12 UFO Challenge

 In order to be clear about the two UFO challenges I'm participating in this year, here's a post about the 12 projects I put on my list for the 2026 BAMQ UFO Challenge. This challenge came about when one of our members, Christine, was talking about another guild's challenge and how it had gotten her to work on projects that had fallen off her radar. It sounded like a new way to inspire people so I volunteered to help her organize it for our group.

  As I wrote yesterday there is overlap with the 2026 UFO Finishes Challenge, those four will be noted with this symbol🥏👽.

The way this challenge works is you turn in a list that is numbered, and every month at Sew Day we randomly pick one of the remaining numbers from 1-12 to be the project everyone works on and tries to finish before the next Sew Day. The first number chosen in January was #12, the second number chosen in February was #9. I worked on my #12 and finished it, the May You Ever Return quilt. And now I'm working on my #9 project, the Oxbow Tote. As we only have a month to work on and finish these things, I tried to structure my list so that I'd both be challenged and also have some easier finishes.

Here's my illustrated list of 12:

1. Clover Pillowcase - first started in a class in 2023, last worked on in 2023.
   
2. Kawandii - first started in a classs in 2021, last worked on in March 2025.
   
3. Bohemian Wife quilt-🥏👽 started in 2017, last worked on in 2025.
   
4. Snake in the Garden quilt - started in a class in 2007, last worked on February 2026.
   
5. Mini QCR Pumpkins - started in 2019, last worked on ?!who knows?!
   
6. Five by Five quilt - started in a 2022 class, last worked on in December 2022.
   
7. Dave Owen Hastings Class quilt -  🥏👽 started in a 2022 class, not worked on since then.
   
8. Body Pillow pillowcase - back when I put this on my list, it was intended for my older rectangular body pillow. I now have this new one which is twice as long and rather curvy. I'm thinking it would be nice to have a cotton jersey cover, nice and stretchy to bend with the curves, cozy feeling and easy to wash.
   
9. Oxbow Tote - started in 2024, last worked on December 2025.
   
10. Quilted Dog Jacket-pattern bought in 2024, not started yet.
    
11. Bending the Calendar quilt -🥏👽  started in 2012, last worked on?who knows?!
    
12. May You Ever Return quilt -🥏👽 started in a class in 2018, first one chosen and finished!
    

Here's to challenges that inspire and make me actually me spend the time to even go find the projects that I'm supposed to be working on! That's something of a start, right?

Bohemian Back Extension

The second project that I brought along to BAMQ's great Sew Day on Saturday, was to extend the length of the backing for my Bohemian Wife quilt. It was originally measuring just about exactly the same length as the quilt top, which won't work out well for me and getting the quilt layering and basting done well. I know myself and my process, and I've got to have a little bit more excess to work with. Not as much as a long-armer would require, but there has to be a little give in the measurements.

Honestly, the hardest part of this effort was adding the new fabric strip on to the correct side. 🤞🤞🤞 that I actually got it right. I'll find out when I actually layer and baste this quilt this week.

When I was working on this at Sew Day, there were a lot of comments that it should be a stand alone quilt top all on its own. Which is awfully nice of course, but I'm setting on keeping these together. And when I was explaining what the actual quilt top was and which pattern I'd used, I had to say the original pattern name out loud a couple of times. I found that it was hard for me to say out loud, so I definitely did the right thing for me to change the name to Bohemian Wife.

Many Bindings Day

 

Today at Sew Day, I spent my time making binding, lots and lots of binding. For the City Sampler and the Bohemian Wife quilts. Both soon to be going to a long-armer for quilting.

And then the binding for Metro Twist.

I only did the first step of sewing the binding on as I didn't have the matching blue thread to final stitch it down. So close to done with this one.  That was a lot of binding for one day's work, phew, glad it's made.

Retreat-Third Day

 

On the third day of the retreat I pieced together the rest of the backing for the Bohemian Wife quilt. I’m happy with how it looks and that I got to use up so many of the extra blocks and scraps left over from making the quilt top. Thanks to friend Jaye for taking the picture.

It’s just as loud and wild as the front of the quilt, which is what I wanted.

I also made a lot more of the hourglass blocks for the Old Town mystery quilt.

I got a start on my entry for this year’s challenge quilt for BAMQ.

As you can see it’s made with a lot of the fabrics from the Bohemian Wife quilt.

Here’s what it looks like all at once, hanging up on the post in the workroom of the workshop.

