UFO Sunday #2 – From UFO to WIP

It’s UFO day and time to check in on the design wall:

free motion quilting | Leah Day

Whoa!  It’s empty!  The 365 quilt has been transformed from a space hogging, design wall clogging, headache inducing UFO to a daily stitchy WIP (work in progress):

free motion quilting | Leah Day

Yes, this is my ratty couch and it is the most comfortable place in the house to sit and hand bind.  The natural sunlight coming in the window and bright overhead light are very nice for hand work, but I still use an extra clip light to illuminate my hand work.

When it comes to stitching by hand the most important thing I’ve learned is to have the project accessible and easy to pick up and work on.  Now that the 365 quilt is together in 3 big pieces, it’s really just a matter of working on it a bit each day to close all the binding by hand.

The really interesting thing about working on this UFO is my attitude change.  In separate pieces, unbound and complicated, I really didn’t like this quilt.  I didn’t want to work on it and every time I saw it  I would think “Ugh…”

But just that simple step of putting the binding on each strip was enough to tip the scales.  Suddenly I would walk into the room and see just how quick and easy it would be to put the strips together.  That motivation really pushed me to pull all the strips off the wall and in one day get this quilt together into 3 big pieces.

Who would have thought that this UFO only needed 2 days of work?  Will they all be this easy?!

free motion quilting | Leah Day

So now with my first (and probably biggest) UFO transformed, I’m headed back into the sewing room to see what I will tackle next week.  Probably one of the countless projects laying on the floor.  I’m so tired of tripping over half finished blocks and partially quilted quilts.  It’s time to get stitched!

Instructions for Linking Up Your Blog or online photo:

1. Write your blog post. Publish it on your blog.  If you’re linking up a photo, first upload it to Flickr or Facebook.

2. Copy the link of the specific blog post. This is not just the link to your blog itself (www.freemotionquilting.blogspot.com), but the link to the specific post: https://freemotionproject.com/2012/01/quilt-along-2-quilting-in-rows.html

3. Click the blue link up button above and paste your link into the box.

If you have any questions about finishing your UFO, make sure to post them clearly within your post.  5 questions will be selected and answered on Monday or Tuesday’s UFO Followup article.

By the way, if you’d like to share this program on your blog, grab a button below!

UFO Sundays on the Free Motion Quilting Project

Let’s go quilt!

Leah Day

LeahDay

Leah Day has been teaching online since 2009. She's the creator of the Free Motion Quilting Project, a blog filled with thousands of quilting tutorial videos. Leah has written several books including 365 Free Motion Quilting Designs, Explore Walking Foot Quilting with Leah Day, and Mally the Maker and the Queen in the Quilt.

5 Responses

  1. Oh, and I used to have that exact same couch! 🙂

  2. Wow, way to! I find that if I just dive in and go for it, I always say to myself, " why didn't I do this sooner? It wasn't so bad?" Can't wait to see it done!

  3. Gertie Pye says:

    This is going to be a masterpiece Leah! Wonderful x

  4. Jessim says:

    Leah- is the 365 quilt two seperate quilts? A color one and a black and white one? Or will they come together somehow?

    I don't have anything to link today… I've spent all week pebbling on a 12" square. I didn't want to do pebbling as I know it takes me forever, but I'm running out of designs I'm really good at, so my hand was forced 🙂 Oh well, it is good pebbling practice. I am getting better at it.

  5. Abby says:

    Oh no, another week gone by and I've done nothing in my sewing room (except help my husband clean the chimney for the woodstove).

    I've written "UFO Sunday" on my calendar for the next few weeks. Maybe that way I can remember to tackle something.

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