Here are the blocks on my 'design floor'.
They are blocks from my 'Test Your Skills Sampler' Variation.
I have been trying to get a lot of UFOs finished up this year, and that got me thinking about why a project becomes a UFO. I have more cross stitch UFOs than quilting ones. Cross stitching is more labor intensive than quilting. You can make a 12 inch quilt block in a half hour, if it is not a difficult pattern. It would take most stitchers weeks, if not months, to cross stitch a 12 inch square pattern. So size of project is one of the main reasons a cross stitch project becomes a UFO. It is important to keep up enthusiasm for a project in order to get it done. If my enthusiasm goes down, the likelihood of a project becoming a UFO goes up, and if the project (whether quilting or cross stitching) takes a long time, there is more of a chance for the enthusiasm to plummet.
Loss of momentum is another reason a project becomes a UFO. If I am working on something daily, I will see progress, and that progress can keep me excited about a project. If I put a project away, to say, clean up my house for company or get ready for a holiday, sometimes it is hard to get it back out.
A project that I am emotionally invested in like a quilt for a family member will get done on time. A project that I have been dreaming about for many year and that I have spent a lot for on materials will not become a UFO. I feel too guilty about spending a lot of money on a project unless I'm going to really complete it.
Most of my UFOs are projects that I started on impulse, bought on sale, were a class project or were gifts. Sometimes I can tell in the first 2 hours of work that this project will probably become a UFO. Sometimes it is because I'm not good at a particular technique (like surface embroidery, sewing curves or paper piecing). I'll try to power though these future UFOs, but they eventually wear me down, and I give up. Some projects become UFOs because I change my mind about the colors or don't like the materials (like floss that wants to shred and tangle).
I'm working hard to reduce my UFOs. They take up valuable space and weigh me down mentally. They make me feel guilty for starting something new if I have a lot of them. So if I want to start new things with a right good heart, I need to finish up the old ones.
5 comments:
Hello from my little corner, Laura ;>)
This is a brilliant post, dear. You've put the exact words on my feelings about my Ufo's and make me confirm that I really, really need to progress on these. Maybe first sort them out, as there are some among them I know I'll never finish... These recession time are also a good reason to become frugal about our (impulse) quilting spendings, knowing that we've got enough at home for a few years to come!
THANKS for this post and for the inspiration, dear !
Smiles & friendship from Belgium
XOXOXOXO
NADINE
I too, have UFO's oozing out of the closet. Sometimes it is ok to give up on them. My local quilt group has an annual "clean out your sewing room" auction at the summer picnic. You bring stuff you no longer want and a couple of ladies bag them up. Then they auction them off with play money. Another thing is to donate away quilt tops. Or Team up with someone who would love to tie/or quilt it and donate to Project Linus or some other worthwhile charity.
For me a project usually becomes a UFO because I don't readily have the backing or binding or batting to hand - I have to order everything online, but they usually get done eventually! I love your blocks and hope you'll finish them.
I agree with most of your post as to how projects become UFO's. But, I'm doing better about not starting new ones unless I finished one of the old ones. I feel my time is so limited because I am helping other people finish up their UFO (longarm quilting), so I have an excuse -- right?? ha I do slowly get a few finished in between my customers things.
So true on all points although I only wish the high cost of a project would keep it off the UFO list -- for me that's no guaranteed deterrent! For those "within 2 hours I know" projects, the challenge may be to try to re-think the project and figure out if it can be made a different way or incorporated in or combined with another project or just separated into parts that can be disbursed for other uses. The thing to avoid is to have it go (as I just read on another blog) "into solitary confinement" never to be heard from again or to weigh you down from starting new things.
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