When is a UFO a UFO?
 

Is it a UFO when you have bought the material but not started the project? I was on a mission to finish my UFOs and then came across these layer cakes I had bought to make table runners. Are those layer cakes UFOs or just part of my stash? Just trying to get a handle on all of this material. What do you guys think?

I'm gonna say stash. If something isn't started how can it be unfinished?

IMHO ... fabric is part of my stash; only when I've cut and started piecing does it become a UFO. I'm really good at getting fabric and really good at starting a project, but not so good at finishing. Of course, I have a lot of projects in the dream stage too.

I agree with marymo also. A UFo is anything that has been stitched. You wouldn't be a quilter if you didn't have a few UFO's on hand.

I wouldn't consider anything a UFO until it has been started. it is a project in waiting, I guess until you actually start working on it

I call it a UFO if it has been started, then abandoned or put aside for a new project. If you pick it up and work on it from time to time, it is then a WIP (work in progress). Until you make that first cut, it's just stash.

stash, you have not started it yet!

Got to agree with everyone else. Stash

i'd call it part of my stash

I'd definitely say stash. If it's still in the state it was when you brought it home from the store then it can be used for any project, not just the one you had in mind when you bought it. Once you start cutting and sewing then it becomes a work in progress. (WIP) Once you stick it in a bag and stick it in a drawer in favor of working on something else then it's a UFO.

Stash..

BUT if you plan on using it for just that purpose Id find a bag/box/tote to put all the 'ingredients' in so you dont mistakenly use it for something else.. Been there, Done that !


IMHO a UFO is a project started and not quite finished.. Sometimes one gets bored and another pattern crosses our paths and we just cant wait to begin the new one and it gets tucked away and put aside.. And thats how it begins.. slowly...first its one, then two.. then when its waaaaay to late you realize you have a doz or so UFO's patiently waiting to be the top LOVE again.. lol..

Today IM making one of my UFO my top LOVE... ONE down only 18 more UFO's to go !!!

Stash is "just fabric." It can be used in any pattern. A UFO is already progressed into some form of an object - meaning a pattern has been selected, the fabric cut and the assembly has been started. At some point in the process, the project was put aside for whatever reason. Some UFOs are intended to be picked up again and put into the WIP (work in progress) state. Others will never be finished and linger in the UFO state until they are passed on.

Same here!

Humpf. I think it can be a UFO if you want it to be!

But, that said, my "I've-pulled-fabrics-for-this-project-and-put-it-all-in-one-place" I call PIGS = Projects in grocery sacks. There. They have a name that's between UFOs and stash. LOL!:D

Jan in VA

STASH! a ufo is an unfinished item- a project that you started & for what ever reason set aside perhaps with no desire to ever finish- a wip is a 'work in progress' that one may be set aside for the moment- but you still work on it- or plan to - maybe need to pick something up for-
to me the ufo's are the ones that i may want to finish-but may never- ones that for what ever reason i gave up on= or lost interest in- it is not being worked on- if i pull it out & do start it again- it happily moves from the ufo box to the wip box- oh happy day! quite often i (share) my ufo's---send them off with someone who can see an end- where i can not....I do have one that is over 10 years old- that i have so much money wrapped up in- i haven't been able to give it away- but i also have not been able to work on it either...will probably be a gazillion pieces in a box when i die...for someone else to deal with...ufo's....
my goal this year is to not create any ufo's!!!

PBNS = planned but not started, that's what you call it and if you're looking for permission to work on it, I say go for it. Isn't all of this supposed to be fun and not a bunch of rules or chores? Listen to your heart and start it if you want to.

IMO, some cutting and stitching would have to take place. Then the second you turn your attention to another project it's a UFO!

Unless you have firmly committed and set it aside for that use, it is stash. But if you are giving yourself space to change your mind and put it back, it's not a UFO yet. This makes being wispy washy into a plus rather than a minus.

IMHO there are no rules! What do YOU think it is? I've just written a blog post on my many UFOs and I've made up my own category, USO - UnStartedProject - for the kits etc for which I have pattern and fabric but haven't yet actually started. http://annes-threads.blogspot.co.uk/...-and-usos.html

"But, that said, my "I've-pulled-fabrics-for-this-project-and-put-it-all-in-one-place" I call PIGS = Projects in grocery sacks. There. They have a name that's between UFOs and stash. LOL!:D

Jan in VA"

I think uncut is stash! I Love this "PIGS"....made me laugh

I say stash. To me a UFO is any project that for some reason has not been finished and also hasn't been worked on recently. But like it's been said, your stuff- your rules! Call it what you want.

How can it be an unfinished object if it never got started? It might be deicided that it should be something else. No, not a UFO, you are safe on that one!

Well, I guess the number of UFOs is less than I thought, but my number of planned-but-not-started is overwhelming me. Guess I need to get quilting! But I know I'll never be down to zero in either category - what fun would that be, right?:D

I think that selecting fabrics for a project is the beginning of the project sooooo....I'd say if you are keeping the fabrics together and are not allowing them to be part of your searches as you make other projects they count as UFOs - although I think PIGs is a better description - but if you include them in your selection process when looking for fabric for other projects they are stash. For me it is the segregation from the general fabric population that changes their status!

I keep finding myself pulling out heaps of fabric and setting them aside for projects, then ignoring them, then finding them again after I've just finished a project in which one of the separated fabrics would have been perfect...for years I wondered where all my small blue pieces of fabric had gone, only to find them neatly bundled and lovingly packaged at the back of a drawer waiting to be made into my blue-and-white quilt. (Which I still haven't made.) The blues are back where they belong, in my stash, and are therefore no longer a UFO! *sigh of accomplishment*

Alison

I say stash altho I find fabric for 1 project and then decide I want it for something entirely different. Then hardly ever make the one it was intended for.

It is only a UFO if you have started a project but not finished it, until you start it is part of your stash

I agree, stash, a friend recently sent this to me "If I make a mistake on a big project, it has to go in the time out bag, until I am no longer angry with it." I think it was a knitting saying, but I would adapt it to UFOs and say angry/tired of it. So if you have not started the project you are probably not angry/tired of it yet.