Another One?

Another UFO? I have told myself no more UFOs until I finish at least one I already have waiting around. For those who are not quilters, a UFO is an unfinished project that is sitting around just waiting to be finished someday. I have heard some use the term PIGS (projects in grocery bags) but for some reason, I don't care for that tag. It makes me laugh, but I don't want to use that term, it doesn't fit. I usually have mine stored in zip lock bags, storage containers, baskets...you get the idea. I have decided that a goal for 2008 is that I am going to organize my sewing area a little more and actually count the UFOs I have. I have read some blogs that actually list their UFOs on their sidebar and cross them off as they finish them. I haven't decided if I will go that far yet, but I have promised myself no more UFOs (at least until I have finished some). I have a very good friend, Charlene who is not a quilter and does not understand my UFOs. We have talked about UFOs and she just doesn't get it. How could you start a project and then not see it through to the end? I say easy! There are so many designs I want to do, techniques to try, the list goes on. When I am working on one project I am thinking about what I want to do next. Am I the only one like this....I think not. I have found that this year I have accumulated more UFOs then usual. I have had to put projects aside to work on class samples. After the class sample do I go back to what I was working on before? Not always. I get together with quilting friends and we decide to do a project "together". That is all fine and fun, but has the project gotten finished while I was with my friends - nope. Therefore, UFOs are born.

You might have asked yourself, what about the photo of the Broken Star Log Cabin project? I guess it really isn't a new UFO. I had seen this pattern by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts at Shipshewana, IN at least a year ago. I thought, I can make that quilt without buying that pattern. (Quilters, I know you have done this too!) My dh said he could remember the layout and would draw it out for me when we got home. Well, I of course couldn't remember the layout when I got home, and dh couldn't either even though he wouldn't admit it. He did design a layout for me, but I rejected it because it wasn't the same as what I had seen. The last time I went back to Shipshewana I saw the pattern again, need I say more? The pattern calls for cutting the little rectangle shapes to size and piece them one by one to obtain the finished block. The blocks are small. They finish out to be 4 1/2" square. I didn't want to cut all of the 1 1/2" fabric strips to length so I decided to paper foundation piece the block. (I know non quilters have no idea what I am talking about here. You might not even care. I will have to post about the paper piecing another time). I found a similar block in my Block Base program but had to print out the block without the sequence numbers since Edyta's pattern differed in the color placement. I sewed a sample block and liked it. I decided to print out all of the blocks (64) another day when I had the time. I had the time yesterday. I had oral surgery done on one of my teeth. I had broken off a tooth at the gum level and there wasn't enough visible tooth left to put a crown over it. The gum level had to be raised some which required stitches etc. Fun! Since I had to take it easy yesterday afternoon I worked on getting the paper foundations ready. So, it really isn't a new UFO, but an old UFO that was taken out of retirement and worked on yesterday. I'm sorry to say it will have to go back into retirement as there is another project that must be finished first, but that is another post!

Want to know what I learned yesterday? As the stitches were being placed in my mouth and the thread (or what ever you call it) was being drawn through and through (the length of thread was at least 3 feet long) I thought, I now know what it feels like to be a quilt! Enough of my ramblings for today!