I’m doing a little series of posts that feature old blog posts. I have been going back and looking at them. It’s been fun. I started blogging in June of 2009…WOW. Over ten years. I’m so glad I’ve kept the blog as a diary of sorts…today I’m telling you about a day when my daughter Kelli and completed 11 UFOs all in one day!!
This blog post originated in November of 2015…seven years ago. Back then my daughter Kelli didn’t have kids and had lots of time to quilt. We did a lot of quilting together. I miss those days and someday when the kids all get a little older, I’m hoping we can get back to quilting together.
Admittedly, Kelli had a problem with putting borders on quilts. She was terrible at completing projects to the end. If you were a reader back then, you might remember that Kelli would sew a quilt but then just peter out when it came time to put the borders on. Many of her quilts end up in a UFO bin simply because she hates putting borders on.  Jokingly I had teased her asking her how many UFOs she thought she could complete in a day.  She said none because more required putting on borders. HA!! She truly hated putting borders on quilts.
She had called and asked me if there was a project we needed to be sewing on.  I told her no…it was a free sewing day so how about she tackle her UFOs.  She laughed because by then her UFOs had become a running joke between the two of us….Surprisingly, she took the bait and started sewing up her UFOs.
….and then my phone started dinging right and left because she was finishing her UFOs. Here are the pictures of the finished UFOs that she sent and I updated the pictures to show the finished quilts.
#1 finished.  This is Fair and Square from Bonnie Hunter’s Scraps and Shirttails II.  The borders were pieced.  She just needed to attach them. Oh, Kelli.
I went on and did all of the longarming on this. Here it is completely finished.
#2 finish.  This is Farmer’s Daughter from Country Threads.  It only needed borders and the borders were already sewn…just not attached.
I went on and did the longarming on this one too. Here are pictures of it completely finished.
You can read about it HERE.
This pattern might be available on Country Threads blog Chicken Scratch. You’ll have to check that out.
#3 finished.  This little project just needed the gray along the edge.
I ended up adding yet another border to this quilt and finished it for her. You can read about it HERE.
#4 finished.  I think this one just needed one of the borders along the side.  I think it’s Miss Rosie, Liberty Schnibble. Who quits sewing on a quilt when it only needs one border?? Kelli does!!
I can’t find the finished picture of this quilt. You can find the pattern in THIS Miss Rosie Schnibble book.
#5 finished. Â This is a Schnibble from Miss Rosie. Â This one she wanted to enlarge this so it could be a baby quilt. Â The white and red borders were added.
I finished this one. I’m not sure about the name of this one. I only know it was a Schnibble pattern.
#6 finished.  This is Kelli’s own design. It needed one row and borders.
I machine-quilted this one and we sent it off to American Patchwork and Quilting where it was featured in the February 2017 issue. You can read more about it HERE. Can you believe it was made with a jelly roll?
#7 finished.  The is Pineapple Blossoms.  It is a free Bonnie Hunter pattern that you can find on her website.  Kelli started this when we saw Bonnie years ago in Storm Lake I think….again, just needed borders added to it. They were already cut and sen together.
I finished this one for her. I just loved it. You can read more about it HERE.
#8 finished.  Again…borders and I only think it needed the top and bottom borders.  I think this is a Miss Rosie design called First Mondays.
I went on to finish this for her. You can find out more about the finished quilt HERE. The original has a white background fabric. I love it with the charcoal background.
#9 finished is Kelli’s Cheddar Bow Ties.  She is keeping this one for sure.  She loves it-I love it.  The picture doesn’t do it justice at all.  This needed one row attached.  It was already sewn.
I finished this one for her. You can read more about it HERE. This quilt is stunning.
I later went on and did an Ask Jo about this quilt. You can find it HERE.
Kelli did this as Bonnie Hunter’s Leader and Ender Challenge.
#10.  This is Bonnie Hunter’s Easy Street.  This is in her book More Adventures with Leaders and Enders. You can find that book HERE. Kelli did it as the mystery.  This one needed all the borders.
I finished this one and you can read about it HERE.
#11.  This is a sampler quilt from Monique Dillard from Open Gate Quilts that Kelli did.  I can’t remember what this one needed.  I think just a couple of rows were added.
I finished this one for her too but I can’t find a picture of it.
Oh, my word.  She finished up all of these UFOs in one Saturday.  Can you believe it?!?!?  I can’t imagine hating borders so much that I’d let all of these beauties languish in a UFO box.
The not-so-funny part was that after I teased her and baited her into finishing all of these quilts tops, they ended up coming to my house where they sat it my longarming pile. HA! I finished the last one in 2021.
I thought this would be a fun blast from the past to share with you. It’s fun to see where the quilt tops were and how they finished up. In doing this post I realized that I am missing a few pages here on the blog. Typically I have blog posts of all the quilts I did each year. I have  I am missing the years 2017 and 2018. Watch for them to be coming soon.
