Other quilters I know are always doing UFO challenges, but I always thought they were not for me. The idea is that you pick twelve quilt projects that are languishing (UFO stands for Un-Finished Object in this context), and assign a number from 1 to 12. Each month of the year, you draw a number and complete whichever project has been assigned that number during the month.

The problem with this is that there’s no way I could finish twelve quilts in one year; I struggle to finish one quilt in twelve years! So, I’ve always declined any invitations for these types of challenges.

Instead, I just keep slogging along for years, making incremental progress on my quilt projects. I wanted to do something with triangles (and specifically flying geese) in order to gear up for my second corner block, so this one seemed like a good choice.

The trickiest part of the construction was the curved seams in the center of the block. It’s a toss-up whether I hate curved piecing or appliqué more. Ultimately I decided that curved piecing made sense here since it’s just little curved strips on the edges of the center block. They were not fun to sew, but I got them done, and the rest of the block was uncomplicated to construct.

The main issue is that there is so much seam allowance bulk at the corners of the center square (between the three pieces of the curved seams coming together with the five triangle pieces of the outer border). Perhaps that would have been a good reason to choose appliqué instead.

The lumpy seam allowance behind the seam intersections doesn’t do them any favors. There’s always a tradeoff between reducing seam allowance bulk and pressing it in a direction where the seams line up better. Plus it was really difficult to maneuver the needle through all those layers when moving from one side of the seam intersection to another. I just noticed a stitch that is visible at one of the seam intersections.

It’s on the verge of being a block I want to resew to try to get everything to line up better … but I’m just not sure how much doing it again would help. The seam allowance would still be getting in the way. I have a while to make that decision, I guess.

When the subject of UFO challenges came up again with my virtual retreat group last month, I made a joke about how I might be up for it if I only had to complete one block per month. It turns out that kind of thing is allowed.

My friend Kathleen, who also quilts at a leisurely pace, decided she was going to complete a block each of her three current quilt projects for the challenge each month.

Once I knew you could do that, I was on board. I decided to set a goal for each of my three main quilt projects:
A. Piece one block (hopefully more) on my Dear Jane quilt
B. Hand quilt four motifs on my wholecloth quilt
C. Complete one row (either sew together or lay out the pieces) on the rainbow quilt I’m making for my child to take to college.

We were already close to the end of the month, but luckily I had spent some time on each of these three projects in January, thanks to a virtual mini-retreat, a long weekend, and a get-together with my hand quilting group.

Below is my January 2021 UFO Challenge progress:

In the center is my holly wholecloth quilt, where I completed three leaves and three berries (the berries are so small that three of them count as one motif).

Curved around the edge of the wholecloth quilt is the rainbow quilt – that green row was sewn on during the month.

The three (I’m such an overachiever!) Dear Jane blocks I completed in January are in the front. I’ve already blogged about the one on the left, and am blogging about the one in the center right now. The one on the right is a sneak peek at the subject of my next blog article.

I was both excited and nervous about the UFO challenge, concerned that I would fail miserably, but we’re almost a month into it now and I’m actually finding it quite motivating. Who knew that all I needed was an achievable goal to work towards? I’m pleased at the amount of progress I’m making on all three projects.