WIPs vs. UFOs

Okay, so I'm captivated by the idea of this 12-step program. For me, it's only going to work if I use it to work on UFO's. For the uninitiated, that would be UnFinished Objects.

I've heard others refer to these as WIP's, which means Works In Progress.

For me, there is a huge difference. A quilt that I'm actively thinking about, whether it is being worked on or not, is a WIP. But a UFO? That would be a project that has been assigned a box and stacked aside or put safely somewhere, hopefully to reappear fully finished without any more attention from me. It's not finished now, and it's not even on the "wish it were active list." It's only in the "maybe I'll finish it, it's too good to give away" pile. (If I were going to give it away, I would have already done so.)

See this pile? This is a WIP pile. These three quilts are basted, ready to be machine quilted. Two are baby quilts, one is a future show quilt. I've had high hopes for the future show quilt, for almost a year now. It's been basted for what? Six months? (Don't say anything about pins rusting or anything like that. I already cringe when I think about it.) Goals are good, and although I consider the bottom quilt to be at the top of the list, I'll put money on it that the other two will be finished first.


This is my current hand-quilted WIP. My goal for this one is to finish by January 1, 2009. Goals are good. uh huh.


Now this pile? This is a pile of official UFO's. Big time UFO's. The top quilt is pansy blocks, made when I was Block-of-the-Month chairman back in 1997. I started hand-quilting it with a Baptist Fan pattern. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it's really, really boring. It's more than halfway quilted. I worked on it in Germany, in August 2008, the first time I'd touched it in a year or two. (I brought it along, because it was a quilt that I wouldn't cry over, if it got lost in transit.)


The middle quilt is from a class I took from Kathy Sandbach in...are you sitting down?...probably in 1989...or maybe 1990, but I don't think so. It's also hand-quilted. The back is better than the front, and it's about a third of the way quilted. The piecework is AWFUL, but I like the colors and the design is OK. (It was a stretch for me.)

The final quilt was begun some time in the early 90's, and the top was finished in the late 90's. I started hand quilting it when? 98? 99? Then, in 2006, I decided that I should machine quilt it instead of hand quilt it. I spent 2 or 3 hours pulling OUT a lot of the hand quilting. But then I decided that was stupid. It's a quilt that calls out for hand-quilting. It's very traditional, and I love it. I need to go back and put in the stitches that I took out - it will probably require 10-20 hours for every hour I spent pulling them out. oh well. Of the three official UFOs in the quilting stage, this is my favorite. Should I finish it first? Or should I finish the ones that are closer to completion?

Knowing my tendencies, I'd guess that I'll finish the pansies, then the big one, and save the Kathy Sandbach 2 block quilt for last. or not. Stay-tuned. Maybe one of these will be finished in 2009. That would be a BIG step for a month, but with the pansies, it's one that I could realistically accomplish.

And the WIP's? Those will be worked on, hopefully, on a regular basis. There's no time like the present to finish them, right? Right!

And on that, I'll finish sewing the binding on the penguin baby quilt. I had the chance to work on it on this morning, and while I waited at the dentist with my youngest, I sewed down half the binding. woohoo. It will probably be finished for photography and posting by morning. Goals are good!