I have been thinking about this since the challenge has been offered to finish at least one UFO by the end of the year.

Why do we have things that we put aside and don't finish?

We don't like the colors we chose?
I'm not doing a good enough job?
It just isn't what I thought it would be?
Something better came along?
What was I thinking in the first place?

What about you? Maybe if we inspire each other by discussing our options and looking at projects with new eyes.

Too fun to plan/start a new project.....

I find I create more and more UFOs every year!!!! They are like rabbits!!! LOL

Its always fun to use some new fabric, and start a new project.....thats all it is for me :D

boredom, it doesn't look the way I expected it.

Down to 2, will finish them if it kills me!

Several of my UFO's are because I don't know how I want to quilt them, I have much more fun putting the tops together than the actual quilting. Also health as been an issue. I wasn't able to sew for 4 months and had gotten several gifts most of the way done before my surgery. I also have about 6 sets of block of the month and another 5 sets of block exchanges that I just havn't figured out how I want to put them together... yet...

I have 3 UFOs. #1 I started at a quilt retreat about 5 years ago and I just plain don't like it, will probably never finish it. #2 is sandwiched and I'm going to tie it, just never take it out and do it. #3 I don't know how I'm going to quilt it. That 1 started 3 years ago and I now have promised my neice that I will have it done for her by christmas for her gift.

Starting a new project with new fabric is always more fun though it's a feeling of accomplishment when I get one completed.

My UFOs are definitely NOT intentional. I begin a project and stick with it for a while. If for any reason the project must be put on hold, then I just don't get back to it. I put it away and when some new idea comes my way, I get right to it and then on and on and on.

Mine are mostly tops. I get a bug in my rear end, find a pattern I HAVE to do, buy the fabric, and piece the top. And thanks to just now learning to machine quilt, they don't get done.

However, I'm finishing 4 UFOs by Christmas. They will be machine quilted (except for one - that one I'll finish quilting by hand), and they may not be perfect, but they will be done and they will have meaning :).

I have UFO's because it is sooooo much fun to start a new project!

Sometimes they just need to rest.

Thanks everyone.

I like your response Moonpi.

I'm waiting for fabric to come that I ordered for my next project so it is UFO or nothing. I'd never heard of pigs before you guys introduced me to that concept. LOL

You are not alone.. I have lost count of the number of quilt tops I have not layered or quilted!!! I really need to get crackin' on finishing these off!! I keep making lots of quilt tops (especially to teach)!!! (quilt tops are easier for me to transport back and forth to class than a finished one...

I think I am a professional ufo'er:))I have several for different reasons. Like BOM's...you start out strong, then real life happens and there they pile. Or you will be working on a project and even though most of it is finished you might not know what will work better w/the sashing, etc...so, there it sits till you see it...for then you know it will work. Or disappointment in the project. You might start out strong and then it ends up not quite going the direction you thought it would or look...so, there it sits for you to think on for a bit. I have to say I had worked long and hard on a hand pieced quilt. What I did not like was the instructor had us quilt as we go...which I personally don't like the look of, told the teacher and she insisted I had to do it that way...which I still hate which made me detest the whole project and in the basket it went. Well, since it has set, I pulled it out and was just going to toss it out and then thought, maybe I'd have enough of these blocks to at least put together in a lap quilt..well, I have plenty..and, in fact, looking at it all on the floor....I did a pretty good job!! I actually think it has potential now and will finish it:))LOL I know that is more then you all wanted to read...but, there is where I get my ufo's:))Which is what I wasssss working on, now I have Christmas orders..so, guess what...they get to UFO it awhile longer:))Skeat...oh, and I do think if you go to a retreat, workshop, etc and did not have a great experience w/the instructor, etc...I think the project ends up sitting due to you not being able to look at it w/out reliving it again or thinking about it...so it sits:))

Most of my UFO's are unpurpose. Patrice once told me that the quilt knows what it wants, or something like that. So for the most part, mine are WIP's that aren't talking to me at the moment, for whatever reason...

And of course there is always the pain the the rear project that I don't want to LISTEN TO. hehehe

My problem is that I want to do more. I start out and, it is not always a feeling of losing enthusiasm, but I see something else and go oooohhhh, aahhhh. I like that. I want to do that also. I still like the others (most of them anyhow) :D But I have always been one to have more than one project going at once.

I have UFO's cuz I get stuck on how to put on the border(s).
Or I put it away and can't find it again for a while.
Or I put the components awayin separate areas and they need to be reunited. And they are like long lost lovers on separate continents.
Or I can't decide how to quilt it after I finally do get it pinned together.

I have LOTS of excuses!

My UFOs are because I'm a hand quilter, and there are just so many hours in a day, so many days, in a week, etc. I DETEST the sandwiching step, so I tend to put that off. I have a couple of machine-quilted things I'm working on, but I'm not very good at it, so I don't really enjoy the process. And also, I have the attention span of a hummingbird--it's a lot more fun to start a project than to finish one!

