Unfinished Business

My heart sank when I took it out of the bag, as my friend looked on expectantly. She had found this unfinished quilt in a second-hand store, and thought of me. She is not a quilter, herself, and I knew she had no idea of the daunting prospect she was presenting. “Grandmother’s Flower Garden,” a classic pattern very popular in the 1920s and 1930s, is made of hexagons joined with tiny set-in seams, and must be constructed entirely by hand. This one came with a pile of finished blocks waiting to be set in, a few half-finished blocks, and a zip-lock bag of two-inch hexagons, waiting to be laid out and stitched together. It is probably almost a hundred years old, and some of the fabrics are fragile. I didn’t have the skill or the patience for this project. Still, I couldn’t quite bring myself to let it go, so for the last several years it has joined the other UFOs in my sewing room.

UFOs, the quilter’s wry designation for “Unfinished Objects.” Some of my own UFOs are works in progress, or at least that’s what I consider them—projects that I may have set aside temporarily for something with a tighter deadline (a baby quilt) or that are awaiting my attention for the next step—a decision about the border; fabric for a backing; an afternoon to lay out the “quilt sandwich” (back, filler, and top basted together in preparation for quilting). 

Other UFOs are projects that are on hold until I solve some unanticipated problem. The color plan isn’t quite working.  Or the blocks are more difficult than I had imagined, so I keep putting off the construction. Or I’ve run out of a key fabric, and now I have to figure out how to make the design work with something else. 

Worst of all are the UFOs that are stalled because of major mistakes. The seams don’t meet, and they’re not off by just a little. The sides aren’t the same length, so the borders aren’t going to fit. Those puckers in the middle can’t be ironed out; I’ve got to rip out and try again. The good news is that just about anything can be fixed, but do I have the will and the time and the skill to do it?

As I ponder the unfinished Grandmother’s Flower Garden, I wonder about the unknown quilter whose UFO it was. What kept her from completing it? Maybe it was just too much for her, with its hundreds of small pieces and 1/8” seams. Or maybe she ran out of time, and there was no one who could take on what she left behind. But is that mine to do?

I’ve worked six of her blocks into a wall hanging, a kind of homage to this unknown quilter. Right now that project is itself a UFO, in the “work in progress” category. Meanwhile the partly assembled quilt and blocks await.

As I contemplate the downsizing we will need to undertake, sooner or later, I wonder about the fate of this and my other UFOs. What can be completed? What can be repurposed? What must be relinquished or left behind?

Those questions apply to more than sewing projects, in the ongoing discernment of a faithful life. Our days are numbered, though we do not know the number of them. What is the work we are called to do? How are we using what we have been given? What do we need to embrace, and what to let go of? What will we leave behind?

The Rev. Barbara Melosh