Sunday, March 9, 2008

Playing with my sidebar lists

I imagine that very few - if any - readers pay much attention to my sidebar. I have a lot of stuff there because I've found it very self-motivating to keep track of my quilting this way. It's so satisfying to be able to cross something off! I could just delete each thing as I finish it, but this way I can see what I've accomplished. I redo the lists at the beginning of the new year - that's when I delete the finished items that I've crossed off.

I you have paid attention to my lists you'll notice I've been "playing" with the UFO list. I used to have all my UFO's listed in only two categories - UFT's (unfinished tops) and Flimsies (finished tops waiting to be quilted, bound and labeled). This seemed to work just fine for me for over a year.

Recently - in the past three or four days - I've taken a new look at the UFT list and decided to break it down into several different parts. UFO's have resulted for several reasons and it made sense to me to group them together. For example - friendship and exchange blocks needed a category of their own. Yes, they aren't finished - but I've not started my work on them at all. What about long term projects - projects I knew would take several years to finish? I figured they weren't really UFO's in the common meaning of the term, because I knew when I started them that they would be long term projects. Most of them include a great deal of needle turn appliqué, which is the reason they are long term. Some of them are BOM's that I'm behind on because I tried to do so many BOM's at the same time. Then there are the scrap projects - strings, tiny squares, triangle squares, hour glass blocks and more - all still waiting to evolve into their final form. They are an entire different type of UFO's.

So, I've broken my list of unfinished tops into four separate lists. The list still labeled "Unfinished Tops" is my true UFO list - projects that don't fall into the other three categories and can be turned into flimsies within a few hours of concentrated sewing. That's the list I need to focus on in the next few months. The others will all be there - ready and waiting for me to get the urge to work on them. However, I'm not going to beat myself up if I don't finish them as quickly - after all, they aren't that type of project!

One thing I have discovered - Blogger doesn't like sidebars as long as mine. Now, when I try to change the order of the "parts" I can access only the first half of the sidebar. The scroll bar takes me no farther down than the "Long Term Projects" section. I guess I won't be rearranging the bottom of the side bar anytime soon LOL! Thank goodness I can refresh the screen to the place where I can see the "tools" for each section - otherwise I'd have to start deleting elements!

11 comments:

canquilt said...

You sound so organized and it really does feel good to cross things off. I have a spreadsheet in Excel for every quilt I am working on or want to work on and it has all of the steps for the quilt. When I finish a step, I put an X in the box. Then when it is completed, I move the line to the finished area.

YankeeQuilter said...

I love your lists. I did have to laugh at the different categories! It sounds like a conversation with my husband. "If you don't have a plan to finish it why do you hold on to it?" he asks. Silly man....

Lissa Jane said...

I have a spreadsheet too.. but I do like your lists, and I am bloomin' impressed! I wish I could accomplish so much!!!


Lissa

The Calico Cat said...

Great idea! I love your side bar & I too enjoy seeing something crossed off. I would love to do that on my own blog, but I don't want to "learn" how & then "have" to keep up with it. I am not satisfied with my own sidebar, but I am not not happy enough to "fix" it.

Ila K. said...

Your sidebars look great! It does a great job of really describing where you are with your projects.

If you have trouble rearranging them, you might want to look for a 3-column template, that would give you more options...

Your last two tops are delightful!

Beth said...

I thought I would comment on this blog, since I am behind on my reading. First of all I love your hair. I have a haircut almost like it. I think it is very cute on you. I also love how you have done your lists. I know we are to enjoy doing our quilting, which I do, but I think a ufo challange would be a neat thing to do in blogland. I don't know how to go about doing it though. Any ideas? I think it would be fun.

Suzy said...

You get a gold star for organizing. How great! BTW, how did you manage to get items crossed off your list? For the life of me, I can't figure it out. Any hints? Happy Quilting! :o)

Suzy said...

Hmmm...after reading my comment, the way I worded it may have been a bit vague. What I meant to convey is how did you get the strike-through to show? LOL! :o)

Quilts And Pieces said...

Yeah, I tried to start a list, but I"m so busy I didn't have time to keep the list! And I've been wanting update my blog some, but no time for that either. Maybe it is a good thing I haven't tried to!

atet said...

You know what? This sounds like a totally workable and sensible plan to me. I need to start posting my "goals" (wips, wisps, ufo's -- watever) on my sidebar. Maybe that will help me stay on track!

Susan said...

Okaye darlin, only 40 more weeks till retirement and I will be right there with you on the "keeping track" list.

I did find that when you go to "layout" there is an "edit HTML" (third from the left) button. I have used this to move widgets around and get things onto the bottom. They really need to fix that for those of us that need the sidebar.