Keeping Track of UFOs

UFOs are like a thorn in every crafter's side. Unless you are one of those weirdos who doesn't start a new project until the last one is finished. I only did that once, probably on my second quilt.

I have so many UFOs that I have a whole trunk show dedicated to the whats, whys, and how comes of them.  So why UFOs?

I am a process quilter. I love the entire process from idea, to design, picking fabric, cutting, piecing, quilting (mostly by checkbook), and binding. I don't usually feel rushed to get a project done, unless there is a hard deadline like a class or a show. My head is full of quilt ideas just waiting to be born. Which is why I have so many UFOs.

Besides my own ideas, there are new tempting BOMs in my Facebook feed almost every day. Quilt pics posted by friends and acquaintences. Workshops. Guild BOMs. New patterns by my favorite designers. New favorite designers. Virtual Quilt Alongs. The new input never ends.

 So, that's the why. I have a very hard time saying "NO".

OK, so lots of UFOs is a given in my world. The next question is UFO and project management. I happily start new projects monthly. No guilt. But I do feel guilty if they languish unacknowledged for too long (how long is too long?). To combat my tendency to forget about things not in my line of sight, I developed an excel spreadsheet to manage my UFOs. 

Here are my headings: Project Name, Technique, Date Acquired, Components (fabric &pattern, kit, panel and pattern, etc.),  Designer, Location in Studio, Status (1-10), and Notes. I go through the spreadsheet and my UFOs about once a year and update all my projects. I currently have 174 projects.

Besides getting finished, how do projects move off the spreadsheet? Some projects are in the unenviable position of not being exciting to me anymore. I may give the entire project to the guild exchange, decide to make it a smaller quilt or wall hanging, or get rid of the pattern and "liberate" the fabric back into my stash. Once it's gone I delete it from the speadsheet.

Before I started using my current system, I would go down to my studio and spend so much time trying to figure out which project I felt like working on. Many times I would end up not working on anything at all. Now I have a couple of strategies that keep projects moving forward.

Project Rotation Schedule - 

My Friend Shari introduced me to a rotation schedule. I use this for about 6 months at a time, list 8-12 projects and indicate the date I worked on it. This way, I don't have to waste time wondering which project to work on. I use this schedule to make notes, set priorities for the next few months, and jot any reminders that I need to keep working.

Finish It Up Fridays-

I have a different form that I use for quilts that are not on my rotation. These are quilts that might need one last border, need to be quilted or have a binding sewn on. Every Friday my goal is to move one project from one column to the next column on the form. At one time last year the pile of quilts needing a binding was quite tall.  I try to post my finish on Facebook to help keep me accountability. 

UFO Challenges-

Occasionally I'll sponsor or join in on a UFO Challenge. Again, mostly for accountability. Sometimes the quilts on a UFO challenge are on my rotation schedule, sometimes not. This month I'm participation in one with Stitch On, posting my progress every week. 

Retreats - 

I go to 6-8 retreats a year. Yes, I know I'm lucky that way. Retreats are a good way to spend focused time on priority projects. I'll be hosting a UFO retreat in the fall. On these retreats, I usually bring an old UFO, a more recent UFO, and maybe a brand new project (it can't always be about UFOs).  

Quarterly Goals -

I try to look ahead to workshops I'm teaching, trunk shows that need updating, quilt shows where I'll show a quilt, birthdays or other special events coming up that include a gift quilt. These projects get added to the rotation schedule and retreat projects list.

I'll never finish all my UFOs. There are so many quilts to be made, workshops to take, trunkshows to develop, and patterns to write. I'll just keep at it and use my tools to help me.  If you would like a copy of my rotation schedule and Finish It Up Friday forms, leave and comment with your email and I'll send them to you.

I'm curious about your strategies. Let me know.

 

Hello 2021 - Quilting and Camping

 I'm Back!

I haven't written a blog post since August 2019. Holy Cow, what a year its been. 2020 is the year of the awful "P" - Politics, Pandemic, and the Passing of my sweet husband Saul.

Quilting was one of the main activities that helped me survive. It has been my life line - creating, making, and friendship with my quilting buddies (virtually in most cases).

So, now like most of my quilty friends, I shop for fabric on-line, attend quilt guild meetings by Zoom, and have plenty of time to finish up quilts and even start a few new ones.

