Have you seen any UFOs recently? By this I mean, do you have any unfinished objects around? We can transform them into quilts for the border. In 2021, when a group in Sun City sent us 51 quilt tops, we finished them with a flannel backing. That’s when we knew we were onto something good with UFOs.

In Sacramento, a crew of brand-new quilters and their teachers make unbacked quilt tops. It’s less expensive to send them to First Crew in Portland for finishing. 

Recently, as I was organizing my sewing room, I found a set of blocks left over from a blue and purple batik quilt I made for my niece’s wedding a few years back. I’d made enough blocks for a king, but they preferred a queen-size quilt. That left just enough blocks for a good 40” x 40” quilt. Presto! 

UFOs create fun challenges for us. We received a wonderful collection from a local quilter – three bags full of UFOs, including two very large and one small log cabin blocks. We put these together by adding a middle section with the small log cabin on-point, surrounded by solid blue. The whole was too narrow on its own, so we surrounded it with a series of borders that echoed the log cabin. It’s a little longer than our recommended size, but it will be perfect for a family. 

Our most recent donation is a full-size quilt top that was given to us by our friend Monica Wheeler, who is downsizing. She gave us carte blanche in terms of repurposing it. Karen quickly offered to take on this project and transformed this UFO into two smaller quilts for children at the border. (see below)

Take a look at your UFOs. They could say “bienvenidos” to a person arriving in the US. ~ Rachel Stevens, First Crew, Portland, Oregon.