Quiltingboard Forums - Do you finish your "DUDS"? And where do they go?

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I sure know how you feel about "wasting" the batting & backing on a quilt you really don't like. Where is the law written that you HAVE to finish it. Why not put it into a thrift store bag & let another quilter discover it & may love it while you don't.
It's hard to spend so much time on it when your heart isn't in it. Nobody will put you behind bars for it & somebody else may finish it.

We sometimes forget that we're in charge of that top.

Or you could use flannel for the center and a sheet for backing. It could be used for the beach or a picnic to lay/sit on. Or do a PIF and offer it up. I'm sure someone would be willing to pay for shipping or even buy the blocks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NikkiLu (Post 5817897)

I have a quilt in my closet that will never see the light of day, ever again. It is my very first quilt and I did not take the advice of my sister-in-law, who told me to start with an easy pattern. I took a pieced block and altered it and appliqued it to a white square block and sewed them all together - no seams matched and no points were pointy. Put the top away for 30+ years. Then my BFF was selling her long-arm machine and called me the very last day and asked if I had any tops that I wanted quilted as she had some batting left. So, I hurridly gathered up this quilt top and a few others and she quilted them for me with an easy panto. It was just as bad 30+ years later, so put it back in my closet, without any binding. Guess that I should cut off the backing and batting and put some sort of binding on it and give it to somebody needy. But, just too embarassed.

Get your quilt out of the closet and give it to a local charity. No matter how bad you think it is (and it will not be as bad as you think it is). You'll feel much better that all that effort years ago has not been wasted (not least for the learning experience it gave you). Someone is going to love that quilt! No one is ever going to know it was you that made it anyway.

Well as pointed out what one may think is ugly-others may just love. Perception is the point of view of others/ourselves..and all of our perceptions are different as we are ...

Thanks for starting this thread. I, too, have one of the Ugly quilt tops. I am trying to salvage it and love the idea of putting appliques on it. Fleece/flannel would make a wonderful backing and no batting needed. Thanks for the suggestions......off to my sewing room.

I use them to practice my FMQ and then I use them to sleep under myself !!

Take your nicest squares nd combine those witn some neutral/solid color large pieces to make a pieced backing for future. See for instance pictures from www.filminthefridge.cöm and www.ohfransson.com

Donate the blocks to the local guild or church quilting group. They will finish and give to someone in need. Then, they get used and you don't spend any more resources (materials, time) on it. I've done that more than once with something I didn't like enough to finish.

Slice it. Have a odd number of blocks, then slice it diagonally all the way across several times. Insert strips of a solid or blender. I saw a Moda Bakeshop baby quilt done this way, but it could be done larger.
http://www.modabakeshop.com/search/l...y%20and%20Kids

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lori S (Post 5817271)

I just finished sqaures for a quilt top , a large enough for a full/queen bed. I know just by looking at the sqaures on the wall , I will not like this any better once its done. Its been a long time since I made a quilt I really did not like. I usually use very small pieces for my scrap quilts. This time I used larger pieces as my scrap pile was just getting too large and smaller pieces would not help me to get the pile more manageable in a timely manner.
It seems like a bad idea to put money into the batting and backing that could be used for a more appealing quilt.
This is one of the situations where the tried and true methods should not have been abandoned.. SO my questions is what to you do with the DUDS? Do you finish ? What happened to your DUD?

When I belonged to a guild, our "charity" was to make quilts and donate them to "David's House" a house similar to the Ronald McDonald houses where families could stay while their children were in the hospital for sometimes a very long time. I was trying to reduce my "stash" by using up fabric that had been given to me: namely mustard gold print with a red calico print. I believe I used 9-patches, however, I reached a certain point on the quilt where it told me "enough - quit", so I wound up with a smaller crib size quilt, that I considered somewhat ugly, if not bright. Imagine my surprise when the following month there was a picture of a baby and this "ugly" quilt. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I was happy that the quilt had found a home.