About this time of year, I usually contemplate the past year and develop some quilting goals for the next year. Actually much of this year is a fog. A fog made up of Saul's illness and temporary entry into an assisted living facility, our separation due to Covid, his passing and my grief and loneliness. I'm beginning to emerge from that fog.  

I guess if I had to sum up 2020 in terms of quilting it would be "Finish It Up" and "What do I do now?" What am I going to do now that I have lost the person I most wanted to show my quilts to.  I also lost my part time teaching job at Mea Bernina, which closed its orange doors for good due to tough economic times experienced by many small businesses during the shutdowns caused by Covid.  The country has lost over 300,000 people as of now and a vaccine has just been released. 

The country and I have lost a lot, but we've also gained some things - time with the people who are in our bubble, a slower pace of life, an appreciation of the things we are missing and may have taken for granted.  Personally I have gained an amount of freedom that I have never had in my life before. So with this new freedom, I've been concentrating on finishing up some quilts.

So now my future is basically open to me and my question is "What do I do now?"

I'm going to take some time to figure that out, but I know it will involve quilting, designing quilts, teaching quilting, taking quilting
workshops and going on retreats. 

I've also experimented with camping in my new little trailer Trudy. My sewing machine comes with me and I sew on picnic tables in campgrounds - so far in Kansas, Indiana, and Texas.

So 2021 will be filled with Quilting and Camping. Specifics to be determined.

Curious about my life without Saul . . .

2019 Quilting Goals

Gosh, can a whole year have passed by so quickly? Zoom, Zoom!

Any new goals obviously (for me) require a revisiting of last years goals to see how I did. I wouldn't want to have to put the same goals on my list because I made no progress!

I had 5 goals and I am pleased that I made pretty good progress on all of them.
1. Use my rotation system - check!
2. Blog every other week - check! Sometimes every week, sometimes once a month. But I'm OK with that.
3. Prepare a trunk show - check! In fact, I've presented it at one guild and have 2 more scheduled.
4. Publish Kansas Goes Modern - Check! It's available on my Etsy Shop.
5. Design and make 2 quilts for my 50 Quilts from 50 States Project - Check! Kansas done and Missouri almost done.


OK not too bad - I wish I had done this well on my other resolutions and goals.






Ok, now for 2019 goals. Some of my previous goals I am dropping because they are habits by now and don't need to be on a goal list. Others are repeating because they really work for me. A few are minor things that may pay off big in term of reducing my quilting frustration level. A few are longer term goals that I want to start on now. So here goes . . .

1.  Prepare 2 more trunk shows.
2.  Prepare 3 workshops.
3.  Get 5 more gigs lined up for 2019.
4.  Trim my threads immediately after sewing. (I really shouldn't need this as a goal, but what can I say, I've gotten lazy about trimming threads).
5.  Design the BOM for KVQG 2019-2020.
6. Explore Artist In Residence programs.
7.  Design and publish 3 more 50/50 quilts.
8.  Get 3 old UFOs done.
9.  Start ball rolling and make contacts to be a teacher at the 2021 Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival.
10.  Start ball rolling and make contacts to be a teacher on a quilt cruise by 2022.


I'm curious about your quilting goals. Share in the comments. I'd love to know what you are doing this year.

The UFO Queen Gets Rid of a Few Jewels in Her Crown

I am the self-proclaimed Queen of UFOs. A UFO Queen. I even have a program/trunk show called Confessions of a UFO Queen. There are lots of reasons for this - I love starting new projects, I can't say NO to a new BOM, I really enjoy workshops and classes, and so many quilts intrigue me. I am proud to say that I own my queenliness. I'm rockin' this UFO stuff.

But sometimes, ENOUGH is ENOUGH!

I do have a few strategies to reduce my UFOs, and I've been moderately successful using these strategies to reduce my UFOs. And by moderately I mean 3 or 4 out of over a hundred.

I've been doing some clearing and minimalizing thoughout the house and the next logical place was my quilting studio. I've been having a serious discussion with myself about whether a quilter (or any crafter/artist for that matter) can be a minimalist.  

So given the combination of recent minimalistic thinking and doing my UFO program/trunk show a couple of weeks ago at the Maple Leaf Quilters Guild in Baldwin, I guess I've inspired myself to take some major action. I'm clearing books, fabric, UFOs, yarn, cross stitch patterns, spinning wheel and wool, patterns, beading supplies and anything in my studio I can let go of.  I'm planning a yard sale for the middle of September.

