Jill’s Year of the PIGS Question #3 is:

What is the main reason(s) why you put PIGS and UFOs to the side?

Where do I start? First the UFOs

• The quilt has a deadline and I didn’t meet it, so now it’s on to the next quilt and deadline.
• I have a stack of blocks and don’t know how I want to set them (usually from swaps).
• I have a stack of blocks from a swap or raffle and don’t have time to deal with them ‘right now’.
• The process is tedious and I’m tired of it.
• I’ve run into a problem and I don’t know how I’m going to fix it.
• Something new has caught my eye and has to be done “right now”.
• The project is long-term (BOM, SBS, lots of handwork) and the timeline gets extended to handle my lack of progress.
• The quilt doesn’t have a ‘destination’, so it’s gets bumped down in priority.
• Life gets in the way.

Now the pigs.

• I’ve decided I don’t have enough time to get the project done in the amount of time I have.
• I don’t want to start anything new with so many other projects needing to be finished.
• What was I thinking?
• That will be a good retreat project.

These are just a some of the reasons projects get set aside. The good news is I was easily able to list these out and I’m actively working on overcoming them.  I haven’t joined a swap or raffle in a while (the blue & brown SBS blocks was the last swap I joined – blocks received in November 2009).  I haven’t bought a new project  in a while that I wasn’t going to start working on immediately (last PIG was The Night Before Christmas in May 2009).

I’m doing my best to not set dates for my quilts, except where absolutely necessary – the mini quilt is for the Guild silent auction in April, or the mystery quilt I’m writing for a quilt retreat, also in April.  A few dates sneak in.  I’d love to have my Double Wedding Ring finished to hang in the Guild quilt show in April.  There are two other quilts I’d love to have for show and tell at the April retreat.  But then I remind myself, there are only 9 weeks left until April, do the mini and work on the DWR – forget the other two since I haven’t even STARTED them.

Forget the PIGs, I’m focused on the UFOs — now if I can just find # 10….

Jill is hosting a support group for quilters with PIGS (Projects in Grocery Sacks) and UFOs (UnFinished Objects). The idea is every couple of weeks a question will be asked and those participating will post their response.  The first question is:

How do you store your UFOs and PIGS separate from your fabric stash?

The good news is I don’t have that many PIGS.  But as a general rule, I store all of the fabric and generally the pattern in an appropriate sized zip top or other closable clear bag.  There are a couple of exceptions to this.  I’ve got one quilt in the Priority Mail envelope it came in, one is in a Moda “lunch box”, and one is in a Chinese take-out carton (it came that way!)

The bags are then stored either in this milk crate, which is usually buried under another crate and then stuff stacked on top of it.

In my crate of UFOs.

Or for my Kansas Trouble Kits, in the Kansas Trouble fabric box.

My UFOs are stored similarly.  In clear bags in the box above, or in labeled project boxes on the top of my fabric shelves.

The project boxes may contain more than one project, if all I have are blocks.    I also have a LARGE suitcase which contains one of my quilt-as-you-go projects since I’ve got the batting with it.

My finished quilt tops waiting to be quilted are folded up  – with the binding and backing if I have it and are stored in two crates.  The crates are labeled, so when I decide it’s time to quilt one of them, I can tell before dragging the crate off the top shelf if it’s in that crate.

Check out the links over at Jill’s to see how others store their PIGS and UFOs.

P.S.  I guess I should clarify how I use the terms:

PIGS – Project In Grocery Sack – fabric and pattern stored together, but not started.  This list is short only 11 projects.

UFO – UnFinished Object – it’s been started but is not yet a quilt top.  There are 36 of these, which is why I’m participating in several UFO Challenges.

Top – some times referred to as a Flimsy. This is a quilt top waiting to be quilted.  I have 39 of these waiting to be quilted.  There are 8 on my list to quilt this year as part of various UFO Challenges, but the rest will be done when I need a quilt for a specific reason.