Part 2-UFOs are visiting sewing rooms around the world!
Oh, how many UFOs there are! When you believe you have lost the fight, call on a friend or another quilter! You are not alone and we are all in this together. Sometimes we need someone to believe in us before we truly believe in ourselves. You got this! Never lose hope! Hope is one of our greatest human attributes that can you pull you through getting all those UFOs D-O-N-E! So, have hope, believe in yourself, and let’s continue knocking out these UFOs together!
If you are following along in this process of getting through our UFOs, you would have your 4 piles made and marked on your chart. Last week, we tackled the “not so good/cannot rescue” and the “dread working on” piles. Therefore, we still have the love and like piles to work through. I am sharing my personal UFO checklist. Not only will this give you a visual aid, but it also helps me hold myself accountable. I will update it as I complete my UFOs. My personal checklist.
The first thing you want to do is to decide what is the next step on each quilt and document it on your checklist in each group. For example, my Bonnie Hunter MQ (mystery quilt) is in the process of Clue 3. Therefore, I wrote finish step 3. Then, you want to figure out why you actually stopped working on these quilts and document that. Using the Bonnie Hunter MQ again as an example, I got frustrated with all the small parts within all the steps and documented, “Frustrated w/all the parts.” These 2 steps are very important. To understand why and where you left off, will assist you in choosing how and when you will bring it back to the Works In Progress (WIP) status.
I realize that by only having 3 UFOs, it makes this a ton easier to make decisions with. However, I chose the Bonnie Hunter MQ as a Leader/Ender (L/E) project. I did this because I understood that I did get frustrated with all the parts. I do not want to get boggled down with a project for a long time, find myself again in frustration, and then it return to a UFO. I want to finish these projects and move forward. The other 2 UFOs I chose months to bring them back to WIP status and work on them. Being able to see what was the next step and why I stopped working on them, made it easier to figure out which order to work on them. As all I have to do is buy some backing and quilt the Christmas Tree Skirt, I felt that was a ton easier and faster than designing and applying the appliques for the Purple Quilt. You will notice I am giving myself a month to complete the skirt, before I begin to work on the Purple Quilt. Plenty of time…right? LOL Seeing how this is October and I have yet to buy any backing fabric, I am certainly not setting myself up for success. This week, I will buy the fabric! Promise!
Placing your quilts in either the love or the like group, will also assist you in the order of returning to WIP status. If you really love the quilt and find yourself really wanting to finish it, you would put it higher on the list. If you just simply like the quilt and not finding a strong desire to finish or a deadline connected to it, it may be lower in the order.
Another thing that you can understand from the checklist, is possible patterns in what makes you turn WIPs into UFOs. Even with my 3, I can see when something is difficult, new, or time consuming, I tend to stop at some point. This can aid me in deciding in future projects for myself and within patterns that I will design. Not all my designs will be easy and fast, necessarily. However, I realize now that I will need to include those. I am certain that I am not alone in the reasons I turn WIPs into UFOs. This checklist can be very insightful in organizing your UFOs and understanding yourself.
This leads me to giving some other suggestions:
1. You may want to pick the easiest one first to tackle. Sometimes completing a quilt really gives you the energy and motivation to do another. You just may need an easy project to get the momentum going.
2. Consider using one of your UFOs as a Leader and Ender quilt….yes, I love working with a leader/ender quilt. What is a leader/ender quilt? I believe Bonnie Hunter came up with the idea of Leader/ender quilts. Leader/enders have been around for a while, but the concept of building an entire quilt with leader and enders was hers (I believe). So, an original leader/ender was a piece of scrap fabric that you would use to stop and start your sewing or chain piecing with. This gives you a piece of fabric always under your needle to prevent long threads getting in the way every time you began to sew. This is how it works. Let’s say that you need to sew 2 4” squares together 6 times. You would pair up your squares and begin to sew one pair after another. Then, when you finished the 6 pairs, you would take a piece of scrap fabric and send it through the needle, simply sewing on to it. Once the fabric reached the back side of the needle area, you would stop and snip the threads between the scrap and the chain of 6 pairs of 4” squares. This scrap is considered the “end” of the chain. You do not remove it at this time. Once you remove the chain of squares, the scrap now becomes the leader for the next chain you will sew. You do this over and over with your small scraps. Eventually you would have to throw the scrap out, as it gets full of thread all over it.
A leader/ender scrap. I call them parking scraps…lol It is getting pretty close to having to throw it out.
What Bonnie Hunter developed was the idea that instead of using a scrap of fabric, you would take part of another quilt to use in its place. Basically, you will be working on 2 quilts at the same time. I am using my Bonnie Hunter MQ UFO as a leader/ender quilt. Therefore, instead of running a scrap through the end of my chains on my current project, I will use a part in the MQ. This quilt will get finished slower, but it will not take up a long period of time that I need for other things.
3. Figure out how much time you will work on your UFOs. Is it one day a week or 2 days a week? Or maybe you can only quilt for an hour total per week. You may want to work 15 minutes on your UFO and then allow yourself to work the other 45 minutes on a new project or whatever your heart desires. Keeping your schedule organized or planned will give progression to your UFOs and, possibly, your other projects. Either way, busting out those UFOs is happening!
4. Keep yourself organized. One great way to keep your projects organized is to put them each in their own box or container. You can store everything you need in it. For example, the fabric for the blocks, binding, and backing, the directions, and specialty notions can all be stored together. I have even read that some people write on a piece of paper what part they have completed last. We all know how frustrating it may be to take an hour just trying to sort out where you are in the project. This will give you the ability to always know exactly where you left off. I actually am using 2 boxes for the Bonnie Hunter MQ quilt. One is for the current clue I am working on, and the other is completed clues.
My current clue box. Believe it or not, there is a method inside this organizing box.
5. Keep it fun while holding to your commitment. There are a ton of groups on the web and social media that are completely devoted to finishing UFOs. There are even some organizations that are helping others get those UFOs finished. For example, American Patchwork and Quilting did a resolution called, “2019 UFO Challenge.” Also, Pat Sloan does UFO Friday and The Crafty Quilter does a UFO and WIP Challenge with prizes. Some guilds also participate in a UFO busting event. Bottom line, it can be fun to join others in your own UFO challenge and fun to show others your finished works of art. It can keep you excited, motivated, and give you some accountability. If you are not into the social media side of things, you could find a couple of friends and do them together, encouraging and supporting through these UFOs. Making it even more fun, you could totally reward yourself after completing a predetermined number with a movie, a dinner out, or even a new project.
Well, off I go to order that backing fabric for my October UFO.
Until next time, may you continue to be inspired, productive, and joyful! And never stop making your dreams in quilting come true!
-Angel
Sign up with your email address to receive News, Updates, and Inspirations.