Admittedly, Kelli has a problem with putting borders on quilts. Â Many of her quilts end up in a UFO bin simply because she hates putting borders on. Â Jokingly about a year ago I teased her asking her how many UFOs she thought she could complete in a day. Â She said none because more required putting on borders.
So last week she called and asked me if there was a project we needed to be sewing on. Â I told her no…it was a free sewing day so how about she tackle her UFOs. Â She laughed because now her UFOs have become a running joke between the two of us….Surprisingly, she took the bate and started sewing up her UFOs.
….and then the messages began.
#1 finished. Â This is Fair and Square from Bonnie Hunter’s Scraps and Shirttails II. Â The borders were pieced. Â She just needed to attache them.
#2 finished. Â This is Farmer’s Daughter from Country Threads. Â It to only needed borders.
#3 finished. Â This little project just needed the gray along the edge.
#4 finished. Â I think this one just needed on border along the side. Â I think it’s Miss Rosie, Liberty Schnibble.
#5 finished. Â This to is a Schnibble from Miss Rosie. Â This one she wanted to enlarge so it could be a baby quilt. Â The white and red borders were added.
#6 finished. Â This is Kelli’s own design. Â We’ll likely have a pattern for it at some point. Â It needed one row and borders.
#7 finished. Â The is Pineapple Blossoms. Â It is a free Bonnie Hunter pattern that you can find on her website. Â Kelli started this when we saw Bonnie years ago in Storm Lake I think….again, just needed borders.
#8 finished. Â Again…borders and I only think it needed the top and bottom borders. Â I think this is a Miss Rosie design.
#9 finished is Kelli’s Cheddar Bow Ties. Â She is keeping this one for sure. Â She loves it-I love it. Â The picture doesn’t do it justice at all. Â This needed one row attached. Â It was already sewn.
#10. Â This is Bonnie Hunter’s Easy Street. Â This is in her book More Adventures with Leaders and Enders. Â Kelli did it as the mystery. Â This one needed all the borders.
#11. Â This is a sampler quilt from Monique Dillard that Kelli did. Â I can’t remember what this one needed. Â I think just a couple rows added.
Oh my word. Â She finished up all of these UFOs in a Saturday. Â Can you believe it?!?!? Â I can’t imagine hating borders so much that I’d let all of these beauties languish in a UFO box.
She is excited about the extra room she now has in her sewing room….Yep you guessed right. Â Now all of her UFOs are at my house waiting to quilted. Â She’s hoping a couple of them might get finished for Christmas gift giving….She did say that she plans on coming and learning to use the machine. Â I guess at this point I don’t believe her…I am guessing it’s me who will be quilting them. Â I do know the next time she is home we’re going to start rounding up some backings.
So that’s the Kelli UFO saga. Â Don’t you wish it would be that easy to clean out your UFO bin…I sure do!
I can relate to Kelli as I don’t like doing borders either. I have 5 quilts without borders in my UFO pile right now and one has the backing already. Between Kelli and my quilting friends encouragement maybe I can get one done this coming weekend.
a story for Kelli. I have been talking about designing for years! Talking. Never really bit the bullet and did it. So, a few weeks ago, a friend who has just opened her own quilt shop called and asked me to design a row for her 2016 Row by Row Experience! I was over the moon excited. But then fear settled in. I had all kinds of ideas running through my head, but still wasnt putting pencil to paper. I am not a graphic artist, I have had no training at all. Days turned into two weeks, still no sketches! I had to make myself do it! So, I called my friend and made an appointment to bring her sketches in a week. Wednesday. Well, Monday morning, I got up, gathered my pencils and paper, and sat down at the dining room table. Two hours later I had my first draft! By the end of the day, I had three proposals and more variations ready to go. Tomorrow is Tuesday, I want to call her and see if she has time to see me a day early! I’m so excited I cant stand it! Kelly, you can quilt you own quilts! You know you want to. Just take a deep breath and do it! Just think of all the fun you are missing!
Sending best wishes, and hoping you and yours have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
miss jamee, birch bay, wa
That is a record that will be hard to beat – 11 quilts finished in one day. Go Kelli Go!
All I can say is WOW! That’s a lot of finishes. Beautiful quilts!
Way to go Kelli! Borders and bindings are my least favorite parts of quilting. I also have a cheddar bow tie ready for quilting when I find the backing I want. I made the top in two parts several months ago and finally sewed the last seam to join the two halves.
That could be me! I also despise borders and binding! My mom has been binding my quilts from over 10 years ago because she feel sorry for me. :-)
Congrats,Kelli!!! You had a very productive day, I bet it felt great!
I love the border saga! I learned long ago that if I didn’t put the borders on immediately, I’d never go back to the quilt, so now I put borders on and prepare backs before I can call it “finished” (and I am a one-quilt-at-a-time finisher – I feed into my obsessiveness). But you, Kelli – what I loved the most was the variety and quality of your borders. They are grand – and I got lots of creative ideas for using up my scrap strips for borders. Your quilts are really a blast! Your energy is plain to see and a treat to watch. Now I suspect that once your mom gets you started on the long arm, you’ll be a prolific machine quilter. I can’t wait to hear that saga!
Wow! That’s all….wow! And those borders are amazing. I do understand though. I get hung up on borders too. Easy Street is sitting in a closet with the fabric for the borders. Grand Illusion is awaiting binding. Celtic Solstice was gifted last month or it would be without binding as well. :-) Great job, Kelli.
Wow! 11 in one day must be a record.
Amazing! Way to go, Kelli! Wow! I think I’ve just seen a wonderful virtual quilt show of the most beautiful quilts! Thanks for sharing, Jo! Kelli ~ I truly understand “need just the border to complete!”
Impressive, and a little scary. Should Kelli decide to tackle world domination, I think she’d at least make a good run at it. Maybe all on a Saturday. But first, she needs to learn to quilt those beauties!
Congrats Kelli on getting all the tops finished! You did an awesome job!
Good Job, Kelli !! That must have felt Amazing!!!!
Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
I’m extremely impressed! I dislike putting on borders ALMOST as much as Kelli but not quite to the point that I have 11 UFOs hanging around without borders. Suggestion: she should start leaning toward the more modern genre of quilts – rarely do they have borders! :-)
I don’t like doing plain borders and usually by the time I get to the border point, I’m frequently bored with the quilt!! However, I have about 50 completed quilt tops just waiting to be quilted because I hate making backings too!!! Ugh…guess I need to get a move on! Kelli did a great job plowing through that huge pile of quilts!!
I’m speechless!!!!!! A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!!!!! Way to go Kelli!
Wow! Congrats, Kelli! I really love Pineapple Blossoms and Fair and Square!
Great job, Kelli! I get stuck at the quilting stage! I freeze at the thought of doing my own quilting, beyond straight lines, and I don’t have access to a long-arm. I wish we had rentals in our area!
OH I can so relate! I have 2 that have been sitting for a while BC i need to do the borders, and just finished 4 more that are going to need borders…. and what happens this w/e???? MYSTERY QUILT Starts!!!