So that’s the Kelli UFO saga.  Don’t you wish it would be that easy to clean out your UFO bin…I sure do!
I’m with Kelli: hate to do borders! It is such a downer after the fun of making a quilt to 1. Decide on a border (decisions, decisions) and 2. Attach the border without it being wonky. I am SO guilty at not finishing quilts because of border-phobia. I’m on Team Kelli! This sounds like a great project for a January Saturday…
I’m also with Kelli. I hate doing the borders and for the same reasons stated by Meredith. I need to take a day(s) to finish some UFOs. I’m easily distracted by new projects. Thanks for this great post Jo and Kelli. I enjoyed it!
Moooooommmmmmmm…..oh Kelly Kelly. You’re a Blessed girl to have your Mom finish some and quilt some for you!
I sure do enjoy your look-back posts Jo. You may have to change that first paragraph though to “over 14 years”.
Wishing you a Blessed week, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all in the Kramer Strong gang :-)
Oh my gosh, what a bunch of beauties!! But I feel Kelli’s pain–I drop the ball at the borders. There are a few of those that I’ve made as well, Pineapple Blossoms (which I might need to do another like Kelli’s in the browns!), Easy Street (did mine in Bonnie’s colors and LOVE it) and one other but was a different name. That bowtie and the first pictured—WOW!!! Those are quilts I’d probably NEVER get finished!! Good job on all those fabulous finishes!
I’m with Kelli also. I love making blocks but don’t like putting them together. I have a hard time figuring out sashings and borders. My resolution for the new year is finishing up some of these UFO’s. And hopefully not starting new projects!!!
I really enjoy your blast from the past blog posts. I agree with Kelli, and Meredith above, borders are not my thing. And yes, sadly, I can totally understand having a box of quilts that only need the borders attached. Even the binding is ready for several of them. I would be lucky to get one, possibly two, done on a Saturday. I’m not that fast of a quilter and too much of a perfectionist.
I would love it if as part of the blog you would list the names of quilts you have made (just the final photo) and put links to the pictures. I know it is way too much work, but I can dream, can’t I? :) Every once in a while I think I’d like to see some quilt you’ve posted again and can’t even remember what it’s called. A list would either jog my memory or be convenient to use to go thru to find what I want. THANK YOU for posting so many photos!
I do somewhat have this. If you look at the top of the page there are tabs. Click the quilting tab and then you can see the quilts I made listed by year. I am missing a couple of the years but I’m working on it. Hopefully in the new year I’ll tackle the ones that are missing.
Thank you for sharing this Jo. It was very special. I don’t remember seeing Easy Street before. That and some of the other quilts caught my eye. It goes to show what can be accomplished when we put our mind to it. Good job Kelli.
WOW!! Great work getting all those quilts finished. I love Kelli’s Pineapple Blossom quilt. Our quilt group has projects planned for 2023 and one month we are going to make a pineapple quilt. Kelli’s quilt has inspired me, and I’ve decided my pineapple quilt will be a Pineapple Blossom!
I am SO relieved to hear how well Gannon is coming along with his swallowing, and smiling! You sure know something is wrong if that little guy isn’t smiling, huh? You have a house full of beautiful and individual grand children, but I agree, Gannon is just a little special! Still praying for a complete recovery, and good health for him, as well as relief for parents and Grandma! Have a wonderful Christmas, and a very love and health filled 2023! : ) Brenda, Bend, Oregon
Absolutely beautiful quilts!! I don’t think I could part with any of them. Hugs,
Gosh, I thought I was the only one who’s least favorite part of quilting is – putting on borders! The decision of width, color, how many, size of finished quilt etc, and then the chance of wonkiness… I’ve gotten much better at all of those things but borders do remain as my least favorite part of making a quilt. But there are some quilts that I do like better without borders. I make at least one log cabin quilt every year, and I don’t ever border them!
I don’t have a problem with borders but I do have a bunch of quilts tops done that need quilting. I don’t own a longarm and hate quilting large quilts on my DSM. I love hand quilting minis but don’t want to attempt to hand quilt a bed size one. I have rented time on a longarm a couple of times but can’t afford to keep doing that. I am afraid that my quilt tops will end up at Goodwill after l’m gone.
Oh Sharon, that can be problematic. If you have large ones that you ever want to donate, Lori Loft who is a blog reader would happily finish them and donate them to Share House a facility that helps people with addictions.
Thanks for sharing this post again!! And since I followed your scrap cutting video a couple of weeks ago, I have 2.5″ scraps that can easily go into Kelli’s Square Knot quilt!!! Perfect! Merry Christmas to you, Jo!!
It was wonderful to read that Gannon is going better with his swallowing. His happy smiles are a very good sign. Thanks for the trip down memory lane on all of Kelli’s quilts.