About those quilting UFOs.......

We all have them - UnFinished Objects that relate to our hobby of quilting. I have them, I have way too many of them, but I've been very fortunate to have room to hide them out of sight. But the UFO creep is hitting Studio B, and I need to do something about it. I have several places where I store my UFOs - in giant tubs under the long arm, two shelving units in the storage room where the community projects reside, three shelving units in the stash room, a closet in Studio B, a closet in one of the upstairs bedrooms, and those THREE tables in Studio B. That's just ridiculous. 

Some of them are legitimate UFOs, while some are kits (I'm OK with that), but some are groupings of fabric that I've set aside to make something, sometimes with the pattern present and sometimes not. 

The projects were often stored in a box with no label or the incorrect label, and multiple parts of a project were in several places. It's a disaster, and I wouldn't wish it upon anyone if they had to tidy up that space if I didn't come home!

Under the pretense of looking for a small template set for someone - I know I have it - the question is, where did I put it? I decided to tackle the UFOs in the stash room. There are three shelving units in a grouping in the center of the room. Two of them are mostly UFOs, while the third is technically supposed to be supplies and my boxes for demos. They were crammed right to the ceiling. Let's have a look. 

Some UFOs are stored in clear project boxes or pizza boxes, while smaller ones are crammed into other pretty containers. I brought them out one by one and put them on the ironing surface to check them out. 

Sorting through the UFOs

Good grief -- I found the Energizer bunny. I remember someone gave that to me years ago because I reminded them of the Energizer bunny! Well, I still have the energy, but the bunny goes! I also found a Teeny Ty turtle and he's also gone. By gone - I mean they are in the donation box. 

The Energizer bunny

I found three large pieces of solid grey in various shades. Why were they set aside? No clue - they are back in the stash room in the bin for solids. 

Three hunks of solid grey

I found odds and ends - a button, safety pins, some labels, and I can't remember what was on that paper. But it's all dealt with! 

Odds and ends from the UFO search

Wait - does anyone want that little case? I don't remember where it came from. It's a sewing kit with a cute sewing theme on the outside, but I won't use it. It's up for grabs.  

Sewing kit

I also found this small kit for a pin cushion in the shape of a tuffet. I won't be able to make it, but if anyone wants it, you're welcome to have it. Remember -- you have to use what you take - you can't just add it to your stash! 

Tuffet pin cushion

And then I ripped open my finger on a pin. Ouch! It bled for a little while, and then that was over, so no band-aids were required, which was good because I don't think I could find one that works in my house. 

Ouch!

Then I found this. A partially completed project, and when I opened it up, there was one of the Marti Micheel templates in it. Why? Can you tell me why I do this all the time, and then when I want to find something, I'm unable to? 

A lost template in a project

I put the template back where it belongs and made a note to myself about which template to use and where to find it. How smart was that? 

The template was replaced with a note

I also found a small rotary cutter that I use for paper piecing, and yes, it was in a paper piecing project that I hadn't touched in at least five years. No wonder I had to find another cutter. 

My paper piecing rotary cutter

I found my Pineapple Ruler along with a book, but no fabric. All of these got put in the proper place. 

My pineapple ruler

I found a HUGE basket of Kansas Troubles fabrics with a pattern. Seriously? The pattern is on the bookshelf, and the Kansas Troubles fabric is in the basket along with the rest of that collection. I cannot believe how productive I thought I could be. And I could have used this when I made my Chatsworth quilt. 

More Kansas Trouble fabrics

I found several containers with fabric that I intended to make bags from. No patterns and nothing started. All the fabric was placed in the appropriate location, as were the supplies. Good grief --- why did I do that to myself? 

Fabric for making bags

I found a blank tea towel and some panels. The tea towel was added to the "to be embroidered" pile, and the panel was placed in the stash room in the designated spot. 

A panel and a tea towel

I found a box of blue fabric, no pattern, only a name on the box. The blue fabric is in the basket of blue fabric in the stash room. 

A box of blue fabric

I found a magazine and fabric in another box with the name of the quilt that corresponds to the pattern in the magazine. That was better than most boxes I opened. However, nothing started, so the magazine was put into the bookcase, the fabric was sorted, and it was placed in the stash room. 

Fabric with a pattern, but nothing started

Another project with a book and fabric. Nothing started. It's now filed appropriately., Yes - I totally get that these are beautiful projects and would be lovely to see them done. But seriously? Will I ever do them? Not likely, and I might want to use the fabric for something else. 

