This is a great thread!
I used to wonder if I had someone else living in the sewing room with me as I would constantly hear things such as
"I'm over here"
"Don't forget about me"
"Do you remember what I look like"
I finally realized it was my UFO's begging for attention. It got worse when my WIPs decided to start chatting with the UFO's (then i thought I had mice because there was a constant scrambling!)
I have a lot of UFO's and probably just as many WIPs. My problem is I find a fabric I love and have to make something or a pattern that I just have to try....oh the bain of being a quilter lol
Hugs
April

Only 18!?! :shock: Holy smokes, I can't imagine getting my UFOs down to 18. I wasn't kidding when I said I had about 90 of them. As I go through them, there are some that I think will end up being a bit smaller than I had planned. I did a BOM about 16 years ago and let my sister borrow the patterns. She's never returned it and I can't seem to pry it from her, which tells me it's likely been lost over the years and she just doesn't have the courage to tell me. I've got four blocks done from that and I think it'll end up becoming a table runner instead of a lap quilt. There might be a few more I can cut down like that, but the majority are quilts I actually want to finish. :roll:

"do i feel guilty about it? HECK NO!!! i used to until i remembered that i work hard enough on other things that i deserve to decide for myself when i'm ready to put aside the fun of piecing to actually finish something. i'll bet the same is true of you."

Patrice, I really appreciate your thoughts. I can beat myself up but it is true that I am a hard worker in the other aspects of my life and this is supposed to be the fun stuff...
Madquilter - I loved the image I came up with when reading about your warring supplies!
lots2do (but tonight I don't wanna)

ROFLMBO!!!!!!!!!!!

My problem UFO pile is finished tops folded on top of a box UNDER my quilting frame!!! They sit there forlornly, waiting to be pinned onto the frame to become a useful object. Additionally, my quilting DH also adds to the pile...we currently have 2 for me, 2 for him....4 quilts to be quilted, and he has 2 more nearly finished....6!!! I have too many projects to finish before Christmas to do anything about them...he's going to have to do his own!!! LOL He won't want to hear that, necessarily!!

I do have 2 UFOs in the sewing stage...one butterfly paper pieced quilt top that I started 2 years ago, and another table runner of maple leaf pattern.....both will have to wait for a time when I have NOTHING else to do!! (FAT CHANCE!!!!)

Too funny! I can just imagine all these UFO's and WIP's getting together and trying to decide who gets to get done first.....Mine are laying in a pile on a chair and are all covered up with a towel, so the whimpering is at least muffled...so glad that hearing things bit means I'm not alone :roll:

I'm not sure what type of list is wanting to be created...are you wanting to make a list of your own UFO's and then challenge yourself to finish them...or are you wanting to make a list to swap them with someone else? I'm confused....and that isn't all that hard :wink:

I was thinking our own list, challange ourselves to finish something. I do better when I READ the lists I make LOL.
I try to finish a WIP or UFO before starting something new, does not always work.
I have/had three to do for Christmas, finished one yesterday. Anyone see the Quilters World this past summer (do not remember which one) that had beach Buddies? It is a quilt on the back of a beach towel. I got the towels in Sept on sale, they are 6 feet long. My son is deployed to Iraq, his home base is Hawaii so what would be a better gift to my DIL and Grand-daughters than beach buddies?!

Oopsy! I misunderstood the "list" suggestion entirely. I was laboring under the delusion that we were talking about somehow swapping or donating our perceived "trash" UFOs that we were not interested in finishing -- to someone who might see them as "treasures" and who would then make them into FOs. Sorry. My bad!

a UFO swap? :shock:

not a good idea. at least not as an "official" and organized board activity. it would spin out of control and get so complicated so fast ... [hold on a sec. i'm havin' a dizzy spell just thinkin' about it. :!: ... deeeeeeeeeeeeep breaths .... ok ... i'm back.]

however, there isn't a reason in the world board buddies couldn't make arrangements privately to trade tasks to tag-team some of their projects. or swap whole projects among themselves. you wouldn't need board permission and could decide for yourselves how to work it out.

now ... lists .... hmmmmm ..... that's an individual choice. if you're brave enough to challenge yourself in writing and in front of thousands of witnesses ... go for it. (let us know how long took to get them all to agree which is a WIP, which a UFO, and to then settle all those arguments about who goes where on the list. Mad might need to send out cases of cabernet. :lol: :lol: )

i tried to make a complete list once. then i realized i'd have to actually clean up around here to get everything organized and inventoried. i was digging through drawers in every room, under the bed, diving into closets, haulin' out the little ladder. heck ... i have some stashed in the trunk of my car.

so what happened? my pad of paper and pencil got buried somewhere in all the piles. :|

i decided to look for it later because i got the urge to start something new using some fabrics i rediscovered during the search. :XD:

If there weren't UFO's or WIP's...there would be no reason to get up in the morning!

