Today’s Guest Blog is brought to us by the lovely Leigh, whose many talents include pole dancing (like a boss), knitting, sewing and painting amazing freehand designs on her nails, some of which you can see here. Enjoy!
Ask any of my bosses (current and former) and they will tell you that I’m efficient and task oriented. As their Executive Assistant, they know that when they give me something to do then it will get done. Okay, so it’s usually annoying little jobs that they can’t be bothered doing themselves but I guess that’s why they have an assistant in the first place.
Unfortunately this “getting things done” doesn’t always apply at home unless there’s a strict deadline for the project – usually Mum coming to visit. Why Mum? Because it is my mother who would be first to point out that I’m very good at starting things but not necessarily the best at finishing them if they take longer than a day.
But really, how much can you trust the opinion of a woman who spends most of her spare time taking big bits of material, cutting them into little bits of material then sewing them together again to make big bits of material? (That said, since moving to Melbourne I have a new found appreciation of mother’s prolific quilt making!)
So when I finally succumbed to a rotten head cold this week, took a few sick days and wanted something to distract me from the tedium of daytime television, what did I turn to?
The half-finished knitted multi-coloured pastel leg warmer? No
The seven sisters hand pieced quilt I’ve been “working on” for almost 10 years? No
The quarter-finished cable knit purple scarf? No
The pile of clothes that need simple mending? No
Of course I picked up a new ball of variegated pink/white yarn from my “Reject Shop yarn pile” and started a whole new pair of legwarmers!!! With every stitch, I could hear my mother chastising me for adding to my pile of Un-Finished Objects (UFO’s).
This reminded me of a session that mum used to run at the patchwork shop she owned a few years ago where participants are invited to bring UFO’s of any description to work on for a couple of hours over a cuppa or two or three. What a great concept – a few hours set aside to “force” you to finish things off while enjoying the company of others.
Surely I’m not the only person who needs to do a bit of UFO spotting so that we can come together with crafty friends and turn them into FO’s!!!
And another thing…
Just what everyone needs, another half a legwarmer!
It’s ok, I have half a legwarmer for the other leg too.
Purple cable knit scarf that should be ready just in time for summer.
Not sure my Seven Sisters Quilt will provide much warmth in its current state.
It’s hard to escape the fact that I’ve been working on it for 10 years when I labelled the pieces with where I completed them on my 2005 bus tour of Europe.
Does anyone else have some UFOs of their own? I know I do!
I can do that! 
I have lots if ufo’s and have dedicated October to finishing as many as I can! I love your purple scarf brw :)
That’s such a good idea! I think I would need at least 6 months to get through all of my UFOs :p I’m bad at finishing things!
Great post Leigh! I can say that I am getting better at trying to focus on one task at a time but also have another 10 that need finishing. My new rule is that I can be working on a few projects to help prevent boredom of one, but I must finish them all in a reasonable time period. Easy said then done but I have made 2 baby blankets and a scarf this year so its working (I just won’t mention the UFO photo albums that need attention) ;)
You’ve been very productive this year indeed :)
So I shared icandotht.com with the aforementioned mother and received this in response:
“Your guest blog was very you!! but you make your mother sound like a person who never has any UFOs.
I need a right of reply. I would never say that you start things & never finish them (although we both know that we both guilty of that!!!) I would say that you are a very clever person who isn’t afraid to give something a try – and that you usually succeed (or like me, bury the evidence if you don’t). I admire that – much better than people who just say “I can’t do that” but never even try.
I’ve always credited my mother with inspiring my interest in craft, but you have a lot to live up to. Not only your mother but her mother, her father’s mother, your father’s mother & her mother, & your father’s father’s mother knew their way around a crochet hook.
Keep up the good work.
Love from your always-feel-good-when-I-finish-something-that’s-why-I-start-so-many-things-mother xxx