My oldest UFO

Now I really want to thank May Britt for challenging me to finish one WISP (work in slow progress) each month in 2009. I have finished my OLDEST UFO.

This quilt was started when my husband was in seminary, and he graduated in 1974. So this is at least 35 years old. I knew next to nothing about quilting, having no instruction, but some sewing skills. I had made a quilt of LARGE blocks for my daughter, and then I saw a photo of a "Thousand Pyramids" quilt. I began taking apart the clothes that my children had outgrown and cutting a few triangles from each using a cardboard template I had made. These piled up for quite a while.

Then I began sewing them into rows. At some point I didn't want to wait any longer to start quilting BY HAND, so I layered what I had and began. My "Plan" was that I would eventually add some MORE rows (how?), and then borders. Really there wasn't much of a plan because I didn't know what was necessary. "Just do the next thing." Not a bad motto when in deep trouble, but not what could really be called a Plan!

I stopped quilting at some point with most of it done, but not all. I was making other quilting projects, and learning more. I didn't know how I was going to finish this quilt. So it languished, went to the bottom of several piles, was moved from home to home, and finally in this house, has been resting on the guest bed in my sewing room for about 8 years.


Several times I have thought about getting it finished, but I couldn't face the task of adding batting and backing for the borders. (Or any additional rows, for which I have some cut triangle pieces).

For the last several nights I have slept in this bed because Charlie has a dreadful cold and I'm avoiding his germs (I hope!). As I was falling asleep last night it suddenly crossed my mind that I could simply BIND the quilt and call it quits. After all there are lots of old quilts that just end with the binding (and this is an OLD quilt to me). What a release that would be, to not keep thinking that there were onerous steps that HAD to be completed.

So today I did it. I even chose two leftover bindings from my Bindings Box and used them rather than making "new" binding. To me it seemed fitting to use something old for this task.

Now that it is done, I counted the triangles, and including the half-triangles there are 350, not really 1000. So I'm calling it the "350 Triangles Quilt", measurements 49" X 64". And DONE. Halleluia!

Sara

Gratitudes:

Fun new linens for our bed (yellow & orange with big polka dots)
A warmer day, so I chopped some ice on the front steps
Out tonight to dinner and a play