Swiss Finishing School (or SFS) is actually a quilter’s retreat held each year at a hotel in the village of New Glarus, WI, a town founded by Swiss immigrants. Each year about a dozen quilters gather to work on their UFO’s (unfinished objects) and give each other encouragement to finish those projects. This retreat is traditionally held in the winter and is a nice getaway as the hotel has an indoor pool and hot tub where we meet in the evening to discuss our projects (or maybe have a glass of wine!).

At this year’s retreat we had some gorgeous quilts get finished or almost finished. Some of us also started on new projects. My project was a retirement quilt that I and a co-worker were making for another co-worker who just retired. Although it wasn’t finished at the retreat it did get finished just in time for this past week’s retirement party.

The memory quilt had star blocks done in colors that we knew our co-worker liked and blocks with photos of people in our department.
In the center of most of the stars were plain squares that we had everyone in our department sign.

Every year a group of us makes a quilt to raffle off to benefit LABMED which is a non-profit that I co-founded 10 years ago to assist Labradors (or Lab mixes) in rescue situations who have beyond the ordinary vet bills.

This year’s quilt is “12 Months of Labradors” and is probably one of the best, if not the best, that we have done. Please consider purchasing a raffle ticket for this quilt. The drawing is next Friday at the Labrador Retriever National Specialty and you don’t have to be there to win it.

You can view more photos of the quilt HERE.
The February block is the one that I contributed to this project.

When I last posted I was about to go on a quilter’s retreat for the weekend with the UFO club. Our annual retreat is called “Swiss Finishing School” as the retreat is held in a small town nicknamed “Little Switzerland” and everyone tries to finish up a project or two while there.

The slogan of the UFO Club is “Done is good.” I accomplished a lot this year finishing one quilt that was close to being done when I got there as well as finishing piecing a quilt top that I started over 10 years ago (the Bear Paws Quilt below). Others attending had similar successes.

Several of us went on a “field trip” to a quilt store a few miles away and with the help of others we picked out fabric to finish more of our UFO’s (UnFinished Objects) or our PhDs (Project’s Half Done). It always helps to have the input of others to help inspire us to finish projects we have started.

Here are photos from this year’s Swiss Finishing School. I can’t wait until next year’s but at least I have some inspiration to keep working on some current projects now.

No, it’s not a bunch of people in New Mexico looking for flying saucers but more like a 12 step group for women who enjoy (or are addicted to) quilting. 

I, like many quilters, have projects that I started but set aside when I either got stumped on where to go with it or started another new project that seemed more fun at the time.  Picture drawers full of fabric and bins full of unfinished projects. These projects were given the nickname of “unfinished objects” or UFOs by an unknown quilter with the same issues.  Thus was born the “UFO Club”.

To join the UFO Club of our local quilt guild (the Madcity Quilters) you have to have at least 10 UFOs to register with the group.  Group members then help you finish these projects by giving advice and inspiration. Sometimes they give you the permission you needed to totally alter the plan or even give it up.    At meetings we have “Show and Tell” so people can show the progress they have made on projects or show off the finished quilt. 

Every year the group goes for a weekend quilters’ retreat fondly known as “Swiss Finishing School” as the retreat is held in a small town nicknamed Little Switzerland and the object is to finish quilts.  From mid afternoon on Friday through Sunday afternoon we have a conference room at a hotel that is turned into a quilters’ workshop where we can spread out our supplies and be uninterrupted by phones, husbands, children or pets.  Machines are whirring both day and night (I lasted until 2 a.m. one year) as people try to finish up as many projects as possible.

Because of this group I have finished quilts that I have started many years earlier and put aside. One quilt was started through an online mystery quilt group where we got a clue every month to make more quilt blocks that eventually would all tie together in one large quilt. Unfortunately the designer of the mystery fell very ill after just a few months of clues. So I was stuck with this large bin of fabric and a variety of blocks that I had no clue how to put together. Last year the leader of the UFO group helped me design a pattern to use those blocks and I finished the quilt this fall after which it then was auctioned off to benefit my favorite charity, LABMED.

Even more rewarding was finishing this quilt for my great niece that I started at Swiss Finishing School 2007 and receiving this photo last week of her enjoying it. Now THAT is what really inspires me to quilt.

This year’s Swiss Finishing School is this weekend and I am looking forward to finishing my “PhD” (Projects Half Done) in “Textiles”. Hopefully I’ll have some new photos to post next week!

NOTE: This post has been submitted to the “Blog Carnival” which can be found HERE.