A UFO to the Rescue

The thing of it is, no matter how long it has been since I last quilted - my quilting has been very minimal and sporadic the last several years - there is still that same pile of UFOs that was there when I last looked.  They didn't magically get done in my absence. Overall however, that has been a good thing.  It has been nice to re-acquaint myself with the various project stages by way of those UFO's. So while a part of me is eager to start something brand new, mainly I am glad to simply ease back into the process.

It's not been without its complications.  A few weeks back, I posted about the new sewing room painted in purple and peach.  I was thrilled with the natural light from the big slider.  However, as far as functionality..., well the room simply wasn't big enough.  Too many windows and doors, and not enough wall space.

The sewing room went back to the basement where there is plenty of room for any configuration.  I am really quite pleased.

Sincerely enjoying those purple walls, I decided to move my bedroom into the former sewing room.  I am really liking it.  But I need a new quilt - and like yesterday.  I don't really have anything that coordinates with the purple.

An old UFO came to save the day.

Even better, it was nearly done when I stopped working on it back in 2011.  I am down to quilting the outer green border and the butterflies.

As to the one peach wall in the purple room?  Well, it's soon going to be a lime green.

Poll Results--How Do You Stack Up?

The WIP/UFO polls have closed. "How Many WIPs Do You Have?" brought in 71 votes total, and "How Old is Your Oldest UFO?" brought in 60 votes total. So with no further adieu, here are the results:

How Many WIPs Do You Have?:

• Just one:  1 %
• 1-5:  36%
• 5-10:  22%
• 10-15:  18%
• More than I'll ever admit:  21%

How Old is Your Oldest UFO?:

• Have no UFOs:  5%
• 2 years:  11%
• 2-5 years: 13%
• 5-10 years:  28%
• 10-15 years:  28%
• Older than I'll ever admit:  13%

Okay, I have to admire the person who is focused enough to have only one project going at a time.  At 1%, there was only one of you--and I trust that you know who you are.  That takes concentration, determination, and self-discipline.  I'm not focused enough to concentrate on one project from beginning to end, and my determination wanes if I become daunted by the next step.  Self-discipline?  Heck, I regard the fact that I've started only one new project this year (besides the baby quilt that needed to be completed by July and was done by April) as self-discipline.  For me, that takes a considerable amount of effort.  With 10 WIPs, I'm in good company with 22% of you.  The largest group at 36% has only 1-5 WIPs going at one time.

Then there is the admirable group at 5% who has no UFOs.  Of course, this could be a matter of definition.  Carla, at Sew It Up Baby, said she doesn't like to refer to any of her projects as UFOs, because then it means the project is neglected.  I think she has a point.  I haven't neglected any of my projects, although I've been stuck in one place on some of them for a really long time.  Continuing in that vein then, I'm in good company with one of the larger groups--those who have WIPs/UFOs of 10-15 years old.  28% of us fall into this category.  The other large group, also at 28%, have WIPs/UFOs of 5-10 years old.

My Black and White and Red All Over quilt is approximately 3-4 years old.  It came about as block swap, and included signature blocks, which appear in the top and bottom border of the quilt.  After I free motion quilt the Pansy Quilt, this one will be next.  It's nice to have a plan for completing this WIP.  I wouldn't mind whittling down the WIP list just a bit.

UFO's, WIP's and a Poll or Two

In 2010, I decided to get my UFO's and WIP's whittled down to a more manageable size. To that end, I joined the Yahoo Group, Quilting and Finishing in 2010 and I've posted a list of my UFO's and WIP's on my blog so that I am frequently reminded. As of now, my list consists of 9 projects. I've managed to get two off my list this year--a quilt I gave a friend for her birthday in April (I'd been working on it for nearly 2 years), and a baby quilt for my cousin and his wife who are expecting in July. The last one was a project I welcomed, but was added last and finished first. After all, when a baby is on the way, the baby quilt is a priority. So my list went from 11 to 9 in the first 4 months of the year, and I'm feeling pretty good about it.

Why 2010? It's not that I haven't considered taming the project list before. The turning point came when I got my Juki TL-98Q in December. I love to hand-quilt, but obviously the process is slow and I can only hand-quilt about 6 months out of the year when the temperature is cool enough. I tried machine quilting on my little Kenmore sewing machine. It's a great little machine, but pushing a quilt of any size through its standard harp is a major chore, and I could never get the tension right for FMQ because it's difficult to set the bobbin tension. The Juki's larger harp makes a world of difference, and I didn't need to make any tension adjustments on it for FMQ--although I easily could if I needed to.

That said, I have two true UFO's, the Sister's Choice quilt pictured above, and the Black, White and Red quilt. I'm embarrassed about the age of the Sister's Choice. The result of wonderful block exchange, it's nearly 15 years old. Why didn't I finish it? A major move, no longer having any of the off-white background fabric, and not being able to decide what I wanted to add as far as borders to make it big enough to go on my bed. Luckily, my quilter buddy, P, (see her blog, The Way I Sew It, here) has discussed the project with me, and I can see light at the end of the tunnel on this one, although I haven't yet started. The Black, White, and Red quilt is ready to sandwich and quilt, as soon as I'm done quilting Matt's quilt.

The other projects are WIPs, although 2 on the list, the Drunkard's Path and the Storm at Sea, are in the collecting fabric and cutting phase. That leaves 5 projects that are getting my attention, however, the Scrappy Star is being hand-quilted and I have had to put it away for the season. (How does that count? Still a WIP or is it again a UFO?)

I'm asking myself, what is the perfect number of projects? I know that 9 (or more) feels like too many. I do both hand and machine quilting projects. With the hand projects I'll probably need two of those; one for hand-quilting in the winter and one for hand-piecing in the summer. I could probably get by with just one machine quilt project though. And perhaps, I need one project waiting in the wings, one for which I'm collecting and cutting fabric. So, I'm thinking 4 would be ideal. I intend to whittle this list down enough to try it and find out. However, I admit that I do love starting projects more than finishing them, and so I'm having to flog myself into submission to keep from starting something new, despite that I've got too many projects now. Crazy huh?

So what do you think? What is the perfect number of projects to have on hand? Oh, and don't forget to answer the new polls about your UFOs and WIPs!