UFO Finishes Challenge 2026

Here's a post I should have made last month! The UFO Challenge from last year was a really big success for me, so I put together another list for 2026. All of those are crammed together into the above image. They pretty much all look like they're made by the same person, so I guess that's good. Or maybe I'm just used to them because they've been hanging around for so long...being UFO's and all.

Here's the very cute image for the challenge. Great color combo and I'm into the slogan "A Year of Finishes".

An illustrated list:

Bohemian Wife - starting point: the top and back are done, binding is made. (Also on my BAMQ UFO list)

Temperature Quilt - starting point: the columns are done, the top is 2/3 put together.

Bending the Calendar- starting point: the quilt is assembled and mostly quilted. (Also on my BAMQ UFO list)

City Sampler- the starting point: the quilt is quilted and the binding is halfway sewn on

 David Owen Hastings class piece. (It's really in pieces!) I left myself notes though. And I really still quite like it a lot. Starting point: three pieces or "blocks" out of six are done, drawing are made for the other three. (Also on my BAMQ UFO list)

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May You Ever Return - This one is very recently done! And that's mainly because it's also on the UFO Challenge list for BAMQ, See...overlapping UFO Challenges is an extra boost for me.  That one has 12 items on it, one for each month. I actually have four overlapping ones! So we'll see if that works for me with the other three.

Temperature Quilt - May

I worked on the Temperature Quilt a little bit more, while catching the amazing World Series game 7. I had located an actual ironing board in the Air B-n-B that we were staying in a clever little closet. It worked out pretty well and I got the April column ironed out a little bit better. Enough so that I was able to keep going and adding on May.

And there it is, five months are now assembled, leaving seven to go...I'm looking forward to ironing this on my bigger ironing board at home. It will be easier to do there.
 

TQ March-April

 Switching projects over to adding more monthly columns onto the Temperature Quilt.

A new sewing station view with a view of many many dogs getting walked. 

There’s the first quarter, January, February and March. I also added on April, so I’m now a third of the way done assembling this quilt top. I didn’t have a good way to hang it up as you can see from this picture so no group shot of the fourth month. So far so good🤞🤞🤞

Two Months Together

 

I took the plunge and tried sewing the first sashing strip between the January and February columns for the Temperature Quilt. It's really fighting agains the Old Town background here, but it really looks quite good.

I especially like how the bottom looks.

It took a lot of fiddly pinning and slow stitching, but they got done pretty easily. Yay, I feeling like the dam has finally broken and I'm on track to get this quilt top together.

Temperature Sashing

After getting all of the twelve monthly columns trimmed and right-sized, I now have a number to work with for the length of the sashing. That means that I'm now moving on to cutting up some sashing strips from the Painter's Palette Onyx black that I'm using. And then I'll be piecing them together to make them long enough to go between all the columns. 

Oooffff, I forgot how hard black on black sewing is.I need to turn all of the lights on to do it now. Guess my eyes are indeed getting older. Okay, all eleven strips of sashing are done, now to start piecing together this thing! 

Last Months Trimmed

 

The last months of the Temperature quilt were all trimmed down, and I got all the measurements taken for the length of each monthly column. There was a little fiddling around with a few of the months to make them all play nicely together. But, at least, now I know the final number I'm working with so I can cut up some sashing to the right size.

More Temperature Months

 

Still working on trimming the monthly columns for the 2023 Temperature Quilt. I'm measuring each column after I trim the top and writing each number down. So far there's a pretty big variation between columns. I think I may have not correctly followed the end of the column piecing instructions for every month .

The top of each column has started out accurately, as I'm finding that I'm trimming off the same shape every time. And I know I checked and re-checked the number of days for each month. But February vs. December had different instructions on what to put on the bottom of the column. 

Again, I will note here, that I am so excited by all the colors and textures of my hand-dyed fabrics. It was definitely a good challenge for me as a dyer. And it is making me want to go dye some stuff right now this very second.

Definitely a lot of variation happening. But each column will be measured and corrected before I start sewing any sashing on to these columns.

