UFOs

Every career, hobby and organization has its unique abbreviations or acronyms. When my son was in the Navy, I hardly knew what he was talking about when his conversations consisted of one abbreviation after another. Once while standing on shore looking out in the bay, I ask about a ship on the horizon. “It is a BFS”. I will leave it to you to figure that one out. My daughter is well versed in education jargon. When she is explaining her week to me, I understand about half of the various programs or plans of actions since all have a shorten title –usually just letters! My daughter- in- law speaks medical jargon. My husband is well versed in engineering talk.

But I can confound them with my “quilting” verbiage! “I need to go to my LQS to pick up a couple of FQ.” “I would love to join a BOM club but I have too many WIP as it is.” “My favorite block is a HST.” Need a translation? “I need to go to my LOCAL QUILT STORE is pick up a couple of FAT QUARTERS (18″ x 42″ precut).” “I would love to join a BLOCK OF THE MONTH club but I have too many WORKS IN PROGRESS.” “My favorite block is a HALF SQUARE TRIANGLE.” And some of those words have particular meanings in the quilt world. New quilters often have a difficult time understanding a commercial pattern if the author relied on abbreviations that are common to seasoned quilters such as RST (right sides together) and WOF (width of fabric) and don’t include a glossary.

Most of us lament the number of UFOs hiding in our closets and storage bins. We are not suggesting alien spaceships have invaded our sewing rooms. UFOs in quilting world are UNFINISHED OBJECTS. I won’t share how many UFOs I have tucked away, embarrassing but not uncommon! Why? I became frustrated or I had to purchase more fabric to finish or I needed to clean up for guests and it was put away and forgotten. Or most likely– I can’t wait to start a new project with this lovely new fabric or intriguing pattern and I will just put aside this project “for a while”. There are as many reasons as there are UFOs. I do finish most eventually and it is a wonderful feeling.

January is the month of resolutions, especially among quilters. Many of us vow to finish up projects before we start anything new! Shirley has already eliminated two UFOs that had been hanging around too long. Fresh from LAQ (long arm quilting), they are TGIF (thank goodness it’s finished) and we are happy to share them with you!

The teals, purples and grays are combined in this pattern to give a very contemporary feel. Measuring 62″ x 84″, it fits a twin bed perfectly. The machine quilting of randomly spaced straight lines–matchstick–also add to the modern mood.

Solid black fabric combined with random batiks create another striking non-traditional quilt.

Measuring 50″ x 65″, it is a large lap quilt that could be used in a variety of decors. The black fabric compliments each batik and ties together the scrappy look. I like the use of HSTs –remember, half square triangles! The machine quilting is a swirl pattern softening the points and block’s straight lines. Yours for $150.

I often must look up the abbreviations my younger friends use in their texts to me– being of the age that spells everything out, but I do know my quilting abbreviations!

As always, leave a comment if you are interested in a quilt or have an interesting story about abbreviations.