First step - look at quilting UFOs and sort into the following categories:
    Keep project to do later
    Liberate fabric back into stash and rehome parts of  the         project that I did complete
    Sell project at yard sale
    Turn a large quilt into a smaller project and call it done. Here are a couple of projects that I decided to turn into smaller projects. They are now in the "finish it up" tote.

I probably reduced my UFOs by about 20 percent. I'd like to think this was a first pass and maybe if I did it again, I could let go of a few more.

Next - books. My tastes and skills have obviously changed. My goal was to let go of a third of my books. I think I got close.



Third step for quilting stuff is fabric. I have a large tub full of potential backing fabric. I was hoping to let go of half, but only was able to let go of 4 pieces out of 12 (only 1 of these is going away). I still have to go through 1 yard cuts and fat quarters. My goal is to have a third join the yard sale. This is going to take a while and be really challenging. I don't buy ugly fabric, and even if I did, if you cut it into small enough pieces, all fabric is beautiful!

Last for quilting supplies is patterns. 3 file drawers full. I am 60 years old now. Assuming (optimistically) that I'll be able to quilt another 20 years, and that I could finish 6 quilts a year (not happening), it will take me at least 30 years to make all the patterns I have. I know I can't do them all, but how do I decide which to let go of? They don't take a lot of room and they provide inspiration. So I could make an argument that I could keep them all since collecting and using are 2 different hobbies! I'm rationalizing and that concept doesn't fit into my minimalistic thinking. So, I'll give it a go and release as many patterns as I can. 

Of course I still have knitting yarn, weaving yarn, beading, cross stitch and other crafting supplies to examine.

I have my work cut out for me over the next 3 weeks. It's tough, but enjoyable - I get to look at and touch each little piece of lovliness (see why its such a challenge?).

If you are close to Lawrence, come by and check out the yard sale on 14 and 15 September. My friend Kim is bringing some of her stuff too. Rumor has it she has 5 tubs of fabric set out already!

 

Thanks Shari for Sharing Your Rotational System With Me!

This post addresses organization, AGAIN! It's just one of those things for me - I love hearing about new ways to stay organized and on task in the studio.

So I was dealing with the challenge of having tooooo many quilts to work on and not having the focus to work on anything. Every time I went down to my studio, all my WIP were calling my name . . . "Denise, choose me!, No, you want to work on me! Over here, I'm over here!" As a result of all the cacophony, I wasn't working on anything at all.

My friend Shari told me about her system of rotation through 8 quilts a month. Some of her quilts were BOM, others were quilts she had started and wanted to finish. She decided to work on each quilt for 3 days and then put it away and work on the next one.

This automatically resonated with me because I love working on multiple quilts at once. My trouble is that I had too many. So I started with 5 quilts to work on, then added 3 more, took out 1 and added 2 others. So now I have 9 projects that I am cycling though.

I have been working on each one for anywhere from a few hours to a few days. I work until I have a sense of completion or burnout. Its been working great so far. I have working on all 9 quilts and after I reach completion on #9 I'll start all over again.

I am loving this! I haven't been this productive in a long time.  Here is my list:
        
        Asian Garden Path
        Fiesta Mexico
        Feathered Star
        CURIOUS
        Technicolor Galaxy
        Tula Pink 100 Modern Blocks
        Enchanted Forest
        Home Tweet Home
        Sedona Star













As I finish projects, I will rotate new ones in. I have lots of projects waiting in the wings!




Here's to productivity!
I'm curious, what helps you keep your productivity up?

It's Almost Time for the Quilt Show!

Four months sure went by fast! The Kaw Valley Quilters' Guild Annual Quilt Show is this Saturday and Sunday and I'm almost ready.

I have the privilege to be this year's featured quilter. Over the last several months I have felt excited, scared, overwhelmed, frustrated, ready, not ready and absolutely exhausted. Tonight I am excited and exhausted.

In the morning I am leaving for LA on a short trip, and I'll get back on Friday afternoon just in time for final set up.  Thankfully my friend Shari is hanging the majority of my quilts for me. 

I'm hanging 15 quilts and then showing 9 more that we didn't have space for (but really I didn't have time to sew on a hanging sleeve). Then I'm doing something a little different - at least I think it's different.





