Is there a thread about unloved, fed up with, unfinished quilts ?
09-07-2014, 06:34 AM
#31
Super Member
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Sonoma County, CA
Posts: 4,299
I agree with Toni C -that's a lovely quilt top and even though you're thoroughly DONE with it I am positive you'll find someone who would love to take it and finish it! You did so much beautiful work on it.
It's amazing to me how various people's tastes are. I've seen quilts that I thought were awful and others gushed over it; and I've been presented with "ugly" quilts that I instantly loved. My own taste wavers too, right now I have an unfinished quilt - I finished the top but decided it's ugly and haven't gotten around to finishing it up. But every time I pull it out and look at it, I hate it a little less. LOL I WILL finish it eventually, and when I'm done...it will probably go to charity. It's not poorly made or made with shoddy materials, I just don't really like the color combo I chose. Odds are that SOMEONE will like it, though.
We recently had ladies from a couple of the local charities that my guild donates to come and talk to us about how our quilts are appreciated and loved and there were several damp eyes in the room. It renewed my desire and commitment to make more charity quilts this year (the guild year starts in Aug). I did 2 baby quilts last year; this year I want to do at least 2 baby & 2 twin size AND I want to try to make all 4 of them either gender-neutral or masculine. Both women mentioned that they don't get enough masculine quilts and I like masculine styles so that should be easy!
It's amazing to me how various people's tastes are. I've seen quilts that I thought were awful and others gushed over it; and I've been presented with "ugly" quilts that I instantly loved. My own taste wavers too, right now I have an unfinished quilt - I finished the top but decided it's ugly and haven't gotten around to finishing it up. But every time I pull it out and look at it, I hate it a little less. LOL I WILL finish it eventually, and when I'm done...it will probably go to charity. It's not poorly made or made with shoddy materials, I just don't really like the color combo I chose. Odds are that SOMEONE will like it, though.
We recently had ladies from a couple of the local charities that my guild donates to come and talk to us about how our quilts are appreciated and loved and there were several damp eyes in the room. It renewed my desire and commitment to make more charity quilts this year (the guild year starts in Aug). I did 2 baby quilts last year; this year I want to do at least 2 baby & 2 twin size AND I want to try to make all 4 of them either gender-neutral or masculine. Both women mentioned that they don't get enough masculine quilts and I like masculine styles so that should be easy!
09-07-2014, 06:38 AM
#32
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 659
Originally Posted by Jan in VA
I rarely fret about UFOs because I believe:
Sometimes, even though your quilt isn't finished, you're finished with your quilt.
Even Da Vinci left work unfinished and no one denies his genius.
Jan in VA
Sometimes, even though your quilt isn't finished, you're finished with your quilt.
Even Da Vinci left work unfinished and no one denies his genius.
Jan in VA
09-07-2014, 07:56 AM
#34
Junior Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Elkhart IN
Posts: 226
The way I look at it, you MUST save some projects unfinished....think of it as leaving a legacy for future quilters to come across those blocks in some dusty antique store some day and fall in LOVE with them and will lovingly take them home to finish for you. ---Ask me how I know this? I have done some of them for those that came before me. I have been quilting for 30years and I have at least one or two UFOS that will be passed on that way.....
As for my unloved fabric (once you get that stash built up), time goes by and one day you look at it and go "WHAT" was I thinking???? I am stripping those pieces out and turning them into crochet and woven rugs that I will either sell or gift. DONT feel guilty or stressed, its part of your artistic growth as a creator of beautiful quilts and HAVE FUN
As for my unloved fabric (once you get that stash built up), time goes by and one day you look at it and go "WHAT" was I thinking???? I am stripping those pieces out and turning them into crochet and woven rugs that I will either sell or gift. DONT feel guilty or stressed, its part of your artistic growth as a creator of beautiful quilts and HAVE FUN
09-07-2014, 08:11 AM
#35
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Beautiful Oregon
Posts: 320
Worked for me too. Someone will really like this quilt. One idea would be to cut out the beautiful center, then make small quilt blocks all around it. For me, since I am a beginner at quilting, I would cut the center more in a square then "quilt as you go." Quilt as you go is the only way I know how to quilt so far.
