Ok at this point we all know I have a lot of UFOs (unfinished objects). A. LOT. I started counting one time and stopped when the number got too big. That was a long time ago. I’m better now. I’m guessing there’s less than 50 at this point. Guessing.

I know I’ve written here about being surprised at how many of my UFOs are actually fairly close to completion, then just packed away at 80 or 90% done. I was talking about it with Jack and he pointed out something I hadn’t considered. He noted that for a long time I was not happy with the long arm computer system, and probably figured I wouldn’t be able to quilt things the way I wanted to, so it was easier to just pack things away, than to have a disaster with the long arm. He might be on to something there.

This weekend I worked on two UFOs – one is the Scrappy Trip Around the World that I posted about a couple of weeks ago. Got that finished and it’s a whopping 72×96” which will be awesome on the back of the sofa. Then I dug out the quilt that is the cover photo for this post. I think I got this back in 2008 – the pattern does not have a date on it, and some poking around on the internet did not yield a definitive date either. I saw it hanging in the window of the quilt shop in Granbury, Texas and I knew I had to have it.

It was a kit from Moda but I didn’t care, I loved the colors and I figured it was just a bunch of nine patch blocks and some sno-balls. Yea. All of those big blocks are double 9 patches. That was a lot of little tiny pieces. When I pulled it down on Saturday, the sno-ball blocks were done and 15 of the 25 double nine patch blocks were done. I got right to work and to my surprise, got the entire top pieced while on a zoom sew day with friends.

Sunday morning I decided to go ahead and load it on the long arm and get it quilted. Jack’s words kept running around in my brain at how I stop just short of having a finished top because I know I won’t be able to quilt it the way I want. I don’t have that problem any more. The IntelliQuilter system is fabulous and I got the whole quilt done on Sunday. The binding is attached, just need to stitch it down then this one moves to the completed pile. I’ll get the Scrappy Trip UFO loaded some time this week.

I’ve set myself a goal this year – two UFO’s have to get finished before I can start something new. I’m honest enough to know that I will always be attracted to new projects, not going to cut myself off completely, but at a 2 to 1 ratio, I should make a sizable dent into the UFO pile this year. I’m finding that I am gravitating to projects that take much longer to complete, so that should help the situation as well, maybe only one or two new things a year as opposed to 10 or 12….or 15. I wouldn’t know what to do with all the space in my sewing room if I finished all my UFOs. That’s something else to ponder.