Saturday, December 03, 2005

PROJECT COUNT

I guess this is where I come out of the closet.

I have a serious UFO problem. And I don't even like to call them UFOs as that gives the impression that they've been forgotten and will probably never be finished. No, I have every intention of finishing these some day so I prefer to just simply call them projects.

Back in January I made an attempt to get a handle on the problem. I got as far as making a list and that's about it. But oh what a list it is! From memory and without searching thru boxes, bags and closets for the actual items I managed to make a list of all the projects I could think of. I doubt seriously that this is a complete list as I'm sure I'd find others if I was to take a serious stab at finding all of them and putting them in one place. I just updated the list with everything I could think of that I've started since then. The current count is:

32 completed tops waiting to be or in the process of being quilted
41 projects that range from all cut to just need borders
7 hand-piecing or applique projects
19 wannabes (have fabric and pattern bundled together)

This brings my current project count to at least 99! And this is after I gave away some and recycled fabric from others back into my stash as I decided I really was not going to finish them.

Now take into consideration that I'm really more a topper that a quilter and usually pretty much figure a project to be complete once the top is done. So If you take away those 32 tops that leaves 67. If you also subtract the 19 that haven't been officially started as nothing has been cut for them that still leaves a project count of 48. If I finished one a week it would take me about a year to get all of these to completed top stage if I never started another project. Which I will. I know myself too well.

So do I work on reducing the project count or do I work on reducing the stash??? Probably the stash as that's what I'm really in the mood for lately. And maybe I can compromise and alternate projects already started and stash quilts. We'll see.

5 comments:

Laurie said...

WOW Nancy,
You have a LOT of work ahead of you! I'll cheer ya on!
Laurie

Granny said...

Nancy, you do have a whole bunch of projects pending. How's that for not calling them UFO's? As far as whether to work on completing the UFO's or reducing the stash, I think you have it figured out. Work on whatever is more interesting to you at the moment. They're both going to be there til you get to them. I can never make much progress when I'm doing something just because it needs to be done. It has to be fun for me or . . it's not fun! :)

Whatever route you take, I think you'll be busy for a very long time!

Judy

Bonnie K. Hunter said...

completed unquilted tops come in handy in a pinch when you need a gift....so I think of completed tops as a different kind of UFO...

When I need a gift for someone, I often head to the UFO's and tops to see what is in there that I can finish up in a hurry. It would take me alot longer if I had to do something start to finish for someone! *LOL*

Bonnie

Finn said...

Nancy, I think listing the projects that need completing is a very brave thing to do. I think we'd make great pals, as I'm a terrific "starter" but not such a good "finisher". I do some and then get bored with it..and it become another "---" in a bag.
I have decided to see if I can't finish some of them off this next year, and in the meantime, not start quite so many new ones.

I got a small notebook, and like you, I'm make a list of what I can recall. There are MANY tops on hangers that need quilting or tying or something..and then on to list the "beguns".
Maybe with all the encouragement we give each other on these blogs, we'll all get more done..I hope so at least.

The Calico Cat said...

stash...
To me your wannabes are stash... (Actually anything that is not sewn to something else is stash!) in my book. Here is my rationale: I have my own wannabes and I have projects that were wannabes, but then I looked again and decided that I no longer wanted to make that project or that I have a better use for one of those fabrics...

If it did not just come from the quilt shop, in my book it is stash...

I can't just count yardage or fat quarter bundles, becasue a lot of my stash is sub-fat quarter in size!