Jaggie interviews a UFOaholic

Investigative Reporter: Jaggie the Bear

We were at Dayton Quilt Guild Wednesday morning and the members presented Veronica with a beautiful quilt as a thank you for being the guild's President for the past year.  Here is a picture of it, isn't it wonderful?

She was also given the extra fabric that was left over from the quilt.  There were a lot of triangles, so I guess this will now be added to the list of UFO's.  Do you ever stop to wonder why we have UFO's? I've never really stopped to think about it, but today I decided to sit back and think about the reason or reasons.  I guess I ran out of time and went on to something else, or I didn't like the technique or class and just quit.  It was never that I ran out of fabric, fabric is something I never run out of. Sometimes I just got bored or lost interest in a project.  There were a couple that I decided were ugly, especially when I let someone talk me into a fabric.  I don't like florals, and sometimes my friends decide I need florals.  There are a couple of quilts that just had their borders ripped off because I just couldn't make myself quilt them.......the borders were florals.  So now I know that I will never let my friends talk me into buying floral fabric again.  I don't think the reason I have UFO's is because I don't have the right ruler, either, I've got tons of rulers.  I think there are just too many patterns out there that I want to make.  I just keep starting new projects and toss the old ones aside.  Well, no more.  I've got my list made, I actually wrote it at the airport Tuesday night as I sat and waited for my flight that was delayed and delayed and then cancelled and then I was moved to another flight and then that was cancelled, and then I got moved again, and on and on, so anyway I had lots of time for my UFO list.  I got 51 UFO's on my list just sitting there that I pulled out of my head.  Now I have triangles to add, that's 52 and the list goes on and on and on.....

I'm thinking of taking pictures of 6 quilt UFO's at a time, work on those and get them done.  I'm also thinking about getting that much needed, yes, NEEDED quilting machine.  I had one, but we sold it as we needed the space in the warehouse.  Here are my 6 pictures, if I show you what I started and left, I'll feel like I have to show you the completed top, and once I get a quilting machine, the completed quilts.

This was a birthday block that we did for each other in a bee back in the 90's.  Yes, 1990's. and a very long time ago.  I received 9 blocks, but decided this was not enough for the size quilt that I wanted.  So my blocks sat and waited.  2 years ago a small group from my local quilt guild decided we were going to do a block robin.  There were 6 of us, so we decided that we would make 2 blocks for each person and trade the "boxes" every two weeks.  Well, we all know that you can't really make a quilt of any size with 10 blocks made for you by your friends, so we went around again.  I'm not sure how I got 19 blocks, but I did.  So armed with my 9 and 19 I set off to retreat last week.  I had to make 2 more blocks (yes, this is the quilt you saw hanging the other day) and I was ready to put my top together.  Why did I pick this one to be my number 1?  Well, it's simple, it only needs a border, but it seems that borders are the hardest thing for me to add to a quilt to finish the top.  This one will get a border, you just wait and see.



Here are some 5" finished blocks that did not really measure 5".  This was an exchange (again from the 90's) that I started but never got done.  I was semi new to quilting and I just couldn't figure out how to make a 5" Sawtooth Star.  I could figure a 4" and a 6", but that 5" was elusive.  I tried and I ripped and ripped and sewed and ripped some more.  Now I look at it and think, geez, this is so easy.  So I worked on these for a bit at retreat, but then I ran out of white on white for the background.  I had tons of purples cut out, so I guess I had 2 reasons to stick this one in the corner and leave it there.

This one was another exchange between 3 of us.  I remember is quite well, it was my idea, I loved it and I had to have it.  This one is in Fon's and Porter's For The Love of Quilting July/August 1999 issue.  We actually only exchanged the little Aunt Grace flower squares.  I needed 49 flower blocks, but overachiever that I am, I made 64 blocks.  I worked on some of the green stems and leaves at retreat, and I needed 80 for the 49 flowers.  Now I realize I need way more than 80 and each stem has 4 leaves.  That top leaf has one leaf turned wrong, but I'm not changing it, it's going to stay "wrong". It is my humility block.  

 This one is only 7 months old, and it needs a borders, what can I say, I don't like putting borders on,  but now that you've seen it, I have to finish it.

  
This one is 8 months old.  I had it all put together, didn't like it, ripped it apart and put it back together in rows that will be on point.  I worked  on it a bit at retreat but realized I didn't have background fabric for setting triangles.  So back to the box it went.

Yikes!!! Another 1990's exchange.  And what does it need?  Well a border of course.

Ok, I'm on it, I'll work on it as soon as I get that Round Robin quilt done.....


Veronica Cox, as told to

                                                Investigative Reporter