I had to make a rule that I can't start a new project till I've finished the current one. Its worked for me.

I am looking at a lovely embroidered alphabet that I did on and off for.... 12 years!! but I finished it in the end.

Then I started another huge and complicated x stitch just before having 2 children in 16m so its still half done 6 years on. In which time I've started to need reading glasses so I can hardly see the thing the stitches are so small.

Debating whether to put it on ebay as half done project with all the materials!

Also have 2 large storage boxes of yarn but I buy good quality vintage stuff from ebay then knit up when I get an inspiring pattern.

I have a cross-stitch project that is about 2/5ths done and I've had for about 10 years.

I've also got a jumper that I'm making for DS1. I started it in february and only have the sleeves to sew in and I just can't make myself do it! It probably won't fit by autumn.

My head just gets turned by new yarn and new projects and I have to start them right away. I've actually stopped going to the yarn shop until I've knitted up my entire stash (3 large storage boxes at the last check)

Thanks Niecie.

Sooner? I only posted it last night You were very quick really.

Don't think my aunt will be able to go this year -she works in a school and as they school has just had their kitchen condemed, half the school condemed until fumigated and she is the deputy head/acting head I think she has her hands full. But one of her best friends is leading the field on patch work and quilting in Norway and will love the information. I see a girl holiday coming up next year.

oneforward - sorry didn't see this sooner.

A Link to the Quilt Championships

It's a good day out although it is a bit of a scrum at the beginning of the day. You are best off going to the back and looking at the quilts rather than trying to see anything on the stalls as you go in.

swanriver - I might just join you!

I have so many cross-stitch usps that it will take me forever to get through them. Yet it is strangely addictive to collect more and more kits, like the magic porridge pot - only not.

As for ufos, well I doggedly carry on until the bloody thing is finished before starting something else. Although I do have one piece that I stopped at before I had to do the monkey because I don't like monkeys in general. Yes, that was my genuine reason.

the answer is "hell yes" i have dozens of WIP's - i love starting new things but get bored very easily -
i have a patchwork teddybear i started for my cousin's baby - she is 18yrs old next month!

my daughter's knitted baby blanket is still in seperate squares - she is 15yrs old in October!

yep i have "big ideas" but don't have the stamina to finish things!

i've found that joining in craft swaps has really helped me in this respect as someone is avidly waiting for their parcel so the guilt pushes me on!

Niecie - is there a website with the details of the national quilt show? Have an aunt who would love it.

paint bathroom ceiling
paint fence in back garden
better repaint shed while at it.
buy new bookcase for my room and put together.
cul my wardrobe and dresser.

Please join us on the "unfinished projects we are going to finish" thread. See further down the list...

I have a terrible list
- first knitted Circus mouse (of 12!) still needs finishing
- pair of booties
- one large quilt needs the binding stitching down
- applique quilt top needs finishing
- pair of dungarees (that were the trial for the real pair)for DD needs poppas attaching
- USP - clothkits skirt for me needs starting
- various beaded bracelet kits in stages
- beautiful cross stitch bell pull is about 1/6 done
- USP - the real dungarees in the expensive fabric

I think there's a good two years' work in the bell pull alone... But this weekend I am dtermined to finish the dungarees!
I don't know why these things languish - I hhave at least an hour in the evening I could use but tend to loll on the sofa...

Just remembered this thread.

There is no hope for me at all - since it started I have bought 3 new lots of yarn!

1 for crocheting - I seem to be making a large blanket. Not what I intended but I have just taught myself to crochet and now I have the knack I thought I might just keep making hexagons but then I didn't have enough wool. Oh dear.

2 packets of yarn to make a cardigan. I need a white cardie and decided I would make one rather than hunt around the shops. Unfortunately some lovely yellow caught my eye and now I have that as well as I thought the cardie might look nice in yellow too - very summery.



That wasn't the aim was it?

And it is the National Quilt Championships at Sandown Park in a week and my mum is making me go!! You can't go to these things and leave empty handed, you just can't!

And <whispers> I haven't finished my chunky cardie I was meant to finish in the last 2 weeks.

I have just gone through all my UFOs and USPs - I went through critically and asked myself if I am ever really going to do them. I was stunned how much had accumulated in boxes under the bed and bags in the spare room.

I have given 3 new x-stitch kits to the local charity shop, donated odd balls of wool to the local church (they have a group that makes baby clothes/blankets etc to send overseas) and freecycled/given to charity shop a load of old patterns. As you said above, it is liberating.

I still have 25 projects altogether but I have listed them in my diary, and I have optimistically put a folder on my Facebook photos page called "finished projects". I will not buy anything else. Honestly. Well, maybe ...

