Welcome to
"Tip Tuesday!"
I love learning new things and then sharing that knowledge with my quilting friends. So, every Tuesday I'll provide some tips, hints, tricks, tutorials, shortcuts, etc. that I've learned over the years and share them here on the blog.
"Tip Tuesday" will be a collection of information about a wide variety of subjects garnered from a large variety of sources. I am not an expert by any means and do not take credit for being the great wizard behind all of these hints and tips. I will gladly give due credit whenever possible.
These tips will be archived and accessible to you just by clicking on the "Tip Tuesday" tab above.
Read, enjoy, and be inspired!
Tip Tuesday! - UFO Storage
I think that most of us have a UFO or two tucked away in our sewing room. Ok, maybe some of us have more than one or two. That's fine! (Remember, there are not quilt police here.) I think the biggest problem many of us have with our UFOs is that we aren't sure what we have or that we have all the pieces and parts to the projects.
The problem I used to have with UFOs is that I didn't really have them organized at all. Often, I had a bunch of fabric and partial blocks shoved into a tub, bag or just rolled up together but I wouldn't have a pattern with it. Or, I'd have a pattern and what I thought was all the fabric, only to discover that I was missing something and there were not notes to tell me the status. Why did I stop working on this? Did I run out of one of the fabrics? Did I make a mistake? Did I hate the construction method or how the quilt looked?
I've also been known to have a bunch of fabrics together for a particular project, but it contained fabric yardage that was perfect for another project so I would "borrow" that fabric with the plans to replace it the next time I got to the shop. (Well, you can guess where this is going, can't you?) I would go to the shop and forget to get that fabric and when I finally pulled out the original project to work on it, a year or more had passed and I couldn't find the fabric that I needed, even after an extensive internet search. It wasn't so bad if I hadn't used the fabric in any blocks yet, but usually I had made 6 of the 20 blocks and for some reason, I hadn't cut out all the fabric. (The fact that I had yardage left over should have been a clue!) ARRRGGGHHH!!! I quickly learned that it was time for a design change and that scrappy is great! :-)
Well, after that happened dozens a few times, I started to take the time to better organize my UFOs. I still have UFOs, but they aren't quite so frustrating anymore.
I am so happy that I started this practice right around the time Jack started the quilt I mentioned in this post on Monday.
When Jack asked me about his black and white quilt, I knew exactly where it was and was positive that I hadn't "borrowed" any fabrics from it. (I think he was pleasantly shocked surprised!)
When we opened up the tub we saw all the finished blocks and rows, along with extra fabric. We even had fabrics that had not been used in so far in the construction, but were possible border fabrics.
One thing we had not done before this got put away was to make detailed notes. We had a sketch of the block and layout, but since he had already put rows together, we knew that plan. So, after putting the rows/blocks up on the design wall, he separated fabrics, labeled them and even jotted down some possible quilting ideas.
The next time he pulls out the tub to work on this quilt, he won't have to take much time to get organized and can just sit down and sew. That makes me and him, very happy!
What UFO storage and organization tips do you have? I'd love to hear them.
1 comment:
This is similar to what I do, too.
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