Rescuing/salvaging/making over - someone else's UFO
 

I have my own stack of UFO's - so I am careful about taking on UFO's that other people have started.

So - I can - sort of - see/understand trying to save something someone near and dear started. But - if the person that started it was capable of finishing it - and did not - was that person "that" committed to the project? And if not - why should I be?

I can also - sort of see trying to "enshrine" a memento of someone near and dear to me - even if the piece itself - if made by "just anyone" - would probably end up in a wastebasket.

I definitely avoid bringing home items that are made of very poor quality material - I will sometimes try to salvage good quality material that someone has started to make something with.

I have a tough time cutting up clothing that I consider to be "still wearable" - not quite sure why. I have a few very nice plaid shirts that could be cut up - but so far they are just looking at me.

How much of a "rescuer" are you? and how "good" (or bedraggled) are you willing to work with?

Great topic! I take a lot of pleasure in reusing and upcycling and have identified that as a direction I want to explore with my quilting. I am frozen by too many choices (and cost) at the fabric store - I can handle one or the other, but put them together and I just walk away.

Last year I started buying fabric yardage at the thrift store. Then grab bags of scraps. It is so much fun to see what I get! I was avoiding people's unfinished blocks but inevitably they sneak in and now my attention is snagged. What will they become in my hands??

I want to do more with reusing old clothes. I have hesitated to cut "good" stuff up. So I warmed up using the ripped and stained from my family. And musing how the fast fashion industry has created a crushing glut of clothes that no amount of charity and thrift can usably disperse. Just before the pandemic, I started buying clothes to cut up, focusing on the tag color that indicates it's been at the shop longest and will be pulled if not bought -- cheaper by the yard and potentially diverted from the trash stream.

If using clothing that is obviously "worn" - like faded on the shoulders and the elbows are worn out - there may be areas that are still usable - but make sure that they still have some wear left in those areas before putting them into another item.

Example: Work shirts worn by people that work outside in the sun - the tails that are usually tucked into the wearer's pants may still be usable - but the upper back and shoulders may be sun rotted and too fragile to use.

I used several chamois type flannel shirts for rag quilts that my husband and son were willing to let me cut up. The collars and elbows were worn out. I think I had sewn the collars once or twice and patched the elbows once.

I am a scavenger and rescuer - but it seems kind of silly to do that when I have stacks of new material to use.

A bit like saving the "good" apples until they shrivel and only eating the second-rate ones. If one does not need to, why should one?

I rescue cats and dogs, not projects. I have enough of my own to finish. And I never salvage clothing. https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images...es/biggrin.png

I do have one exception though. I have my Dad's Pendelton shirts that I want to do something with. So far it hasn't happened though.

ummm...I mostly use new fabric in my quilt making....however, I have been known to take used denium from jeans and stitch up some dog blankets....I usually wear clothes until they fall apart but will save the cotton ones for rags...

I have way too much new fabric to use. Our old clothes and outgrown clothes go to goodwill.

My old Grandaughters other Grandma has me quilting baby quilts she has hand embroidered for her Grandkids and 3 Great Grands. All of them are new so I don't mind finishing them for her. I don't like it but, I will do them. She has bad knees and just sits and embroidery. Of course, she can't sew and she knows I do.

I would not salvage any thing. Just not my thing.

[QUOTE=SusieQOH;8423780]I rescue cats and dogs, not projects. I have enough of my own to finish. And I never salvage clothing. https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images...es/biggrin.png

Same here, though I'm on my last dog. I can't cut up usable clothing. If I don't want it, I donate it. Too much need out there - though I do have two exceptions. I cut up a pair of soft yoga pants to make ear loops for masks. I asked my massage therapist for an old T shirt for white loops - he gave me a good one, but I sacrificed it.

I have a similar problem with someone else's UFOs. The problems is I have no idea who the original maker was. My MIL gave me several unquilted tops. She doesn't quilt. She said they were in *her* mother's possession, but her mother was not a quilter either. Nobody in the family quilts (other than me, of course) and nobody knows who made these tops! What am I supposed to do with them? I don't care for them, they're not very well made, they're not my style, but when I muse about possibly selling them on eBay, I get gasps of horror from other quilters.

I purchased several bright patchwork tops from an estate sale - made by 'Grandma'. I intended to finish them and use them for prayer quilts for the church. Apparently Grandma didn't realize the tension on her machine needed adjusting and the backs were very loopy. When I saw that, I was done. Another member of the group offered to take them home and redo them. I haven't seen them since.
So I guess the answer to whether I would redo someone else's work is no.

This made me laugh!!!

I'd pass them on to a guild that finishes tops for charity (without mentioning it to potential gaspers).

How "bad" does an item have to be before you will discard it ?

Not passed on - directly to the trash - and it will go to a landfill or be burned?

If I find a project to be "hopeless" - it seems unkind to pass it on to some other hapless person.

Maybe some of us are masochists?

