Unfinished Objects Day 68

I have finished a total of 7 ornaments, one sampler and am close to finishing the second sampler in my quest to finish my projects in 80 days. I have 8 sleeps until Christmas and 12 to finish my projects. Hopefully I can do a bunch of stitching while I am enjoying (exploiting for babysitting) my family. Here is a hand made, hand designed Christmas ball I did for the office.

In addition to working, chasing toddler, baking really bad gingerbread cookies, I am almost ready for St Nick's Day but we will see........

UFOs Day 61

So the work ornaments have CONSUMED me. I only did 8 but I had sewing machine malfunctions (end user problem), I had ribbon disasters and mostly free time at night after perfect toddler retired for the night.

I think I can say, with god's honest truth, that I am grateful for my job and I am expressing this gratitude in any way I know how. Thus it results in stitching. I know you have seen these as works in progress but I am going to present all 8 pieces when they are finished on one gallery with their ribbon accompaniment.

As far as Christmas stitching goes, I had an idea to do up a stocking for aforementioned perfect toddler but of course I bit off more than I could chew.  As I have finished only 1 UFO to date, and finished stitching 7 out of the 8 ornaments that side tracked me, I cant say I have a huge sense of completion yet. The original stitching stash is still organized, I am still inspired and I am working diligently everyday. I will take some time over the Xmas break to visit my LNS (local needlework store) which is a good hour drive away, and check in to see what is new in the way of classes or organized stitch alongs for 2013.

I think I will provide a picture of perfect toddler wearing her handmade seasonal reindeer headgear made from the shape of her hands in the meantime to hold us all over until the gallery is done.

This next few days will be great I just know it! Now go out there and make a difference!

Miss Me?

I have had a busy couple of weeks at work. I am in an accounting position and this is the end of the year for us and a lot of our working interest partners. The press is on to complete, adjust, and file everything that is important. I have been continuing to work on my Christmas ornaments for the office in our corporate team colors, and I have a few pictures of the work in progress:

We will see how the completed works look when I sew on a backing, attach a ribbon, and stuff with candy canes. I will definitely post the completed projects. 

this doesn't count toward my UFOs or WIP that I had on my spread sheet, and I am still holding my boundaries on my organization but we will see how the next 26 days progress before Christmas...

Unfinished Organization: Day 41 half way there

I have been looking through my back catalogue of magazines, reference books, and patterns for some tips on UFOs and they all say: the need for confirmation of accomplishment. I had to figure out how to tackle the obvious. The only thing I had begun with 41 days ago on my 80 day quest to organize was sheer volume. Volume of patterns, fabrics, thread.....

I seem to have it down to 13 or 14 projects to finish in my 80 days quest (started with 15 UFOs and countless WIP)  and I can confidently say I have only finished 2 since this quest began. The good news? Its kind of like anything you get in order: your pantry, your household, the laundry room, there is always something to work on to keep the accounts balanced at work, always something gnawing at you.

For stitching, I know that a big part of it is completion time, and I know that there has to be motivation to finish things and keep them from gnawing at you. I have been going through my informational stash and found a tip which HAS ABSOLUTELY WORKED! Here it is step by step:

1) I found an old UFO.

2) Found out that it hadn't been completely highlighted for some reason.

3) Dug out the highlighter and started going over what had actually been stitched, mistakes I would need to pull out.

4) Realized I had more done than I had thought so it was less intimidating.

5) Finished the project within two evenings of stitching! Imagine that

6) AND this is the most important part - started another TINY project right on the heels of the UFO. From scratch.

Then I realized that being driven on by the sense of completion and success makes me want to continue on the other 14 UFOs. I knew 41 days ago realistically I could not get all 15 done. 41 Days ago I had no idea how many I even had. 41 days ago I needed to sieve through all of it. Even then I knew there would probably be too much for 80 days, but I didn't think I would be this motivated in the middle of the game. I felt like a snake swallowing their prey - I would have to unhinge my jaw to consume all of these UFOs. What has come out of this project so far? I have actually been stitching more than I have been blogging which is not AT ALL What I thought would happen!

Pictures to come later...

Next post, what is the difference between a UFO and a WIP?

UFOs: sidetracked with Mittens

I have decided to temporarily shift my projects to stitch mittens for the office. We have a colleague who is leaving at the end of November for greener pastures and I thought I would stitch him a little memento of his time here. I have done it in our company colors but here is the little sample. It took about one evening and it is approx 3.5 in x 4.5 in so its a quickie but not on my organizational list....

UFOs: Day ?? Counting the stitches

Today I thought I would look at the smaller projects I have which, coincidentally happen to be of the Christmas direction. I have an annual tradition of jumping on the Christmas bandwagon immediately after Nov 11.

The thought of soldiers worldwide giving their lives for their cause is a tremendous sacrifice. They deserve remembrance; but they would also want us to focus on the freedoms we enjoy because of their sacrifice. Whether you believe in war, that is not the point, these men and women deserve our respect and gratitude. My grandmother knitted mittens for those in soldiers in World War II. Today I will solemnly finish a chart of Christmas mittens I had started in that same spirit. These are the project I want to finish this week:

UFOs : The Organized Stitch Day 31

As you may recall, I am working through 80 days of organization.

In the first few days I cataloged my unfinished objects (approx 80), cataloged my patterns (approx 200) and have inventoried my thread. I procrastinated, I read books, magazines, tried to pick up a project or two but I just didn't feel into it. 

I took a few days away from it and read everybody else's blogs and websites and thought I should take another stab at it! 

Enough with the needlework jokes, I picked one randomly out of the bag and started running my favorite highlighter over the pattern and realized I was about 80% done and I only had 3 colors left to stitch so I just got on it. Now I only have 1 hours left at best, this is the back of the design and I am just so thrilled with its organized intensity. When I complete it, it will be the first if the 15 UFOs I will have completed in the 80 days to organization...