For those wanting to make a list of their own.......I have enough guilt with my DH asking me "whatever happened to......" :roll: :D Unless Mad sends those cases of cabernet to everyone..then we might get some interesting lists!

I would guess that if you wanted to swap your UFO...trade out tasks to finish them up or whatever..you could post under swaps then arrange all the details via pm with someone that wanted to do that with you. Patrice is right about that one...

I made a list using a large index card. Evidently it wasn't large enough since I filled in every available space on the poor thing, front and back. I keep it on my sewing/cutting table so I can refer to it often. Of course, if I actually want to see the thing I will have to unbury it from a rather large pile of fabric and stuff. Every once in awhile I hear it cry out for help under there. I just run upstairs when that happens so I don't have to listen to it. :lol:

I also wonder where some of the people in my quilters' group get the time to finish so many quilts each month. It takes me forever, I need time to shop, clean and exercise - do they have someone to do all the other stuff for them? or are they just fast, and everything goes well for them? I spend as much time ripping out as I spend sewing. Angelhs

time spent quilting is time spent not doing something else.

some quilters have the rather odd idea that they should pay attention to their families; do their fair share around the house; spend time with their friends; eat; sleep; and any number of other things not related to quilting.

they have lives and live them.

go figure.

;) :lol: :lol: :lol:

Thanks a heckuva lot - I just had to find out what Starflower was. I love it! Got the pattern, put it in my favorites and one of these days I will do it as a cover for the back of our couch! I am in the process simulataneously of making Quilts for Kids, seeing if I can help with that a bit here in Minnesota, making a quilt for my husband and I "Floating Stars" and binding a quilt for #1 son and his wife! By Christmas!

I am one of them that cleans the house up, does the chores, gets supper going and then when the errands are taken care of (which includes JoAnns and/or Hancock, I go to my ironing board and table (sewing room until I can put together my new Quilting Center) (which I will be getting for Christmas from my husband). If I get it done today or tomorrow or next year, who is going to care except me and life is too short to worry about getting everything done. It is always good to have something in the wings. And changing projects is always good. You don't get frustrated, angry or bored with what you are doing. I generally have three irons in the fire. I don't think I could handle any more. If I have a small coverlet I will hand quilt it, the big ones I have professionally done, for one thing I think they hold up better, the quilters are better able to handle heavy quilts in the space that they have than I am, so I have found the world's best quilting shop, "Quilt Yourself" in Savage, Minnesota. They are helpful, kind, generous and fun! And they teach you how to do it yourself and you can use their machines. We live a long way from them and so when I do have a quilt that I want done, I take it there. We have been there three times in 2009. I am anticipating once in 2010 with my Floating Stars and I believe I will be making another Cancer quilt this coming year for the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer walk. Actually, I don't believe I will be making it, I know I am going to be making it! This may be a yearly project for me. They made an awful lot of money on the one I made this year and they asked me the day of the raffle drawing if I would make another one for next year and I already said yes. So that takes care of that, I guess! So it will be two times in 2010.

I just say, do what makes you happy and if you have a backlog, you'll get to it, because it isn't going to go anyplace!!!!!

I love making quilts! Edie

You're welcome, ERHausFrau. The Starflower was really very difficult for me to put together ... far and away the hardest piecing I've ever done and the end result is not as satisfactory as I would like. I put a picture on this QB of the completed top at a point when I didn't think I even wanted to finish the quilt and wondered what should I do with it. I was going to tell you this morning where you could see it, but now I can't find it. I went back all the way to April of past messages before I gave up looking. Anyway, it sounds to me as though you are more skilled than I at piecing ... so Starflower might be a "piece of cake" for you to make. Hope so!

