My Houston MQG guildmate Jandi Dean is once again hosting a UFO challenge in 2026. I participated last year and was able to finish 3 of the 6 items on my list, which felt great! (Here’s one, two, and oops I haven’t blogged about the third one but I finished it in December.)
This year I’ve come up with another six UFOs — the three that I didn’t get to last year, plus three new ones.
First up is a baby size version of my Split Level quilt. This is a completed top that needs to be quilted — and spoiler alert, I actually finished this one last month before I started my new job! (Another post that I have yet to write.) It feels good to already be 1-for-6 for the challenge this year.
Next up, my Cupola Views quilt that has been stuck in top-only mode since 2022. I’ve been essentially paralyzed by indecision about how to quilt this one. I think it warrants custom-ish quilting, with one motif in the “windows” and a different motif in the background, and I feel like I need to practice that on something smaller/less precious before I try it here.
New to the list is my Wanderers Wife quilt top from…2017?? I I love this top so much, but in the same vein as Cupola Views, I’ve been scared that I’ll “mess up” the quilting (and at the time I quilted only on my domestic machine), so it has been sitting for all these years. I think I can now just do an edge-to-edge motif on the longarm and be satisfied with that.
The Astros and Texans logo blocks that I’ve made are just begging to be made into throw pillows. (Maybe I’ll even add a Rockets logo block to the collection?)
The second carryover from last year is one of my Quilts Unscripted group quilts based on telescope views. I received the blocks in…2022(?)…and have long had a plan for how to use them, but haven’t made it happen.
And finally, 100 Days of Saroy Stars — or my quilty “white whale” as I’ve started to call it. My procrastination on this one is 100% linked to a fear that I won’t be able to make it as amazing as the idea in my head. Gah, brains are so annoying! Someone come to my house and put these blocks on my sewing table so I don’t have a choice but to face them.
In any case — at the moment, I am feeling good and motivated to make progress on these in 2026!
It’s really interesting how powerful our internal dialog can be. I hope that once you get started working through this list the positive feedback loop will change and you’ll have a lot of fun (and satisfaction) getting them finished this year!
If I can get over the hump of starting, yes, I think I’ll be in good shape!
Hmm, there’s definitely a theme here about being afraid to mess things up. The cupola views one looks like it wouldn’t be too awful to remake if you needed / wanted to have a second go at it after your first attempt. Or you could make one similar to it, just rough and ready, and do the quilting on the rough and ready vision to test it before doing it on the real thing.
…so making a small practice sample is a brilliant idea that, believe it or not, had not occurred to me. Doh. I’m definitely going to do this.