Rettabug’s UFO Club kicked off in March and collectively we’ve tackled a variety of projects from completing bed and wall quilts that have been stalled (some over 10 years!) to finally replacing that old toilet and getting a big pile of pants hemmed!
Even though I can’t claim to have finished all my monthly UFO’s on time (I’m 3 for 4) I can say FOR SURE that all 4 projects are WAY farther along than they would be without UFO Club. So how about you? Now that summer is here do you have the time and interest in getting your personal UFO’s tackled? We are less than 1/2 way through, you still time to join in and complete 5 UFO’s and to make it easy I’ll take $5.00 off the price of membership thru August 5, 2021 with code: FIVE laurettacrites.com/ufo-club
It’s been a really lovely club, with about 20 or so members showing up regularly in our private Facebook group, making it easy to see what everyone is working on each month and to keep encouraging each other and not feel lost in a crowd.
Alicia Campbell “The Batty Lady” is providing an incredibly generous grand prize: An Edge to Edge longarm quilting package valued over $300.00!
Wonderful monthly prizes have included fabric and jewelry, and needless to say, your odds for winning are phenomenal!
The 1st number to come up was my belly dancer costumes quilt. This is the only one of my original art quilts on my UFO list. Although I put in a ton of hours of stitching, I wasn’t able to finish by the end of the 30 days so I swapped it for my Holiday Curtains (originally designated “Christmas curtains” I have them up now for 4th of July and I bet I’ll use them in February, too!)
The 2nd project to be completed was again my belly dancer costumes quilt (seriously?) which, despite my very best efforts, I still wasn’t able to get finished (and still isn’t finished now but I’m getting back to it)
3rd up was my Calendula Patterdrip’s Cottage which I was THRILLED to get finished. I really love the design by Crabapple Hill mine was done with colored pencils, and I take it with me for trunk shows and classes so I was super happy to get that one done.
Project 4 was the oldest on my UFO list. I made the top at a retreat with my quilt guild, the Nite Owl’s, back in 2009. I wasn’t sure I would even be able to find the directions or pieces/parts to finish it (I had been displaying it, even though it wasn’t finished, so it was separated from it’s “stuff”) Not that I followed the directions once I found them! I couldn’t resist adding a little shading to the pumpkins with tsukineko inks, something I probably wouldn’t have done in 2009! Luck was with me and I even managed to get that one done a few days early. For me it’s the deciding what to quilt, as in the design or motif, that can really hold up a project. Once I know how I want to quilt something then doing it isn’t such a problem, but that uncertainty is what lands things in the UFO pile to begin with. I’ve heard from other members that having that deadline helps move them past “analysis paralysis” and on to getting it done! I know I have had the same experience, with a deadline forcing me past the uncomfortable parts (read scary!!) and doing it anyway. We all need that boost from time to time.
I can also say that finishing up some of these old projects feels like I’m freeing up trapped energy, physically and even more so mentally. Physically, mentally and energetically creating space for fresh new projects on my horizon, and what can be better than that?