Dealing with UFOs by Jeannie Watt

By UFOs, I do not mean spacecraft visiting Earth from distant galaxies, although that would be cool. I mean UnFinished Objects. Those handcrafted projects that get put aside when life intervenes. The quilt you’ll finish later. The afghan that needed a couple skeins of yarn. Things like that.

I moved from Nevada to Montana eighteen months ago and had to pack a small ranch. By the time I got to my sewing and handcrafts, I was at the point where I was dumping things into boxes all willie nillie, sealing them up,  slapping a few cryptic words on them I was certain I'd understand later. It was not a time to make big decisions. Those would come later.

It is now “later”. 

The house is pretty much done. Most of the boxes are unpacked—except the sewing stuff. I’ve sewn a few things, but have been essentially working out of boxes. Now I need to put stuff away, which means confronting the UFOs.

There’s the bear afghan that I started when my son was 4. He’s now 31. I’m now aiming at a
grandchild, so I’ll be keeping this. The big pieces are done. It’s now a matter of sewing faces on bears and putting the squares together.


And then there's the crewel picture of a prospector. It made perfect sense in 1983 when I started it and my husband and I were both geologists working in the mining industry. Then we moved to Nevada and I had my first child and suddenly I had no time to sit and stitch. I recently tried to throw it away, but you know what? I think I’ll finish it. I loved our prospecting days. It'll only be a 35 year gap from start to finish.

Sometimes, it’s best to repurpose. I used to sew my husband’s shirts. He liked it because I could custom fit him. I found a blue chambray shirt I’d cut out and stuffed into a Ziploc bag. The fabric is lovely--crisp and cottony--but I did not feel like sewing a man’s shirt (shhh!). I hated to throw the fabric away, so instead, I found a woman’s pattern with similar pieces and cut that baby down. 

 
Now I have a shirt (or most of one--it still needs buttons) and I love it! Also, one line item deleted from the UFO list. 

Truthfully? I haven't thrown one UFO away and I've promised myself that I will not buy fabric until I sew up the stuff I have. So far, so good.

Now I must ask--do you have UFOs ? What do you do with them? Keep them? Toss them? Reevaluate or repurpose? I’d love to know.



Comments

  1. I have some UFOs, too. I'm proud of you for not buying fabric. I always feel good when I make progress toward emptying a shelf--until I see the bags holding fabric that hasn't made it to the shelves yet.

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    1. I am well familiar with that “What? More fabric?” syndrome, Liz. I’m hoping to empty at least one box by the end of summer—and not buy more fabric to take its place.

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  2. Jeannie, had to laugh at your post. I rent a storage unit (have since my husband and I got together and had to combine two houses into one). It's filled with UFOs I can't bring myself to part with, though my projects are more along the lines of scrapbooks and memory boxes. Sigh. What are we to do?

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    1. You make me feel good, Cathy. I’m not alone! I can’t imagine combining two households. I’d need two storage units!

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  3. Great shirt. I love the pockets. You made your husband's shirts? I'm so impressed. But don't tell mine. I've told my husband and son that altering the fit of their shirts is too hard and time consuming.

    I have UFOs, too. There's a tumbling block baby quilt I started when a nephew was born. He starts kindergarten this year. And a lap quilt that's pieced and half-quilted, but my sewing machine had to go to the shop and I never finished. Someday...

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    1. I won’t tell, lol! Someday is sometimes the best day to finish something. 🙂

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  4. Oh Heavens, yes I have UFO's. I have run out of space for some things and for others I need a place to set them up. I have photo equipment that I wanted to use to do video newsletters and talk to fans, but every room in my house is stuffed. Granted, some of the stuffing is not mine. It belongs to my son who works on a cruise ship and brought his apartment stuff here for storage.

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  5. Your son has an interesting job, Shirley. I’m storing a lot of stuff for my kids, too. The good news is that I heard a rumor that minimalism is on its way out, so stuffed rooms are okay now. I think as so happy to hear that.

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  6. My crafting UFO's are lost somewhere - now I have unfinished stories to natter at me.

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