Day 16 – More on Choosing UFOs

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From the comments on yesterday’s post it looks like I am not the only one who likes to work on many UFOs at the same time! Today I will share the main ways I choose which UFOs to work on, both of which have been mentioned in the comments yesterday as well! Looks like we are all on the same page 🙂

1. Choosing different sizes of UFOs

When I look at my piles of UFOs, I like to choose different sizes of UFOs. What I mean by this is that I want to have some small ones that will be done quickly, and some bigger ones that will need more time but that I can intersperse with the quicker ones. Eventually these bigger ones will turn into almost finished and therefore “smaller” ones if that makes any sense at all!

For example with the UFOs I have chosen to work on this month, you can see that I have a couple that just need the binding. One was the tree pictured on Day 11, the other is this sample from a class I took on free motion quilting:

I can get the binding on them sewn on by machine in less than an hour, and then finished by hand in the evenings. That’s two I can cross off my list fairly quickly 🙂

I chose the Disappearing Nine Patch and the 100 Patches because they don’t take much brain power! I can sit and chain sew them while my mind is pondering all the 101 things I really should be doing to prepare for my international move. In a sense it is actually calming for me to chain sew. It relaxes me and I enjoy seeing the blocks come together quickly.

Harmony Village is one that I have wanted to finish for ages, but it seemed like I needed to concentrate too much, so I sort of let it fall by the wayside. Now I can see I only have three more blocks to do, I can set myself a goal of concentrating on a block at a time for about an hour or so, and I am sure I will get them done this month.

2. Different Types of UFOs

The second way I choose UFOs to work on is to work on different types at a time. This for me keeps me happily motivated and helps me feel like I am doing lots of fun things at the same time!

So I will choose some that are hand sewing, some that are applique, some stitchery, paper piecing, etc, etc.

This month so far I have really only chosen piecing and some quick binding finishes. I am concentrating on finishing more this month, and so have picked less variety than I normally would. But it’s important to be flexible and fit in with whatever is happening in your life at the time. When I am traveling, I’d take more hand sewing, embroidery and applique UFOs with me. I am home this month and trying to make the most of my studio, so I am sticking with machine projects right now.

For more ideas check out the comments on yesterday’s post! Thank you everyone for participating and making it a fun month!