My only experience not too long ago. I “met” a woman on words with friends and we became Facebook “friends” and texted. She knows I am a quilter. Her mother passed. In her mothers things she found a half completed quilt with pattern and The rest of the fabric. I think it was a kit. She offered to pay me (Um no) to finish it for a baby granddaughter. It was so challenging because the mother had dementia and the completed parts were half hand sewed and half machine and all wonky. I managed to fix some of it, left some alone and made the rest of the blocks which turned out well. I put a back on it, quilted it and sent it. Honestly it became a labor or love because I was thinking how that mother had presence Of mind to start it and then it went askew and then she died. I thought Of the baby who would only know her great grandmother by the quilt. My friend was very touched by it and did give it to the baby.

Labors of love are one thing - and they can become very labor intensive!

Peckish - I second what Joe's Mom suggested. Just pass 'em on quietly for donation (unless they are truly terrible and should be trashed). No reason for you to be saddled with such unappealing work (which I'm guessing the gaspers are unwilling to take on themselves!!)

cut them down to cage size using a pinking cutter.
back them with inexpensive muslin.
no batting.
do a nice, relatively close, zig-zag around the edges.

(if you have a serger that trims as you sew, even better.)

donate them to a no-kill pet shelter.

As I was dreaming of quilting long ago and far away, I thought quilts were made from clothes that were no longer wearable, or from baby clothes that no one could give or throw away. You get the picture. It was a bit of a shock to learn the cost of fabric, supplies and longarming. I recently took a seminar on upcycling. Pretty good. I am now mixing it up. Like trying to get husbands worn out flannels to make a quilt as requested by daughter. Don't want to throw or give away the dress I was married in so am thinking about incorporating it into a special quilt for our bedroom. Although I did not grow up in the Depression, I did have many lean years and I hate to waste.

I learned my lesson very well. I have taken on someone else's UFO only one time and that has been enough. It has now become my UFO https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/wave.gif. A disaster and a half. I made great progress on it but when it comes to quilting it has been the worst thing ever. I am afraid I could do 100 new quilts before working on or attempting to finish this quilt. The quilt top is great it is the memorabilia on the back that is the problem. Someday I will get it finished, lord knows when. Never again.

If I like it I would or to help some one out but I have learned to be selective and I have my own projects waiting.

I always accept UFO's, but don't always finish them. I finished a few that I really liked, but donated a few that I didn't like so much. I have more quilts on my bucket list to make than time currently as I work full time. I don't want to spend time on a quilt that does not give me joy.

I accepted a friend's mom's stash several years ago. Completed about 5 of her UFO's. Never again. I don't even want fabric from the free table. I find it difficult to work on something I have no interest in. I completed them for my friend, not for me. As for the fabric I wasn't interested in, I told her that I would put it where it needed to go. It ended up on the free table at Guild, then the trash if it was left over.

As I explained in my other post — https://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f...p-t312732.html. — I’m about to start on a vintage quilt top. It was left to my grandmother by her aunt (in 1956), then my grandmother stored it for about 40 years when it came to me when my grandmother moved into assisted living and down-sized. My grandmother made only one quilt in her lifetime: a Grandmother’s Flower Garden she started before she married in 1932 and finished 50 years later after she retired. As I’m working through my own UFOs, I thought I should add my great great aunt’s to my pile (and another similar top from the same source). I’ll report back on the experience!

I have many projects that need finishing. I can't see me taking on any more. I do know how to gently say, " I am sorry, but I can't right now."
Hubby sprang a please make a baby quilt on me last minute yesterday, and I am franticly trying to complete one by tuesday baby shower deadline. Oh my, I guess I had better go and work on that applique.

That's a great question. I got someone's pinwheel square in a thrift store scrap bag a few weeks ago that is so badly stitched that I think I will toss it in the trash. It's maybe 6" square? Picking it apart doesn't make sense -- too much trouble for too small of pieces -- and the fabric is unattractive!

As an upcycler, it's TOO easy to acquire too much -- and too much of things that I later realize are not inspiring for me. So I am learning to be ruthless about materials and projects that I don't like.

Pbraun -- high five for Team Upcycle!

ummm....I have taken old stuff....and said no to some stuff....I will go through it...take what I want....I am a fabric snob so I will pull out the moda, northcott, riley blake....etc....I have made several "scrap bags" and stuck them in a garage sale for a buck or two....they have usually went. I have even made up bags or strange material and had the same thing happen...lots of fiber artists out there and teachers too who are looking for things to cut up and use. If it is a teacher....I will sometimes just forget about the price tag and let them take it.

I often find UFOs at the thrift stores and I will say, there is usually a reason on why it didn't get finished. Some of which is pretty obvious, some we just never know.

I have a perfectly nice top that was intended as a wedding gift for my husband's niece-equivalent (daughter of best friend). But... a lot of things happened and the wedding was called off and now I call it the "Jerry Springer Quilt".

I've taken apart badly made projects just for the fabric. If the pieces are big enough, I'll just cut them apart.

Sometimes I will rework a project, like there was this huge pink blobish thing that when I took the blocks apart and added sashing made a nice pair of twin sized quilts. Turns out those were heart blocks under those blobs.

