UFO Sunday

I know what you’re thinking: “ UFO? Really Jennifer? You’ve truly gone off your rocker this time!”

Except I’m not talking about those UFO’s.  See, I’m a sewer. A quilter. And when I hear “UFO” I don’t think about aliens (cause they don’t exist). Nope. I think about all the unfinished projects I have stuffed in my “UFO” baskets basket.

We all have them, in one form or another. I haven’t been quilting for very long, so the majority of my UFO’s are garments I have previously cut out and never finished. Like a whole Rubbermaid tote full of them that are in the garage. Although I do have 9 quilts that are in the UFO status. Yeah. I remember telling Adam when we started doing remodeling projects way back when to not start a project until the current one is finished. That way, we don’t have multiple things ripped up, missing, and otherwise in a state of un-use.

Hmmm, it seems I need to follow my own advice!

So this is what “UFO Sunday” is all about. Before you think that this is my idea, I’ll give you the full disclaimer: it’s not. Since having unfinished projects go hand in hand with being a crafter of any sort, I’m not the only one who has designated, heated living space in their house for all those UFO’s (who became such for one reason or another). Every Sunday, it is my hope to link up to Leah Day’s site, to show the dent I’m attempting to make in my UFO basket and to see what every one else is doing, too. 

I’ve been working on 2 different areas of my UFO’s this week: a quilt and little girl clothes. There are so many ideas and things I want to make going around in my head, but I told myself that I COULD NOT start another thing until I finished up some of those lingering projects. A friend of mine has a rule in her house that nothing can come home from a Thrift store or Goodwill without something going out first. I think that rule needs to apply here, to me.

At the beginning of July, I pulled out that tote of already cut garments to make some dresses and jumper for Damaris. The 4 that I chose were dresses/jumpers I had cut out for my eldest.

When she was 2. 

She is now 12.

Yeah.

I made 2 of them that weekend.

The other 2 got put aside and became UFO’s once again. Until this week. I decided to get them finished up once and for all!

I made this one last night…

    I love inverted pleats!!                                 Proof of my procrastination!

and the other one is still patiently waiting, but I will get to it later today. I will!!

The other UFO I’ve been working on is my Shattered Prism quilt. (Okay, so around blog land it’s also know as Bottled Rainbows, but I can name my own quilt. Right?) I started this quilt with someone in mind last summer. I got as far as sewing the colored borders around each rectangle, attaching the batting to each rectangle, sewing the red and light pink scraps onto their blocks, and pinning the black and dark pink scraps. Then I lost momentum.

They all sat in a corner of the room, taunting me every time I saw them. I pulled them out at some point during the winter and got the black scraps sewed on and the dark pink and teal scraps pinned on.

Then it got put away again.

This last week, with my determination NOT to start one more projects without finishing up what was already started, I have all the colored scraps pinned on and have gotten these blocks finished (the teal, dark pink and light blue are the new ones):

With my new floor, I’m no longer afraid to lay things on it!

with these left to do:

Since starting this again, I have decided to keep this one. During the winter months, the children like to snuggle up under quilts on the couch and I’d rather not have their bed quilts coming down and going up every day. My goal is to have 3 or 4 lap sized quilts made for them to do so. There’s just something about seeing a quilt that you made being used! Love it!!

I do need to go through all the blankets and quilts we have and get ride of the ones I don’t want to keep/don’t ever use. I think there are some the I can use instead of batting in new ones I’ll be making. That would be a good use for them, I suppose, and then I wouldn’t have to buy more batting for some of them. It would make my husband happy to “use what we have” and make me happy to “use what I make and is pretty”. It’s a win win!