Back in the day when I had 3 children living at home, had a 5-day a week job and kept a clean, neat house and my flower beds cleaned up, I made most of my own clothes, made dolls, sewed for my kids, etc., etc. Now that it's just me (retired) and my DH (retired) living here, I do very little of ANYTHING ... EVER. Apparently I've grown very fond of the layer of dust that's on everything in this house. And it takes me for forever and a day to finish a quilt. Go figure!

I'm going to follow this advice. I have UFO's that sit out and stare at me, some in drawers that only give me the evil eye when I open the drawer, and a couple in the closet. I don't think I could handle making a total list at this point. (Maybe sometime when I feel really strong.)

To make matters worse I have a queen-sized top ready to be quilted for my daughter by a longarmer. Unfortunately, I stalled waiting for a little more cash so I could have it done and now everyone is booked up. That is not to mention the Downy quilt that is almost done and the PP arcs that I am making for the class on the Montana Cartwheel.

I'd better go shower so I can spend the rest of the day sewing--my DH is out of town for the day so it is the perfect chance (except for the Christmas shopping and stuff that I "should" be doing.LOL)

I really have to work on getting that shoulda, coulda, woulda out of my vocabulary and head again. It keeps creeping back in!

:oops: :oops: :oops: :oops:

Weezie, it's the same with me. When I think of all I did when I was young and strong. It tires me just thinking about it. It seems that now I just can't get things done. What's the saying?, the faster I go the behinder I get. :lol:

The Hurrier I Go, The Behinder I Get!

That is so me in a nutshell! Edie

Yeah, but you two gals still do tons of things. Gail, I know you do, because you and I have talked about it. I only have to be available for the dog ( who refuses to learn to open the door by herself [and is actually too short!] or fix her own meals or drive herself to the vet or groomer) and for my husband, who is a DA Vet. My other main concerns are keeping the bathrooms, the dishes and the laundry clean. Everything else, except for grocery shopping and keeping the wood fire burning in the winter, is a "maybe I will or maybe I won't". It's really not that I don't have the time, but that I don't have the energy or interest any more in winning a good housekeeping seal of approval.

All the Christmas presents have invaded the sewing room now. I am hoping they will not MINGLE with the UFO'S. OH! That is my worst fear! Will they multiply. My husband walked past my sewing room awhile ago and said, " Hey! Are you TRAPPED in there"? I had to move everything to open the big cutting table to pin a quilt "sandwich" together". The computer chair I use ended up in the hall way with bags of Christmas presents on it.... I may have to fight my way back in there in the morning...

Good luck with all of that 'not mingling' and you getting back into your sewing room in the a.m.

I see you're in Blaine, WA. My blood kin (except for my 3 "kids") are just across the line from you in Langley & Abbotsford, B.C. I lived in Blaine for the month of January 1966 awaiting my DH's return from VietNam. I wouldn't recognize Blaine nowadays.

Xmas gifts in the works (XGW) mate with UFOs. the results are UFXG!!!! you want to talk about naggers? UFXG are the worst!

not only are they cryin' 'cause they're not done; they remind you over and over that so-and-so didn't/won't get their gift this year. AND since they almost never get done on time around here, they laugh at me for having had to run out on xmas eve to spend unplanned $$$ getting all the so-and-sos something else instead. :shock: :hunf:

solution? point out to the little varmints that xmas will come around again next year; shove 'em into a drawer; and remind them that cotton fabs make great kindling for a cozy winter fire.

(ok. you know i wouldn't do that. and I know i wouldn't do that. but they don't need to know i wouldn't do that. :lol: )

Don't you just love the language of quilters? UFXG - I interpret that as unfinished christmas GUILT. Am I close, Patrice?

I had two coupons left from the last flyer from JoAnn's. A 50% and a 40%. I bought a fat quarter bundle and two spools of variegated thread. They are really neat on the Quilts for Kids. Why is it that we think we have to use those coupons and spend money to save money on fabric? I love fabric and it is getting a choke hold on me. (Gasssppp!) I have three coals in the fire right now. I figure if I don't get it done, the quilting elfies will do it and if they don't, it isn't meant to be done quite yet. It'll get done. I don't worry about it; I just realize that there is something else on this earth for me to complete before I leave this mortal coil. And I sure am not ready for that yet. I discovered with my scrappies that I have accummulated and a few from the Quilts for Kids I don't really have to buy fat quarters. But I just love the different designs and colors.