In honesty I am not sure that my planned UFO will even get touched in this 2 week period.

Life has overtaken me and my list of to do things has exploded and that is for normal everyday life. It is a pain but at some point I have to get on top of life rather then running to catch up all the time. So the first UFO to be tackled is spring cleaning (its been an ongoing project since we moved bedrooms around at the beginning of January and NEVER ENDING . Maybe then the UFO list will even feature on the TO DO list.

I have no UFO's.

Not because I finish every project before starting a new one, but because I threw all UFO's out 2 months ago in a fit of honesty that I will never finish them.

I felt liberated, I tell ya!

Now I have a "only one project on the go" rule because I never again want to waste materials/money/time/effort on UFO's ever again.

I get bored half way through a lot of projects, so put them to one side. Sometimes I pick them up again.

I am a bit of those who have finished projects this week - you can go and find some new ones now!

Not that my pile is stopping me thinking about nipping to our LYS this morning on the pretext of getting some grey cotton to make DS2 some shorts for school (from holey trousers not from scratch I might add).

I am learning to crochet and have a hankering after some nice aran weight yarn to see how that works up. Once I step over that threshold there'll be nothing to stop me but I have to go passed it to get to the post office so temption is strong!

<repeats to self, 'I must resist, I must resist, I must resist........>

I cleared out a cupboard yesterday and am by the amount of fabric I have. Dh has shoved a load of stuff on top of my stash so it was out of sight, out of mind! And I bought more to replace it Need to get round to figuring out my sewing machine.

On the up side I have finished 3 ufos and 1 usp in the last week, it is ds3s birthday and have made him 3 crocheted mr men and a pirate teddy. Next is a cardi I am making for my mums birthday in 2 weeks (no chance lol) which is from the latest issue of simply knitting. Its lacy and made with 2ply baby alpaca which feels gorgeous. Very little chance if it being done in time but I am enjoying making it

SOOOO many!
ufos and usps everywhere!!

<<adopts formal palm raised position>>
I hereby swear that by 14 June 2009 I will complete one of my UFOs.

Inspired by this thread, I got my act together and finished the blouse, buttonholes and everything. Then I made the sash. So am now free to turn my mind to some USPs.

So why don't we finish these projects then?

Is it because we think of something we would like to do more?

Does RL get in the way and we find we don't have the time and then can't easily get the momentum back again?

Is it because we aren't doing as good as job as we hoped we would?

I have an embroidery UFO like that - I always think when I am doing it, that I could do it neater and better but when I uncover it again after a few years months it is actually not bad at all. I think sometimes I just look too closely at the detail and not enough at the finished project.

The other two possibilities apply as well, mind you. I'm never short of an excuse or two.

I have loads of jewellery and cross-stitch UFOs. I tend to cut the beady ones up and the sewing ones occasionally get taken up again.

Yes men do have ufo's. Got given a spot light for room when 18 which dad said needed slight adaption for connecting to mains. the round base is still hexagonal and not even sure that the light could be located. Think they have less UFO's as their stack of USP's (well they are men ) is probably huge as they never seem to get round to start anything and we nag request them to finish what ever they start.

It maybe a cultural thing then.

As a matter of interest, do men have UFO's/USP's? My DH doesn't although he did once by an old banger of a car to do up and never really got on with it. Ended up with the thing sat on our lawn for a year until he eventually sold it for roughly what he paid for it.

I just love everybody else's lists - you are making me feel so much better. I try very hard not to think about the money tied up in all those materials but it seems I am not alone.

I am quite pleased with myself at the moment. I am trying to teach myself to crochet and was tempted to buy more wool to 'make something'. However, I have unearth several balls of wool I was going to use to make DS a cardie when he was a baby ( he is now 8) so I am going to use that. Am a bit and a bit about not having finished the baby cardie but quite pleased that the wool isn't going to go to waste. Well not in theory anyway!!!

I have a blouse I made for dd that I am putting off finishing because it involves making buttonholes. And a baby quilt that I began in a flush of enthusiasm and now can't quite get round to finishing. But will do so soon.

And knitting. So much knitting. A cardigan that dd will never fit into now, a half knitted matinee jacket that was for a friend's baby who is now starting school and a tank top for ds that will have to be given to someone else as well.

USPs - I have all the fabric for a beautiful patchwork skirt for dd, and a lovely smock top for her. Must get round to those as well. But first I have to make a sash for a bridesmaid's dress for her, which will only take an hour or so, but I can't in all conscience start or finish anything else until I've done that as it's by far the most pressing and urgent thing on the list.