Another unstarted project

There were a few boxes that included the fabric and pattern, and I really want to make them, so they were put back on the shelf in a labeled box. In some instances, I put two projects into a pizza box if they fit. 

Of course, there were some empty boxes, which I then filled with stuff that was just languishing on the shelf with no box. I had initially thrown all that on the floor - just to get it out of the way. 

This is a somewhat before picture of the shelf where I keep my demo boxes. The items on top and below the pizza boxes are mostly supplies, such as zippers and Velcro. The boxes are overflowing and very unruly. My intention is to relocate all the UFOs from this unit and reserve it for supplies. All the UFOs and baskets of fabric were moved yesterday, and I'm dealing with them. 

One of the shelving units

Good grief - I found THREE boxes with two partially completed jackets in them. I'm keeping them handy as I am teaching a multi-part jacket class in the fall, and I can use these. This top one I inherited from someone. The pieces are quilted and cut, but I suspect I'll need to adjust their size to fit me. 

A partially completed jacket

Murphy was trying to help me and started sniffing under the drawer units under the cutting table, so all of them got pulled out. I have no idea what she smelled, but there was nothing but dust under there. So it all got swept up, and I even dusted the baseboards! I do that a couple of times a year, and I'm shocked at how much lint collects. 

Cleaning behind the shelving units under the cutting table

Here's the top of one of the shelving units in the stash room. What a mess, as I used to wing things up there if I couldn't find room elsewhere. The light was blocked! It's so much brighter in there without that crap on top of the shelf. 

The top of a storage shelf

I found containers with no labels. And look at the dust - obviously, this is not a project I'm eager to finish. 

Dust on an unmarked tin

I also discovered a very creative group project that I had completely forgotten about. It's small, so it went into one of the baskets with small projects. 

A cool group project

Look at all the empty containers and baskets I emptied! 

Empty containers!!!

It was an exhausting day! And while I was doing that, I had that giant quilt on the long arm. See how big it is? I had to load the length because of the backing. 

A giant quilt that took up most of the long arm space

But it is done, and I'll trim it this morning. 

Customer quilt - DONE

I know -- you're asking-- did I write those UFOs down or put them into a spreadsheet? At this point, my goal is to get them sorted, and everything into a box, and labeled. Then I can go back and put them into a spreadsheet. I'm not sure that I need to do that, but it would be nice to know where a specific project is located should I need it. None of the projects are urgent ones, although there are two that I want to remember the location of. And they all got moved several times, so it will be fun to locate one. But since they are labeled, it's easy to find them. I'm good with the situation at the moment. 

I need to continue with the mess I've created, and I hope to finish off those three shelves in the stash room later today. Sadly, I did NOT find the template set I was looking for, and I was certain it was in that room. It might be in the closet then, and I can tackle that next. It's not quite as bad as I went through a couple of years ago, and it's somewhat organized. 

There's that Murphy girl in her swimming pool, but she really wants the big one since she can't lie down in this one, although she tried! 

MOM -- way too small for me!!!!

And look at all the maple leaf seedlings growing in the forest. I don't remember seeing that many of them in one area. 

Maple leaf seedlings

The latest Cherrywood Challenge was released yesterday - Storytime! Celebrating the classics of story times. I haven't examined it closely, and the fabric has a vintage feel. I'll have to put my thinking cap on. 

Cherrywood Challenge for 2026

I don't know what I've done to my sunglasses, but the surface of them looks like they have been sandblasted! I will probably need to get a new pair, but I can still see out of them, so I don't need new glasses at this moment. 

My sandblasted sunglasses

I also managed to get some machine embroidery done yesterday. Let's say that I fell into bed exhausted, and it's going to be another fun day today as I rifle through those UFOs. The one good thing about the UFOs on that shelf is that most of them would not take long to complete. In other words, there isn't a crazy paper pieced project amongst them. WAIT - I'm lying - there are a couple. But it's all doable. OK - anything is achievable if you throw enough resources at it. 

Well, what I did yesterday was a good start to tackling them. If I could STOP managing my crap and actually sew, that would be awesome! Then I could actually complete something. I hope to have room on those shelves to remove some of the items from the three tables in Studio B and relocate them from the room, so I can eventually remove one or two, or possibly even three, of the tables. Wouldn't that be amazing? 

On that note, I'm off to spin class. Sorry -- I didn't finish before going to spin class! 

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!!!