UFO or not UFO

Since finishing Chickpea's quilt, I've been sifting through my fabric stash auditioning candidates for various projects I have in mind. I usually pride myself on not having lots of UFOs (UnFinished Objects) and try to finish one project before I start the next. That's probably why I produced so little while I was working on Chickpea's quilt.

However, as I worked my way through the stash, fabric by fabric, I came across various samples and blocks and I started thinking - when is a UFO not a UFO? Some of them were produced in workshops with no intention of them ever becoming Finished Objects. However, having found them, a few will be repurposed as I've thought of a use for them. Does that mean they're now a UFO? Or are they a WIP (Work in Progress)?

I know, I know. You're reading this and thinking, never mind all that, just show me the quilts! OK, here's a selection of what I uncovered and an idea of their intended fate!

Offset log cabin

The sample at the beginning was produced in a workshop. Some of the other ladies in my group used theirs as the front of a bag but I'm not really into patchwork bags so I think this will stay in the drawer unless you have any suggestions?

Mini Landscape

I made this at one of the monthly meetings of my quilt group. The centre is foundation-pieced and was completed during the meeting. The borders were added at home and then it was sandwiched and machine-quilted. All it needs now is the finishing touch of some machine embroidery though I'll have to practice first as I've forgotten what we were shown.

Wonky star

The star was begun on a workshop day a few years ago and was a real pig to put together. There are a lot of seams and bias joins, hardly any of the seams match and the star sticks up in the middle. I struggled on and added the applique but then it was abandoned because I couldn't decide what to do next and was running short of the fabric. However, as soon as I saw it, I realised it will be perfect for improving my machine quilting so I'm going to put on a border and use it as a training piece. I started work on the border at the weekend.

Pinwheels

These were part of a project in a magazine but I realised after a while that the colour combination just wasn't working - too many tones and shades (though funnily enough it doesn't look too bad in this photo!). Before I came across the wonky star, I thought I might add triangles onto the side of each block to create larger squares with the pinwheels on their point in the middle. I think I'll still do that and use it as another practice piece for machine quilting.

Country not Christmas

I'm rather ashamed of this one and not just because of the terrible piecing on my block (mine is the one on top). My group held a block in a bag project in which we were all given an identical bag with a number on the front. Into the bag went a block of our own design in our chosen colours. The bag was swapped at each meeting and another block added. When 9 had been completed, we were given the bag back to take away and make up the blocks into a quilt. As you can see from the photo, mine is a rather post-modern deconstructed design ;-) I really do need to finish this one but I feel uninspired on how to bring such a disparate range of blocks and fabrics together. I think this will be going back into the drawer a while longer.

And that's your lot, well as much as I'm admitting to anyway! Of course this doesn't include all the fabrics bought for projects yet (or never) to be started. But that's a tale for another time :-)