The quilting part is my favorite part, but the quilt sandwich is the most hated part, so I need to let my ufo's age like fine wine, til I convince myself to do the quilt sandwich. I put together two or more at a time, than am in heaven quilting. Unless a new quilt pattern catches my eye.LOL

This is hilarious !! YOU GALS ARE ALL ALIKE. AND I RELATE TO ALL OF YOU. WE NEED TO START A RUNNING LIST OF ALL THE "EXCUSES" FOR HAVING UFOs. :lol:

Great idea Gail! I'd have to add that the phone rings too much:))And, I just can't 'not' answer it:)). I like the honesty of our group. It's a tough thing to admit we do and the real reasons of why...it is like wearing our undergarments on the outside of our clothes!:))We just tough up and put it out there for all to see!!:))And, everyone is right....we all think alike!:))skeat

I would have fewer UFOs if I didn't spend so much time reading the quilting forum.!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Every time I take a class I end up with a UFO. If I am working on a project and a class comes along that I am interested in, then either I get excited about the class project and my original becomes the UFO or I return to my original and the class project becomes the UFO.

I have to many ideas in my head so I just start to make them.I also love to keep my hands busy at all times Unless I'm sleeping.I'm also running out of batting so they have to wait.

LOL!!! Amen!!!

Some of my UFOs come because I get all jazzed up about a new project and then for one reason or another I have to set it aside (while I work on something else with a deadline) then I get all jazzed up about a new project instead of going back and finishing the first one. Most of my UFOs are tops that are finished, but have never been sandwiched or quilted. I should just call myself a piecer instead of a quilter.

I think I'm more of a fabric accumulator than anything else.

But do I ever have a lot of POTENTIAL stashed away!!!!!

I'm like so many of you, LOL! Mostly my UFO's fall into two categories: either I start it and decide I don't like it (or hate it, or it's giving me grief!), or I find another pattern that I just HAVE to do!

Woo Hoo CRH! That's my BIGGEST problem. This board is addicting!

I know just what you mean. it's the first place I go when I come home from work. It's fun, informative, funny, and gives me so many ideas for quilts. Ok, I'm addicted.LOL :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Mine are because I run out of time, get bored, and they need to be quilted, and that takes too much time, so I move on to somethig else.

i am on a fixed budget, so sometimes buying the batting for my quilt tops is not in the the amount i have left over. and since i never post pics of things that aren't 'finished' i have quite the pile of beautiful work just sitting here.

but my best friend is planning to give me a gift certificate for fabricland, which will be a blessing and free up some $$$ for me to buy batting...yay!! perhaps it is because she got one of my projects for her b-day and was impressed :)

My UFO's are always getting ahead of me, I think about another project and do not go forward and finish them. My problem is, something else "more important" comes up and voila one project out of my head another idea in it! Then another and another and that other one just lies there going "pick me, pick me"! If we finished everything, we wouldn't have anything to fall back on when we were left blank for ideas! :roll:

I don't know :? that's like asking me how a carburator works. it just does and we just do.

I can SO RELATE to that!!! I should be down in my sewing room right now, kids are in bed, husband is hunting, but here I am on the computer with y'all!!

I have UFOs because:
1 is a BOM that finished 2 years ago...but I didn't keep up (only 2 months left to do!)
2 are classes I took that I didn't complete in class, so they got pushed to the back burner
1 is a UFO because it needs velcro and i hate anything to do with velcro...thus the UFO
the last 2 are UFOs just because other projects/fabrics came along that needed my immediate attention.

All of the above UFOs are going with me to my quilt retreat next week so I should not have ANY laying around my room! (That, of course, doesn't mean that I don't have any PNSs (projects not started) laying around....) :wink:

I have to say that i have never finished a quilt top that didn't immediately get sandwiched and quilted...i have NO quilt tops laying around waiting to be sandwiched and quilted!! :D

I have UFOs because I have to spend so much time at my job, which I need, because it pays for my quilting addiction. And there is always another block or quilt I want to try. I usually share them with my mom, and so she starts new projects all the time too. I know where I got this sickness from, I come by it honestly. Mom and I sew together on Wednesday evenings. She has many UFO's. Back in the beginning of summer I told her to choose one project that she would really like to see completed, and I would help her work on it on our sewing day each week. When we get one done, she chooses another and we work on that. We have been making a lot of progress by concentrating on one project at a time on our sewing day. And as a bonus, it keeps her from worrying about living on a fixed income and not being able to afford gifts. She has been giving beautiful gifts as a result of our efforts on her UFO's.

Linda

I'm new, I have none... yet

Don't worrry you will have some before you know it.

The projects I consider to be UFO's rather than slow moving WIPs are mostly because I'm not sure what to do next. One of the first quilts I started I really like the fabric and design, and want to finish it, but its from before I learnt to rotary cut and to be careful about sizes, so I think I need to unpick a lot and sort out the sizing.
I find that quilts intended as a present for a someone tend to stay on track better, but then they're also the ones that crop up and help to make something else into a UFO.