Back to Temperature

Finally turning back to working on one of the UFO projects, The Temperature Quilt (from back in 2023!) Here's the stack of the twelve monthly columns that I'd pieced. And that's where I stopped because frankly I was sick of working on it.

The next step after piecing the columns is trimming off the top to a 90° angle.

The next step is to measure each of the twelve columns and make sure that they're all roughly the same lengths. This is so that when you sew them together with the sashing they'll match up well enough to make an overall good rectangle in the end. 

Guess there will be some bottom trimming and/or adding on of fabric. Thankfully I store the black that I was using along with the columns so at least I won't have to search for the correct shade of black to use.

All Twelve Months

Last day of assembling the December column for the Temperature Quilt.

Barely different blues. A few days in December the thermometer barely budged.

The Final Low Temperature piece is added. 

And there it is finally finally finally: December.

Of course, I had to get out the other months and hang them up too for a group shot.

Closer view of the column's top 1/3.

Middle 1/3

And finally the Bottom 1/3. Yes it's as uneven as the top is because I didn't take a huge amount of time lining them up as I pinned them to the design wall. Now I guess I'll have to go and watch the final assembly video that Jaybird Quilts put out with this pattern (last year!) 

I'm so happy right now!😼😼😼😼😼

December Partial

Here's 19 out of 31 days worth of the December column of the Temperature quilt is now sewn together.  Ahhh...so close. I actually had to un-sew one of the pieces because I got interrupted by a phone call and picked up the wrong piece when I got back to the sewing machine.

On the right is some of the Pantone Project blocks which I'm still playing around with several design ideas.

December Plus Extras

 

I finished sewing together the November column of the Temperature Quilt, and put up the pieces for the final month left to assemble: December (2023). This is a picture of the state of the box of pieces sorted by temperature range. There's a lot left! I think I cut out a lot of the extras before I'd thought to count up how many I needed. The five empty Wonderclips clipped onto just the paper labels show which temperature ranges I didn't over-cut for.

On the left is the finished November column. When it came down to putting up December, I had to cut exactly one piece for the 51-55 range to finish it off. And finally there's the 68 left-over half-hexies arranged in an interesting but improbable manner.  Well, they'll at least make for an interesting pillow sham or maybe just a part of the quilt back.  

I'm feeling like the end is in sight with this project!

Partway through November

Starting off on the November column for the Temperature Quilt.  I really like this great color combination here at the beginning. Please disregard the yuck on the black.

This is a great look at the different colors close up and next to each other. Those blues really are different, so are the purples. I'm happy to see it going together.

The mini-Oliso iron is lighting the way.

Lunch break, a bit more than a third done so far.

All those purples and greens together make me very happy.

A good range of the colors this month so far.
 

Here Comes November

 

I had to take the City Sampler down today because I am once again out of the sashing fabric that I'll be using for the final border of the top. It's on order and coming this week, but I wanted to work on something new. Well, not new, but really getting kinda old at this point--The Temperature Quilt. Specifically the month of November. Yes, the end of this endless piecing is finally maybe almost in sight.... 

At this point I'm going to say I'm looking forward to sewing these columns all together into a finished quilt top. It's funny to me to see how much of each temperature range I cut in excess of what I needed for some unknown reason. I probably got on a roll cutting and was listening to a book or podcast. Will all those extra half-hexies be pieced together for the back?

 For a pillow cover that I made during the Journey2Nebula, like perhaps anotherLucky Charm or 

maybe a Jawbreaker?

October Temperature Column

 

Back to working on finishing up on piecing the Temperature Quilt.  The October column has been up on the design wall for a while. And I finally made the decision to put it together.

I used the wooden clapper on each seam sewn and it really helped to keep it flat.

I like how it looks on the back! The Wonderclips really work well to hold it together and out of the way when it's almost done.  Less stretching and holes in the fabric.

Here's how July through October is looking. Two more months left to piece together now.

Here's a closer look at the columns. After the summer introduction of hotter colors, I'm liking this more and more.