UFO or WIP?

I love it when people leave a comment. It's nice to know somebody is actually reading my blog. There were several comments about (UFO's) UnFinished Objects! It seems like everyone has them . . . the difference is their attitude about them. Some refer to them as Works in Progress (WIP). To me a WIP is different than a UFO. If it's on my design board, it's a WIP. If I lose interest and it comes off my board, it's a UFO. Out of sight - out of mind. Once that happens, I'm ready to move on to something else and I have a difficult time going backwards. And that applies to everything. I can't even do a back dive or roller skate backwards! Sad but true!
Here's a photo of one of my design boards. It's the typical wall insulation covered in felt. WIP's, inspiring pieces of fabric, comics, photos & quotes are among some of the things found there. The piece in top right corner is a hand-painted piece of fabric that has lots of inspiring shapes. The bottom left is a WIP that uses a photo made into a thermofax and then printed, an abstracted photo that was printed on fabric, hand-painted fabric, deconstructed screen printed fabric and commercial fabric. Quite a mix. The bottom right is screen printed fabric that's waiting to be made into a bag. The top left is a quilt made by a friend. It's amazing how good it looks with my own work.Here's the same design board a few days later. The WIP in the bottom left has changed quite a bit, but it's still not finished.

Here are two more UFO's. Both are completely finished tops, well constructed, interesting to look at, approximately 40-45" square. Why are they unfinished? I don't know. I love circles . . . that in itself should be enough to get me to finish them. The top one is completely pieced, the bottom one is machine appliqued.

Patty Ashworth has a system that might help get these projects finished. One year she made a resolution to finish one project a month before she could start anything else. It worked for her . . . It might work for you. Anybody game?

Wild Tote Bag

My boss loves to travel all over the world to shoot fabulous photos. Her latest adventure was to Africa. One of her Christmas presents to me was a book entitled An African Moment. It is filled with HER photos of gorgeous landscapes and every wild animal you can think of. I thought she would enjoy having a tote bag that reflected the African animal theme and made her this Wild tote bag.
I thought she would like it but wasn't fully convinced because it is just a little bold, but she loved it! She is completely in awe of anyone that can sew, so it's pretty easy to impress her. LOL

Here's the pitiful progress made on the chenille piece. You can see some of the layers of color peeking out through the cuts. I have to say that it takes forever to cut through these random channels of quilting. I'm still not convince that it's worth it, but will continue on as my patience allows it. It looks like I'm almost finished, but this photo only shows around 20% of the piece. It's definitely a labor of love and I hope it doesn't end up in a pile of UFO's like the ones below.Am I the only person that has a lot of UFO's (UnFinished Objects)? I doubt it. I know some people finish each project before they start another. Not me, I generally have 2-3 going at the same time. This photo is of perfectly acceptable quilts in various stages of development. Top left is a quilt top made of 1" squares, top right is a wonky 9 patch that is layered and pinned, bottom left is chenille that would make a great pillow, bottom right is quilted, maybe another pillow or a bag.

What makes me stop working on a project when it's so close to completion? I don't have a good answer. Some people say that once we've learned the lesson needed, we move on. It appears that I've learned a lot of lessons! I have at least 10 projects worth finishing that will be completed in 2010. There, it's in writing, now the commitment is real and I have to do it.