UFO's and UFT's

I called 2003 the "Year of UFO's". I put all my UFO's on a spreadsheet. There were 76! I'd known it was bad, but that bad? So I sorted through things. One finished top was sold and three were given away for charity. Six tops were finished, and three different sets of orphan blocks were made into drawstring laundry bags and pajama bags and given as gifts.

The beginning of 2004 I started with 63 UFO's - much better but still too many. I needed to do something more drastic. I sorted again - this time more ruthlessly. I packaged up three sets of blocks and put them in the quilt show bazaar - they sold right away. Two class projects that consisted of a partially finished block each were discarded. Nine sets of blocks and finished tops were donated to charity. Eleven tops were finished, including seven that I sent to a longarmer in order to get them done. Of course I started projects that year also - eleven of them! Two of those I also finished, but nine of them remained UFO's at the end of 2004.

So the beginning of 2005 I was the proud possessor of 51 UFO's. Still not good, but a definite improvement. I went through everything again, but wanted to keep all of these. I started only two new projects in 2005, and those were online group projects being completed month to month. You've seen them - Friendship Garden and Primitive Primer. I was becoming more comfortable with my longarm, but already had customer tops to do so had a hard time doing my own. I finished only five UFO's that year, and ended the year with 46.

Now in 2006 I've decided I'm tired of calling each year the "Year of the UFO's". I know my finished tops will eventually get done - I've done my best to put a stop to customer quilts for the time being so I can do my own. Instead I'm going to call 2006 the "Year of the UFT's". That's unfinished tops in English. All but 17 of my UFO's are finished tops, so I'm going to focus on the ones that aren't. I want to complete tops with at least 4 different sets of friendship and exchange blocks, and finish other tops that need only a border to complete. One project is a single block - Sunbonnet Sue Around the Year - which is a cute quilt but will also make a cute finished pillow! So to help me focus I've listed my UFT's on my side bar.

This year I did succumb to temptation and began four new projects - all with an online group that are being done like BOM's. These are all the new ones I'm starting (with the exception of what I'll do in a wonderful class I start on February 23rd - I'll fill you in after the first class). I listed these four on my side bar also.

I want to play with strings and scrap things too - but until I actually start that I won't put them on the list. And I don't know whether I'll consider them to be true UFO's because I'll be using orphan things from my scrap boxes of strips, squares, half square triangle squares and strings. Because - all work and no play makes Patti a dull girl!

And all of this was probably WAY more than you ever wanted to know!