Someone wrote in about not buying anymore fabric and using up what we have. I have done four quilts with my leftovers already this year - and one in the works. I do have to buy the background color, but that doesn't count. I still have enough to make maybe three or four more quilts.

I was going to make table runners and/or placemats. but changed my mind because that would put me on a deadline and I'll start something like that later this winter during the doldrums.

I absolutely cannot sit and make a job out of my quilting, because then it just wouldn't be fun anymore. So I just amble along, putting on a pot roast, binding a bit, throwing in a load of clothes, sewing hst's, and on and on!

I think I mentioned this. #1 husband had basal cell carcinoma surgery this past Wednesday and it rendered him all swollen up around his eyes, under his eyes (talk about bags - they were green), so I was tending to him quite a bit. God love him, he has been through so darn much. Hepatitis, two different bouts of cancer, Pudendal Nerve Entrapment Decompression Surgery (How's that for a mouthful) and now his second surgery for Basal Cell. This man is my hero. He's cute too!!!!!!!! It is after 49-1/2 years that I realize he's handsomer than the day I met him. Poor guy, why don't women get better looking as they age. We just sag and drag and bag! And by the time you hit 71, you figure "Hey, that extra piece of chocolate will taste better than it will look!!!!" I have worked for every grey hair I have on this head of mine. Every wrinkle I have are worry wrinkles and I am ONE BIG WRINKLE!!!!!! But I love my Lord, my husband, my family and who could ask for anything else. I have so much to be grateful for. And I do so love life. And I know that I will never be given any more than I can handle. I do need space though. I really need space. My husband bought me a quilting center thing for Christmas and I can't wait to get it together and then I'll really need more space.

So, now I put on a pot roast, throw in a load of clothes and check out what Walgreen's has on sale and cover up with the quilt I made for our son and DSDIL (dear sweet) and bind on that while the football games are on. My husband told me the Vikings don't play until tonight! That means I'll get a lot done during the day today.

Edie

If I made a list of my UFOs, it would require too much effort! I just keep picking up the next box and opening to discover the surprise inside! That has led to some interesting times. For instance, one UFO I finished went up on a wall where I teach, and people started asking for a class in 'how to' :) So I got to pass on the method. I find that great fun.

Unfortunately, not only do I have UFOs, I have fabric in groups that I purchased for specific projects. Not one cut has been made. The fabric and pattern sit there, patiently waiting their turn, while I go off gallivanting - inevitably finding another pattern that is too good to pass up! :oops: :oops:

Ah, well. My goal for next year is to keep opening those storage boxes, completing each as I open it. Oh - and to include my scraps in projects, too...

You can ask next December if I accomplished this :lol: :lol:

Okay,
I rarely make New Year's resolutions because I always feel like I am setting myself up for failure. I guess I must not believe in them enough or something. This thread and Pittsburgpam's "Almost made my 2009 goal" have gotten my attention, though. I think that I will focus on getting projects finished in 2010.

I like the idea of calling it a goal not a resolution and remember that someone told me that when you don't complete a goal by the deadline you set you shouldn't throw away the goal, but move up the deadline. The way they put it made sense to me and my closet perfectionist.

I'm not saying that I won't buy more fabric and patterns, hehe, :lol: but finishing things will be my focus.

You heard it here, folks! :-) :-)

Ooooh, not me! I've used my coupons for all sorts of things; thread, cutting mats, rulers, fancy pins, pincushions, magazines, books, thimbles...the list goes on and on. It's a great way to get my Secret Sister something. I can't begin to tell you how excited I was to pick up a huge cutting mat for my SS for her b-day and only spend $23 instead of almost $50. I've also used it to buy batting. I buy it by the yard and it's a great way to stock up. :D

Well, Neighbor, I like your style. Last year when I took the challenge to finish one of my UFOs, I couldn't believe that I actually succeeded. And that's about where it stopped. If I could just finish some of the things that I've started, I'd be so pleased with myself. I just keep getting all of these ideas and then I start something else, leaving WIPs by the wayside. I like your attitude. Maybe I'll try that one. Thanks. Gailg in South Louisiana.