Doesn't everyone have a huge pile of UFOs?

Off the top of my head, I must have about:

-half a dozen jewellery projects in little ziplock bags.

-Knitting: one unfinished breast; god knows how many scarves; a bag to be felted; a pair of socks; a lace scarf or something shorter; a throw; a baby cardigan that will now have to wait for the next one! That can't be a complete list either, I'd have thought.

-Beadwork projects (bead weaving) waiting for me to get enthused again (or possibly for toddler to grow past the age where he'll upset trays of tiny seed beads and run off with my tools).

-Quilting - don't even go there!

There must be more!

hmm interesting suggestion. mum is not english but doesnt really rule out either -but she is generally much better then me at finishing things off (except the jumper i grew out of before she finished making it i had a huge growth spurt over 4 weeks and it had to be completely unpicked and restarted -she never restarted)

PLus she doesn't have a long list of usp's i think it might be a british thing feel free to put me right. please anyone?

Well you can't quilt with one hand but somehow it is easier to stop and pick up chocolate when you are quilting than when you are knitting. Both hands are fully engaged in the knitting process but with quilting, one hand has a supporting role.

Since retiring my mother has finished a few projects she started when she first got married and she retired when I was 34 so they had been around a fair while.

Would this suggest that UFO's are a cultural phenomenon or genetic?

I have decided to have a go at shirring(sp) this week! (something else to start) as i want to make DD some summer dresses and i saw some lovely fabric in John Lewis yesterday. I am quite excited

mum's just finished a table cloth she started before i was born (I turned 30 this month) but it was much bigger than my pic.

I think the kids are to blame

My mum started knitting a cardigan when she was in her teens. She finished it 29 years later and gave it to me when I was 16!

how do you quilt with one hand?

Just realised can't do what planned as blew up sewing machine and need to go buy machine have been saving up for first. Will have a rumage as there is prob something else that can be done (bonus of being multi-skilled) Might not be finished in 2 weeks but will post b4 and after if necessary as only know of a big piece of embroidery that I have been working on for 5 years at mo.

Well, I am with you on the snacking - you can't hold knitting needles and feed your face at the same time!

Better for the waistline than quilting or beading (my other two weaknesses at the moment) since it takes two hands in constant motion.

OK - I will aim for a photo on the profile withing two weeks.

(All excited again at another challenge - what a saddo)

I have one of those but waiting to pin mum down to teach me how to put the arms in. I can only knit rectangles at mo so need to advance my skills first.

I have some easter chickens that could be achieved in 2 weeks. might stop me snacking having my hands and mind kept busy.

Post pics of finished ufo in 2 weeks (or sooner)?

alicecrail - sounds like you have a sleeve related backlog going on there!

Anybody up for a backlog clearing challenge?

Finish one of our UFO's within the next 2 weeks?

I have a chunky cardie I have one side and the sewing up to complete. I could do that quite easily in 2 weeks if I just got my arse in gear. And then I would have a lovely new cardie to wear!

(I won't tell you how long it has been knocking around but it can be measured in years).

I have :

1 shirt minus sleeves and buttons

1 dress that is only pinned together as i couldn't figure out the sleeves

1 dress that hasn't had the arm holes finished properly, but was worn anyway

1 dress that was my first ever sewing project which i hated so much i couldn't even look at it, but i am hoping i may re-use the fabric

1 bag which i was waiting to get some ribbon for, but have since decided that it's a bit crap, so am not going to bother.

and various USP's

So, no you are not the only one

too much of a chicken to draw up a ufo list. Might have to do so though and make a priority list to try to clear some space - can't wait to get started on the new table cloth i bought. Need to finish the half made one though.

I sometimes think about getting everything out in one go and having a sort through, maybe selling some stuff on ebay and then organising the rest.

I would have to do it when I had the house to myself though as I expected DH would be a bit if he knew the full extent of my stash!

I am also running out of space.

I have just written up a list of my UFOs and am working through them, I have about 12 on my list (and that includes groups of things, I havent listed them all separately!). I get so excited about a new project I just forget the last one (and the last one, and the last one). My USP list is even longer, I get the stuff and then find something else before I have even cast on. Storage space is def a problem!

Was hoping that was case as i have just bought myself 3 new pieces during my holiday last week. running out of storage space so going to have to think about tackling ufo's

No it isn't just you. I have loads too.

So many in fact that I don't know where to start with them all so I just find myself new ones!

I think it is very common though - I am sure a crafter without a stash of something or another is a very rare thing indeed.

Just sorting through and have discovered a very large pile of UFO's (unfinished objects) and usp's (unstarted projects). Is this just me or is it all crafters?