I started out at this end, specifically with that big flower. The challenge is to make a quilt without any 90 degree angles on the corners. We will see where I end up with this…

A Mostly Back

 

I was pretty productive at BAMQ Sew Day on Saturday. I got a very good start on the back for my Bohemian Wife quilt. This is what I got done which is 39"x45" completed so far out of the measurement of 64x70" that will be needed.

I managed to piece together all of the "orphan" or extra blocks that I had ended up with when I'd finished piecing the quilt top.

The majority of these fabrics are used on the front of the quilt. There are just a couple that aren't, but I'm not too fussed about that.  I'm glad that these floating blocks are no longer floating around separate. And I managed to stop myself from using the teeny HSTs. I think those will go into a pillow sham or something like that.

Back To Boho Back

 

There were still a lot of scraps left over from all the strips that made up the Bohemian Wife quilt top, so now I've gotten a lot of them sewn together into this piece.

Here's how the "made fabric" looks along with the other bordered blocks that will eventually make up the quilt back. It looks a mess doesn't it? The pattern for the quilt top really corrals all the print and pattern.

And then one more "made fabric" piece added at the bottom. Still not enough to make up a quilt back of course. All of those small blocks that I made from the teeny-tiny HSTs still need to be sewn into something useable. I'm thinking of setting them in solids or reads as solids chosen from the quilt top fabrics. That will translate into a lot of area to make up the quilt back.

Revenge of the Teeny-Tiny HSTs

As I mentioned a week ago, there are a lot of Teeny-Tiny HSTs leftover from working on making the Bohemian Wife quilt blocks.

Creating something out of these waste teeny-tiny HSTs is probably not the best use of my time, but I just want to see if I can do something interesting with them.

I had some very long strings of these as I sewed the pairs together. If I had stopped sewing then and there it would have made a very festive banner.

But I persevered and here they all are, ironed but very untidy and uneven.

All trimmed up! I think instead of sewing these all together in a big mish-mosh I'll include some more solid alternating squares to set them off. Or to keep the maximalist thing going from the front, piece them together and use these as the sashing for the bigger blocks.

Okay, the Teeny-Tiny HSTs are handled, so I'm moving on for now.

Strips Used And Not

 

The only progress I've made on the teeny tiny HSTs is to sort them into matching sets of four. Takes up a whole lot less room. I may or may not include this in the back of the Bohemian Wife quilt, giving myself permission to move along if necessary.

I was thinking of making a block of strips something like this to echo all the strips on the front of the quilt.

But I used a lot of them to border the last couple of blocks that I had made. There are still some strips left to help fit all of this together.

Boho Back

 
Well, I got sucked back into Bohemian Wife because I was tidying up. And there are a lot of strips and bits and pieces left over. Which of course are going to need to be assembled into a backing. Instead of packing them away, I started working with them.

There were some left over blocks, which I put some sort of borders around, either strips or HSTs or both.

There were a couple blocks in the Bohemian Wife box that weren't made with the same fabrics, but made with somewhat similar ones. I left myself a note saying just that. So instead of stashing them somewhere, I decided to include them. What the heck, my quilt, my rules and all, right?

I'm liking what I've got done so far. And there are a whole lot less strips left to use.

There was, however, an envelope in the Bohemian Wife box that was labeled "Tiny HSTs". And there they all are...yikes! These are obviously leftovers from making the blocks. I had sewed them and pressed them open as I went. Do I sew them all into one (or several) giant blocks? Should I sew them together with solids and spread them out in other blocks to make up more of the quilt back that's needed? Decisions must be made, because now my work table is occupied.

Bohemian Wife Quilt Top

 

Starting out with seven completed sections to join together. Will they fit? Will things line up? Let's see...

So far, so good. Except for the upper right corner, not sure what happened there. I'll add a bit more to that corner strip to reach to the top edge.

This is a pretty chunky quilt, and the sections (once assembled) are really fairly easy. And even better they are matching up!

This turned out to be the only kind of challenging assembly for this, but it worked out just fine.

Anticipation of having a usable design wall once again is rising as I near the end of assembly.

Only one more very long seam left to do. Hard to believe after all this work.

And there she is, my Bohemian Wife quilt top is finished. I'm so very glad that I finally finished this one. There are a lot of things I'd do differently, but I'm super pleased with how it turned out.

Secondary goal is also achieved, a mostly blank design wall. Ahhh, it's so nice to anticipate working on something else up there.