started making a version of Cluck Cluck Sew’s heart quilt. I’m doing the smallest blocks (because I’m a glutton for punishment) and I’m making all of them different. I’m doing them reverse though so that the heart is a low volume white and the background is colored. The blocks themselves go together pretty quickly, but it’s a LOT of cutting and tiny pieces.

Rainbow Flying Geese Quilt
This is mostly just fabric cut right now, but I am making a rainbow flying geese quilt. I’ve been trying to be better about cutting everything first and doing the prep work in hopes that when I actually start, it’ll go much faster.

Evie and Mira’s Kitten Quilts
It’s been over two years of work, but all the blocks are finished for two different kitten quilts. However, there’s still the sashing. I have all the sashing cut, but attaching it is a different story…

2017 Traveling Quilt
Last year I participated in a traveling quilt and I have an amazing forest themed quilt from it. But I need to add a few blocks to make it bigger.

Bias Tape Quilt
I’m not sure if I should categorize this as a quilt in progress because I’m not sure if I’ll ever make enough for it to be a quilt. Last year Latifah Sharif did a workshop for the Boulder MQG on designing bias tape quilts. During the workshop I started the Airshow Quilt and while I really enjoyed it and like my blocks, I haven’t worked on it since then. The biggest thing is that I haven’t wanted to make more bias tape, which is obviously a very important part of getting this finished. This will probably get scaled down into a much smaller project.

Quilter’s Planner Sampler
I got a Quilter’s Planner last year but didn’t make any of the patterns from it, so I wanted to make sure I did that this year. I decided to make the sampler quilt which is a block of the month. Hopefully I can keep on task and actually have a quilt by the end of the year.

Boulder MQG BOM
The Boulder MQG BOM is another yearlong project. I’m trying not to work ahead and just make sure to be on time with making the blocks.

Modern Sewcialites BOM
I’m realizing how many year long projects I’m doing this year. The Modern Sewcialites quilt is another one.

QUILT TOPS

I have a bad habit of finishing a quilt top and then mentally finishing the project, when in reality there’s so much left until the quilt is actually done. I absolutely hate basting and quilting really isn’t my thing. So basically I love making quilt tops and then don’t like anything again until it’s time to bind. Last year I made a dent in my quilt top pile by getting some quilts longarmed. I had a roll of batting sent to Stephanie at Modern Sewciety and I am just slowly sending her all of my quilts until she decides she’s sick of dealing with me.

Summer in the Park Quilt

Finishing this quilt top was a big deal for me. I got a Lotta Jansdotter fat quarter bundle right when I started quilting and then was scared to use it. I’ve since learned that I shouldn’t buy FQ bundles because I feel this pressure to use the entire bundle and don’t want to split it up. This results in fabric sitting unused for a very long time. I got determined to finally use up this bundle and started looking for pattern ideas. I stumbled across a pattern that was designed for the fabric line and decided to go with it. It was a super quick project and a nice way to show off the different fabrics. You can find the pattern here.

Evie and Mira’s Tula Block Quilts

The last time GnomeAngel did the Tula Pink 100 Blocks QAL I decided to join in, but I didn’t get very far. Pretty early on I knew I wasn’t going to finish it. Instead of leaving myself with a pile of orphan blocks, I altered my original plan. I cut white squares the same size as the finished blocks and made two smaller quilts.

Scrap HST Quilt

I have a couple quilts that are just completely scrappy ones I put together to use up fabrics. One is just half square triangles in various fabrics.

Cotton+Steel Scrap Quilt

Another scrap quilt, all Cotton+Steel fabrics in squares and HSTs.

ALMOST FINISHED QUILTS

Temperature Quilt
This one might be a record for me on actually finishing up a project. I started the temperature quilt last January and quickly got very behind. However, this January I forced myself to get it finished up and sent it to Stephanie. Right now it’s all quilted and on the way back to me to be bound.

Red, Pink, Orange, and Yellow Scrap Quilt
This is a several year old quilt top I made. It’s all scraps in warm colors of different widths. This is another one Stephanie is sending back to me quilted and ready to be bound.

Hand Quilted Rainbow Quilt
Last year I started hand quilting a rainbow quilt and got pretty far on it. I love hand quilting with perle cotton and big stitches, there’s such a great texture and wonkiness to the stitches and I love it. I actually got really far into it, I’m just not sure why I abandoned it. But that definitely needs to be remedied!

Low Volume Star Quilt
I made a low volume star quilt top that I want to hand quilt, but I hadn’t started it because of the whole basting part. A friend from the Boulder MQG had a quilt lightly quilted on a long arm to avoid basting, and then hand quilted. I loved the effect and the idea of getting out of the basting, so I did that. I haven’t started hand quilting it yet, I might force myself to finish the rainbow one first.