Many people believe in not starting anything new until you finish what you’ve already started. It’s a reasonable, logical, and adult approach to life. But it doesn’t seem to be mine.
I work on things for a while, and if they don’t finish quickly, I set them aside to do something else. It’s a challenging way to live, because I wind up with so many UFOs (UnFinished Objects) lying around, waiting patiently for my return.
When people complain about having twenty or thirty UFOs piled up, I laugh. My 2023 studio inventory uncovered seventy-six UFOs, and I missed some. My final count was nearly one hundred.
I’ve considered giving myself a “no starting something new” rule. I have enough started that I would be busy for the rest of my life. The only problem is I can’t. I find the beginning of a project the most exciting — having the idea, collecting the materials, seeing where things lead. I dislike the idea of never getting to do anything new.
Many of my ideas tend to be big, which is why I wind up with UFOs. I can lose interest if the project takes a long time (like my maple leaf quilt or my fairy tale miniature). More often, I get stuck. Something goes wrong or I need to make a decision, and I don’t know what to do (like struggling to figure out the background for my wallhanging).
Either way, I switch projects and let my subconscious stew on things while I’m actively doing something else. Because I have to keep making. (I’ve been trying to figure out why and really do not know. Does “it feels wrong not to be making something” qualify as a reason?)
Since my 2023 inventory, I have been striving to finish more things, especially neglected projects that got started over ten years ago. But my UFOs haven’t kept me from starting new things (like the bag I made from scratch earlier this year.) I’m just trying harder to push through and finish when I do start something new.
Is there some perfect balance to be achieved between starting and finishing projects? Maybe, but I have decided I don’t care. I’m going to keep listening to my heart and working on what interests me and see what happens.
It’s my way.
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