I'm going to show and talk about some UFOs. When people display quilts at a show, we see beautiful, finished quilts, and then I usually assume that the featured quilter has it all together - all their quilts represent a theme, they are all perfectly finished, including labels and documentation.  OK, so maybe they aren't as "perfect" as I am imagining. But it sure looks that way.

I plan on showing the more everyday, human side of quilting - the early practice pieces, the "can't wait to start" but don't finish quilts, the not so beautiful quilts, they are the ones I'm most excited about. I'll also have a display of some workshop projects that I'll eventually finish. I have learned so much about quilting over the last several years, and I've learned a lot about myself and life.

So, I'm still working on the details, I'm sure I will be down to the wire (like a lot of quilters). I'll be giving a short talk at 1:00 on both Saturday and Sunday. I'll be at the Mea Bernina table on Saturday and hanging around with my quilts on Sunday. So please come down to the show at Crown Toyota and visit with me. I'm sooooo excited!  

 

Finally - A Finished Project!

I've started lots of new projects this year and today I am happy to say that I finished a long-time UFO.  Last year (or was it 2013? or 2012?)  I took a class with a great teacher and friend Kathy Pflaum at Stitchin' Traditions in Topeka. We made a wall hanging from the book 3-D Folded Blocks  by Geesje Baron and Esther Vermeer.  And today I finally finished it - quilting, binding, hanging sleeve and all.






The blocks look like regular traditional quilt blocks. But they aren't! Each of the shapes in the block is achieved by folding fabric into squares, rectangles or triangles and layering them.  It was really fun and a very unique way to make blocks. The shapes are layered and sewn together around the outside edge of the block. 

For example, in this block, the shapes would be sewn together about where the cream border is. Then the borders (cream and green) were added, and then they were set with the red background.  One very important tip for the folded blocks is to really get a good, sharp crease. I used Faultless Extra Crisp Magic Sizing and I really like the result. It's a bit hard to find here in Lawrence, so I order it by the case. 


I decided to quilt this myself. One of my favorite quilting motifs is pebbles (are pebbles?). I started quilting this at a Stitch On retreat last year (or the year before? I see a pattern emerging here - I can't remember stuff!). Pebbles take a lot of time for me, as well as a lot of thread. Luckily I kept the thread with the project so I could complete it with the same thread - at least on the top! One would think after doing this many pebbles that I would be good at it. No such luck. My pebbles are still irregular and my "sew-overs" aren't exact. I'm not good yet, but I'm better than I was!
I really enjoyed these blocks and I imagine that some day I might make a sampler from all 71 different folded blocks in the book. 
Keeping Curious!

Guess Who Will Be the Featured Quilter at the KVQG Quilt Show This Year!

Squeeeee!

Guess who has been asked to be the featured quilter at the Kaw Valley Quilters' Guild 2015 Annual Quilt Show!  Yep, yours truely! I feel so honored, a bit scared, and really excited.


My brain parts are having shouting matches with each other over which quilts to show, what my theme should be, and whether or not to show a few not-quite-finished quilts.  What will people think of my quilts? Of ME? My work isn't good enough. My quilts don't have a theme. How am I ever going to pull this off. 

OK, self, this is not Paducah, Houston, or Quilt Con. It's Lawrence Kansas and these people are your friends . . . . I mentally shake myself a few times and then calm down. I can do this.

Theme - none of my quilts could "hang together" because they are all so different. Style, Color, Size, Story - all different.  The only common denominator is that almost all my quilts are a result of something I wanted to learn. I have always had a love of learning and a curious mind (hence the name of my blog ;-D ), so it is no stretch for that quality to find its way into my quilting life. OK, theme is something about learning.

What about UFOs? I have a ton of UFOs and most of them were started in a workshop. I would like to talk about some of them and the technique or teacher that makes them special. I could maybe bring a few of them and have friends hold them up like they do at guild programs. I could take pictures and do some sort of slide show, assuming I can locate a projector and screen, and assuming slides can even be seen in the large bright room where the show is going to be held. I think showing UFOs might be OK if there aren't too many and there is something really special about them. 

I hope to see many of you at the KVQG quilt show. It will be April 18th and 19th at the Crown Toyota facility. In addition to the quilts there will be demonstrations and vendors with some cool stuff. Our Guild website will have info and details.

Now I've got to go get some quilts finished!

BOMs Present - Part 2: Keeping Current and Almost Current

Next on the BOM list . . .

