Stashbuster Topic of the week....

I recieved an email from Suzanne asking:

What is your oldest UFO?
How old and why did it become a UFO?
When do you plan to finish it?
How many UFOs do you have?

This is a question that in the past would have brought on lots of guilt! *LOL* But no more. My UFO's have been little by little being cleared up into at least "finished top" status. I know some people would think of a quilt top as a UFO, but to me it isn't. I just haven't got the quilting done yet, but I still consider a finished top as an accomplishment. And I'm not going to count the number of them that are stacked in various rooms around here! But yes...it is on my mind to complete a number of them into finished quilts as time allows. It's the time that is the hard part. Usually if I stick something of my own on the machine, it has to be something that can be done lickety-split in between customer quilts....not something I can take days and days to do exquisite quilting on. That's why you see a lot of simple quilting on my own quilts. Time crunch!

The oldest UFO I had was those Lily blocks that I just finished setting with the string blocks, and that is on my list to machine quilt. It's not a UFO anymore, not really. I've already matched it with a backing, I just need machine time for it.

The other two that come to mind are the half completed Nearly Insane.....and the pink and brown Dear Jane. Both of which are tedious beyond measure and just don't hold my attention right now,but they will get done. They are BOTH past half way, and I don't know why they got set aside, but mostly I think it is because of lack of concentrated time (needed to feel a sense of progress!) and life getting in the way.

I've got some zip lock baggies of various sets of blocks that haven't been set. Like the puss in the corner blocks from the Road to Camp Gravatt quilt that I finished a couple weeks ago....and the T for Talula top that I just finished this weekend. The blocks were done, just not set...didn't know how to set them or what to do with them. I've got some samples of blocks I've tried that I like...and want to make more to make a full quilt out of them, but they are not really UFOs...just technique samples. I tell myself that quilters in centuries past had "orphan" blocks to catalogue different patterns, test blocks, pass patterns from one to another, teach themselves techniques...and I do to. Sometimes a block is needed because we need to see it in FABRIC, not just printed on paper, or a picture in a magazine.

That's the UFO status over here! And my method of clearing them up? Tackle and finish the one that is closest to completion. If you have something that only needs binding..bind it. If you have something that just needs borders...border it. Finish the ones that are the closest to being done so you can knock them off the list as fast as you can. It's a great sense of accomplishment (And RELIEF!)

Bonnie