I have a flurry of new projects this year, including American Patchwork & Quilting’s UFO Challenge. March’s project is already done, but I am stuck on February. My UFO is a practice piece I did years ago to try corded white work. I was reading Kathryn Berenson’s book “Quilts of Provence” and wanted to try my hand at some. It’s not a precious piece because the “cording” that I used is just acrylic yarn that I had around the sewing room and it’s not big enough that the hand quilting was such a major investment. Here’s the original:
My original plan for finishing this UFO was to stretch it over a frame and hang it. But, it’s not that interesting so then I thought I might add some color and make it an art quilt to hang. I had a great time painting, but I’m not that excited about the results. My inclination at this point is to finish this UFO by throwing it out. Here’s what it looks like now. What do you think? Can it be saved or should I just let it go and move on?
Julie, I think there sometimes comes a point where you have to let something go. A tutor at college once said to me that there would come a time when he knew the only action was to ‘spill’ a cup of coffee over a painting! A bit drastic and I’m not suggesting you should do that. I think your piece has some mileage in it yet. Hand stitching lines and/or couching radiating from the centre using thick thread in either analogous or complementary colours might work to make more of the star pattern. At the end of the day, if you feel enough is enough, then you have to let it go … I’ve been there many times!
Mu, I think that you are absolutely right. I love your ideas for improving this piece, but I think that I am going to let it go without guilt. I enjoyed the cording and the painting work that I did on it, but I learned the lessons that I needed to learn and do not need to keep the final piece.