TGIF - thank god it's finished!

You may remember that quite some time ago, I vowed to get serious about my UFOs. They had spilled out of the "finishing" box and onto my desk and the floor, where they had taken up permanent residence.

This was one of the worst: a knitted sampler blanket that I started after Millie (my first baby) died to provide myself with a distraction on the train to work each day instead of crying the whole way. It did prove to be good therapy for me, I used up most of my leftover yarns and I learnt lots of new stitches along the way but

I ran out of enthusiasm when it came to sewing all of the samples together, which instead spent close to two years in a pile on the living room floor.


Until now!



I am so happy to have it finished.

finished objects 3 & 4

It's TAFE holidays and I'm catching up, both with blogging and with crafting. So I am very pleased to be able to show you the next installment in the mission to rid myself of UFOs.


This is a pencil case that I put aside about six weeks ago when I realised that hand sewing was required. How slack!


Now it is finished and I am using it to carry around some little bits of embroidery that I'm working on.


This is a hat that I knitted before Olive was born. That was over eleven months ago! I had originally planned on making it look like a baby chicken, to be worn at Easter time. But I couldn't figure out a way of making the features that I thought wouild look alright.


So now it is an egg hat instead!
I have to admit that this wasn't the best photo of the hat that I took today, but it was the cutest picture of Olive. And I'd much rather show her off than my knitting ;)

this is ... my inspiration board

Okay, I confess. I didn't do my homework this week. Because I don't have an inspiration board and I don't really want one - the only wall in my craft room is taken up by floor to ceiling shelves stuffed full of stash and my table looks onto this:

a window looking out into the back yard that provides ample distraction and inspiration.

A do have a visual diary though, which is where I keep pictures that inspire me along with my own doodles, experiments and ideas. So I some of the things that are in my visual diary but could just as easily be on an inspiration board include:
* ink drawings by Gottfried Helnwein. I love his large scale photographic portraits too.
* paper cutting by Rob Ryan and Cindy Ferguson
* vintage and retro wallpapers from designyourwall, johnny tapete, interior1900 and 5qm
* Japanese patterns from these books here and here

While we're on the topic of memes, I should mention that I was thinking of joining in on the Wedneday "On my desk" meme started by Kirstie of Kootoyoo but when I surveyed my desk with an objective eye I was horrified to realise that it is almost completely covered in unfinished projects. And while I agree with the Amitie crowd that it is perfectly okay to be working on a number of projects at once, I seem to have a strange aversion to the very final finishing stages. So if I want to find anything worthy of photographing on my desk, I'm going to have to do something about my UFOs. And I have already made a start! Witness:


skirt waiting only for bias binding to be added to the waist


completed skirt


bibs waiting for the snap fasteners to be attached


completed bibs ready to join their friends in my etsy site (although you may have noticed that I cheated with the photo - this is one I prepared earlier)

Watch this space to check on further progress (and give me a nudge if you don't see any).

Do you have lots of UFOs too? Which is your favourite part of a project: planning, starting, the meaty middle or finishing?