09-07-2014, 08:30 AM
#36
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Lost in my stash- do not find
Posts: 504
YAhoo my dirty little secret is out! I have made mysteries that I hated. But hung on to them for too long, so I cut apart the tops into quarters or thirds added some borders if needed. Then donated to a camp in our region for inner city kids who JUST love them or to a center for families staying in the area for chemo treatments. I feel so great about getting rid, err donating them, that I might just try making some for the sheer pleasure of donating.
09-07-2014, 10:00 AM
#37
Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Cedar Hill, TX
Posts: 193
Our guild has a "trick or treat" night in October. We all bring UFOs in a brown paper bag and trade them sight unseen. Sometimes they are real treats and other times they are ...........not so great!
09-07-2014, 10:11 AM
#38
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: California
Posts: 1,732
I have this problem from time to time. I find that if I just buy fabrics that I truly love, it reduces the possibility of my not liking it in the end. I so often just buy a fabric to "fit in" but I really don't like it a lot. I try to avoid doing that now.
09-07-2014, 11:29 AM
#39
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Central Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA
Posts: 7,695
Originally Posted by Macra
Thank you for the replies; I think Jan's sums my opinion on this one up perfectly
I tripped across it again this week. It was intended to be a bright happy, sunny, rainbow of a quilt with appliqued and embroidered (with silk no less
) butterflies.I am, if you'll excuse my Scotticism, thoroughly scunnered with it.
I have only one phobia; I was never the type to hide under the blankets, I wanted to see what the bogey man looked like; and it's fluttery things. Moths and butterflies have me squeaking like a six year old.
I carefully pieced a rainbow of Leonardo's knot and herringboned over the long pieced on rays to make a rainbow sunburst centre, and then started to put on the butterflies and embroider them. All of the top stitching is hand embroidered using silk.
I hate this quilt; I open it up and I kind of shudder. I had some daft idea that it would somehow ease my phobia, stop me being so blooming stupid about insects that can neither burn, bite, sting, nip or poison me. It didn't work. I started it twenty five years ago when I couldn't even buy quilting fabrics easily, so though it's mostly cotton, it's a mix of cottons, from the then fashionable satin finished stuff to lightweight twill woven. The colours and the silks pulled it all together surprisingly well. I had thought to applique on the butterflies, embroider over them, and then when I was quilting it to make kind of loopy circular trails leading the butterflies back to their matching colour on the centre rainbow thingie.
I opened it up and shook it, forgetting that I had put the paper templates and cut out appliques for my butterflies inside and they 'fluttered' and I squeaked and when I got my heart rate down again, I realised I really, really, really, do not like this quilt, will never finish this quilt and want to see the back of it.
I can't seem to throw it in the bin though.
I am so tempted to cut the centre medallion out of the background (plain yellow, so terribly 80's too) and see if I could somehow turn it into a small throw.
I'll see about pestering the husband to help me get a photo up, but in the meantime the quilt top and pieces are back in the box.
I can't be the only one who starts something like this thinking it's a good idea, and realising after a fair bit of work that it's as dead as the dodo and not going to be resurrected ?
It'd feel like a bit of a cheek phoning up some stranger and asking if they'd like my castoffs; different if I belonged to the guild or a group though.
Mary
09-07-2014, 01:47 PM
#40
Super Member
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 1,510
I belong to a quilt group at our winter place that makes charity quilts (700 last yr!) and only used donated fabric. Some of it is pretty ugly to me. But I can tell you that the people that get them love them and are so grateful. Many people are living in houses with little or no insulation and can't afford to pay for heat. Those quilts mean the world to them.
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