Unfinished Quilts: A Field Guide to the UFO Pile
Hello.
There is a cupboard in your house with a door that does not quite shut. You know why. Behind it is a pile of unfinished quilts, a stash that has expanded into the spare room and, somewhere near the back, a box from 2011.
You are not behind. Nobody is keeping score. But if you would like to know what is actually in there, here is a field guide.
What is in the UFO pile
The one that is three seams from done. So close you can feel it. Which is somehow worse.
The one you went off. The colours made sense at the time.
The one for somebody you no longer speak to. That one gets to stay in the cupboard as long as it likes.
The one whose pattern has vanished.
The one you cannot remember buying the fabric for.
Why they stopped
Mostly, nothing went wrong. The interest moved. Life happened in the middle of it. The block of the month quietly became a block of the decade. And some quilts were never meant to be finished. They were meant to be started, enjoyed and thought about.
Quilt guilt, and where it came from
Nobody feels bad about an unread book on the bedside table. Somehow the same pile in fabric feels like a moral failing. That is the productivity talk getting into the craft, and the idea that finishing is proof you are a real quilter.
It isn't. The hobby is the point, not the output. Count the evenings you have spent at the machine, not the number of bindings you have stitched down.
The stash is its own hobby
Walking the aisles, stroking the bolts and coming home with a fat quarter for no reason at all is a pleasure in its own right. The stash is a collection, and collections are allowed to grow. Some pieces you will never cut into. That is what they are for.
The 2011 quilt
Every quilter has one that has waited longer than the others. Finishing it is an option. So is keeping it exactly as it is. Both are the right decision if they are yours.
The book
Be Better @ Unfinished Quilts goes through the cupboard chapter by chapter: the pile, the guilt, the stash, the guild and the show and tell, starting a new one while eleven wait, finishing one if you fancy it and letting one go. The last chapter says leave the pile where it is. It comes with a free printable Fabric Shop Permission Slip, small enough to live in your purse.
Betty xx