I Love Making Lists...

 ...except when I don't.

In normal life, I am a list maker. I make grocery lists, Christmas lists, to do lists for household chores, I have multiple Amazon wishlists, I list all my finished quilts by year. When I work by lists so much, why don't I use lists more often in my quilting life?

I've actually figured out the answer to that. In 2018 and 2019 I joined a UFO challenge. I had to list all my UFO's. I don't have my 2018 list, but I still have my list from 2019. At the time I had 50 UFO's. To date I've finished 30 of those, but 20 are still unfinished. Some of those 20 I've made progress on, and others I haven't touched. Most of the 30 that I did finish, were not finished in 2019, because seeing all my UFOs listed out took away every bit of motivation I had to finish them. I realized that year that listing my UFOs did not motivate me, in fact, it more caused a mental block. 

Now, if I work by list on a regular basis, why did I react that way to a UFO list? That I haven't figured out. But, knowing how much that list backfired on me has kept me from making any more lists in my quilt life, aside from listing finished quilts. 

Life is really busy right now, I've been dogsitting, grandkid sitting, we're throwing a birthday party on Sunday, and I've got multiple interruptions for the next month or so. Multi-day interruptions really throw me off in the quilt studio. I've got lots of grandkid stuff coming up, which means I can't be working on Christmas presents right now. I've got other things to finish on my mental quilting list, but trying to stay organized when I'm only sewing once in a while is tough for me. I often end up working on things that don't matter, instead of what I actually need to finish. 

Right before I started dog-sitting last week, I decided to try making a list of some things that need to be done, that possibly could be done in between interruptions. Here is my list, and how I've done on it.

1) Cut out and make 45 more gray blocks for Modern Technology quilt.

    I had a twin sized quilt kit, but by using the EZ angle ruler, I got enough blocks made to make a queen sized quilt. Those blocks were made two years ago. Now I want to make it a king sized quilt, but I'm out of fabric. Thankfully, the quilt is just different shades of gray solids, so I found some solids in stash and cut out as many pieces as I could from the extra fabrics. Do I have enough for cut for the 45 blocks I need? I don't know. I'm currently sewing up the units I need and I'll make as many blocks as I can. If I can't make 45 blocks, I'll go through my stash again, but I'm hoping I cut enough.

2) Trim three quilts ☑️

3) Bind three quilts ☑️ They are on my last post.

4) Make June block for murder mystery ☑️

5) make July block for murder mystery ☑️

6) Cut setting triangles and borders for half log cabin quilt ☑️

7) Sew quilt on design wall into rows ☑️

8) Press two quilt centers and rows

9) Add borders to quilt centers

10) Baste one quilt

So I had a list of ten items. Six of those are done. Number one is partially done, numbers eight and nine I haven't touched, and on number ten I chose a quilt top, sorted a backing for it, then realized I needed to press that top before I could lay it out for basting. It's been very hot, and while I was dog sitting, I didn't really have a chance to wrestle with pressing quilts. Once I get the pressing done, I'll be able to make some progress. 

I did get some things done that weren't on the list. 

I had made these units to use in a Christmas present for one of my granddaughters, her favorite color was yellow. I was just informed her favorite color is now turquoise blue. I cut all new flying geese units with a turquoise blue background, and I sewed up the now unloved yellow units into 30 8" blocks. I'll make a donation quilt with the rejected units. I did get the new units finished as well, but haven't sewn the new flying geese into panels yet. 

You know how I said I needed to cut all new flying geese units? Well, I'm getting two projects from each jelly roll by using the companion angle ruler to cut the geese sections. 

I used a solid lavender for the background color on my second project. I made 20 10" blocks from the "extra units" I had available after making the new turquoise units. 

Now that I've got those blocks done, I can add cut sashing for those two quilts onto my list. 

I learned a lot about myself the past week. I can use lists in quilting, just make them short and specific. Yes, I worked on things that weren't on my list, but today when I had the whole day to sew, I looked at my list and was all about those gray blocks. 

I have found something that DOES work for me on the UFO front! No more UFO lists for me. For the last two years, I've been trying to use only UFO's or cut projects as my leader/enders. I often assemble two quilts at once, and if I'm working on a deadline quilt, I assemble a UFO as leader/enders at the same time. Those purple blocks above were already cut out, so I assembled those blocks while making the new flying geese units. I've been trying to team up new projects with UFO's. If I have to cut borders for a deadline quilt, I'll cut borders for a UFO the same day. Need sashing for a deadline quilt? Cut sashing for a UFO, same with setting triangles. I have stacks and stacks of quilt blocks waiting for assembly. A lot of the time the hold up is not having sashing cut, or alternate blocks cut. If I can buddy up a UFO with current project, I make progress on both. I've got a lot of quilt tops ready to quilt, and I can only FMQ an hour per day, so those may pile up. BUT, I'd much rather have quilt tops pile up than units everywhere or stacks of quilt blocks. I've got a long way to go, but I am "catching up" at least a bit. 

Oh, just an FYI, if it's hot where you are too, I'll tell you my trick to pressing in the heat. If I'm only pressing units or blocks, I use my travel iron. The smaller surface doesn't heat up the room as much as a full sized iron. I normally try to avoid assembling quilts during the summer, but I've got some that need to be done, so for those, I'll be pressing in my fabric room with my full sized iron, then leaving that room to cool off while I work elsewhere in the house. It's not a perfect solution, but it helps.