Wednesday, October 23, 2013

A closet full of UFOs

Every crafter hides a secret, maybe its under the bed or tucked away in the basement, mine hides in the closet.

If you were to walk into my home  (don't mind the dog hair) and open the door to my obsessively organized craft room and look into the closet you would find a bin. This bin sits on the highest shelf, its lid covered with dust, and it contains all of the sad unfinished fabric objects (UFOs) that are waiting to be made whole, a crafters lost children.

I came across this bin yesterday when looking for my crochet hook. I pulled out my first quilt, a patchwork of large yellow squares I decided to hand quilt. I've been working on this thing for about 6 years. With any luck it will be done before we re-enter the roaring 20's.

I had to turn a blind eye to the other 2 pieced quilt tops, half of a knit sweater, two partially started emroidery projects, and various other objects. It may seem weird but I swear the quilt looked sad, I half expected it to sing "here on the island of misfit toys". I had to close the bin and place it back on its shelf and pretend I wasn't abandoning them again repeating the promise that I would come back for them for the umpteenth time.

Slowly but surely I am making my way through my bin of shame turning halfling crafts into the sources of joy made with love that they were initially meant to be. In honor of these "lost boys" I am hereby instituting UFO Friday. Choose a project that has been abandoned and every Friday document your progress. With my "sunshine quilt" I am taking it one block at a time, however you keep track of it is up to you but for this project this has seemed to work pretty well.

Look back for photos of my sunshine quilt and its progress to being able to embrace a bed and comfort a person (without risking waking up with needles and safety pins in your skin).

Acknowledge the UFOs and make them whole. Don't ignore them!

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