The thing is, I know the feeling of "all that work and this is what I have to show for it" on my own failures. By this point in my quilting career I avoid most outright failures but still, sometimes things just don't go together like we see in our heads. Anyway, after putting in "all that work" myself, sometimes I'm not willing to put it right. But, thing is, with the thrift store UFOs, I didn't put in "all that work" to start with, I just see -- well hey, I can do this and that and have a reasonable project out of it.

I don't have the energy or desire to rescue projects especially when they are started by others.

Thanks, entangled. I am constantly on the lookout for ideas. I have a baby outfit from the 1950's and a couple from the 70'I would like to do something with. Not sure what.

I had told my family that I'd make a quilt for everyone. One neice found some hand stitched blocks at a thrift store and asked if I'd put them together for her. Then her Mom (SIL) gave me some old cordory fabric for the back, and a bag of cheap batting. I think they were all sutff found at yard sales.

The blocks appeared to be a novice attempt at hand sewing. Lots of uneveniess in seam allowance, and many had been sewn with too tight of thread and puckery. I'm pretty sure it ended up in someone's UFO stash because they gave up trying to put them into rows as nothing was lining up. I took the rows apart and added sashing so I could get uniform blocks, had to resew several seams (by machine) and in the end it didn't look too bad. I did use the cordory by used my own batting as it was much nicer.

There was nothing special about the fabric, and it was so poorly sewing that I did close quilting to try to keep it together, but warned SIL that it might not hold up to washing.

I won't ever agree to a project like that again. Too many people see hand stitches and think "wow - really old or hand crafted with care" but in this case is was fabric from the 80's sewn by someone who was learning how to use a needle and thread.

Timely topic. I can't even finish my UFOs let alone someone else's. I'm a starting person, not a finisher. I'm on the verge of taking the latest?? tub of Bonnie Hunter and asking someone on this board if they need the headache!!!

And my Grandmother on Mom's side made only one quilt too. A Grandmother's flower garden!! And I still have it. She absolutely hated sewing so I must have the other side in me that likes quilting, piecing, weaving, but most of all buying fabric.

The trouble with the UFOs that I have tried to do, took buying more fabric to complete them. I must cut down on the spending.

Heehee, BattleAxe, I took on someone's Frolic mystery and haven't had enough time to work on it but need to get it done between now and Thanksgiving so I can work on the next one. I am planning to try her directions for side seams instead of my usual open seams.

There was a problem/miscount at one stage and it took me a bit to figure it out and then make the missing units. Right now all the blocks/setting units have been made and put in bags to assemble block by block.

But I'm actually having a really good time putting it together! The other person did excellent work and did most of it, I just have to put the tiny bits together into blocks and I think that's fun. Sometimes I describe my quilting as making big puzzles.

I'm definitely open to do this sort of thing again -- but two Frolics will be enough! I really enjoy the piecing part of the process and have enough quilts and enough projects for the most part, but the quilting down is my downfall. With this UFO I get what I consider the fun part and don't even have to figure out what to do with the completed top other than ship it back. Win/win as far as I'm concerned :)

I can understand/get "solving a puzzle" part - especially if all the pieces are still there (or can be found).

No thank you. I have no interest in "inheriting" someone else's WIP or salvaging someone else's treasure. I want to spend my quilting time working on things that are created by me. I hope that when I am unable to quilt that no one feels obligated to finish my WIPs.

Find a newby longarm owner who is looking for practice tops. The quilts get finished and donated to something. And don't tell the family - say you found someone to finish and the love them. (Sheesh - if they arent willing or able to do the work themselves....)

I tried to take up where some one left off on a flannel quilt I got at a church rummage sale and finally I finished it and use it for cats blanket. Never again will I buy something like this.

My guild has a $1/ticket raffle each month for donated UFOs. Makes a little money for the guild and the person donating the UFO gets rid of it. If you don't belong to a guild, you might be able to donate them to a church rummage sale. There may be people who would purchase the quilts to practice their free motion quilting skills.

donating my own, taking over for someone else
 

I have a passion for rescuing old embroidered blocks and quilt tops, but I am pretty selective on which ones to purchase and re-do. Most of them are nicely embroidered but in horrid or plain settings, a select few were partially re-embroidered because they were of interest and value to me. That being said, I have donated my own UFOs for a variety of reasons and picked up antique linens or quilt tops selectively.

I'll ask everyone if you think a UFO swap to finish or add a border, etc., would be of interest to anyone on this board? I think it might be a fun project with some guidelines. Has this been done before here? Maybe limiting it in size or scope? To go back to the original owner but modified and completed?

Big fat no on finishing other’s stuff unless MIL or SIL who are exemplary quilters. I salvaged only one quilt in my quilting life and it was hubbie’s grandma’s quilt...totally worth salvaging for him. But that’s it. I had someone ask me to make a quilt from her mother’s curtains...sentimental project and I referred her to someone else.

I have taken many unfinished quilts from estate sales and garage sales and finished them and donated them. I hate to see someone's hard work go into a trash can. Usually they cost under $10.

I’m probably the only one who enjoys going through boxes of donated fabric at church. I like to use as much as possible so it doesn’t just linger in storage. I have someone who will take the double knit fabric & we make other projects besides quilts for charity.