So, I guess I'll start with my guild's BOM - it's an art deco version of flowers designed by Reeze Hanson of Morning Glory Designs. I actually spent last week catching up and now have 6 blocks done and I'm actually current through December! WOoHOo! I have no idea what the finished quilt will look like, but I'm liking the blocks so far. I'm using mostly a tone on tone fabric I really enjoy called Quilters Shadow by Stof, a Danish company. Here is the December Block, Tiger Lily.

My next BOM project is almost finished - pretty soon I'll be able to move it to the "past" list. Last year Mea Bernina hosted a modern mini quilt of the month club based on Elizabeth Hartman's Modern Patchwork book. I thought instead of making 12 mini quilt wall hangings I would try to make them using the same fabrics so that I could put them together in one large quilt.


I chose a fabric from the Habitat collection by Michele D'Amore with various soft colored dots as my focus fabric and then pulled other fabrics in to complement it. This is one of my favorite ways to select fabric! 




I've gotten all 12 blocks done and am now trying to figure out how to put them together.  I've got a post out on FB asking my sewing sisters whether to float or frame the blocks. the jury is still out, so if you have an opinion, I would love to hear it.  Framed in brown like the left side in the pic or floating on taupe like the right side?

Another BOM that I am almost current on is Fiesta Mexico by Karen Kay Buckley, hosted by Stitchin' Heaven, a quilt shop in Texas who sends the fabrics each month.  The quilt is gorgeous - the colors are rich and vibrant and the shapes are really sensuous. Unfortunately the instructions could use some explanation on how some of the blocks go together. I even called the shop when the pattern arrived and asked them if I was missing a part of the instructions LOL!.  I'm muddling through but I wouldn't be if I were new to applique. I've got the first 6 blocks done, except for the first block (top left of the quilt in the pic) - which includes some pieced triangles I'm not sure how to add.  

Til next time, Keeping curious and BOMing!

Invasion of UFOs

Those of you who know me well know that I am a starter, not necessarily a finisher. Let the record show that I do occasionally finish quilts and other projects. But I truly do start WAAAAYYYY more than I finish.  I almost never meet a quilt that doesn't call my name - "Denise - you want to make me! Over here - look at me!" 

As a result, I tend to collect UFOs.

What is a UFO? It's a WIP. WIP? Un-Finished Object. Work In Progress.

In my book that means I have actually started cutting the fabric. Perhaps even sewed a few seams. But it also means I have collected all the fabric for a project and have it all stored together (pattern and fabric) in a Sterlite brand plastic storage box from Target (I should have bought stock in Sterlite). WIP also means that I have ruminated on a potential project, maybe collecting some inspiring pictures and fabric swatches. Although there is a clear line between a few inspiring pictures and a WIP, I don't really have the words to describe it, but I know it.

Earlier this year, when my BFF Bobbie was visiting, we inventoried and cataloged my UFOs. In my defense, I did decide to release 3 BOM kits that are just not my style anymore (coming to a garage sale near you).  I also decided to liberated a few projects - filing the patterns and adding the fabric to my stash.

Surely by this time, I had reduced my stack of UFOs quite a bit! Alas, no. When we finished opening all the Sterlite tubs, we had counted and cataloged (in an excel spread sheet) 52 UFOs. By the time I had dug into a few bags and the odd container, we had added an additional 10 projects. To top it off, I've added about 10 more projects since then. 

I did a little prioritization and pulled 8 projects out to finish first.  Just think, if I finish an average of 7 a year it will only take me 10 more years to finish all my UFOs. That's only if I don't start any new ones. As if that's ever gonna happen!

And therein lies the problem - the most exciting part of the whole quilt making process for me is the ruminating, imagining, designing, fabric-buying, Sterlite-filling, direction-reading, cutting and sewing.

I sometimes feel guilty for having so many UFOs - especially when I run into a sewing sister who never starts a new project before completely finished the first project.  I hear my parents and teachers from my childhood saying "You're not a quitter. Finish what you start" and I feel quilty, I mean guilty.  But then I remember how much I love the beginning of making a quilt. I love the end part too -  when I eventually get there. But I really love the starting. It brings me joy! 

So, I've decided - Rejoice in the part I love. Finish what and when I can. Start the projects that call to me. No guilt, just fun!

So, its confession time - how many UFOs do you have?