(Un)Finished Objects Blog Hop

Just over a month ago, I invited friends and fellow artists to join me in founding an UnFinished Objects support group, and participate in a Blog Hop Challenge. The time has come to see how everyone has done with finishing some of their UFOs.  Here's the full list of blogging participants:

Karen Williams, Baublicious (you're here)
Francie Broadie, Francie Broadie Custom Jewelry
Christine Van Dyke Altmiller, One Kiss Creations
Amy Severino, Amy Beads
Therese, Therese's Treasures
Kim Dworak, CianciBlue
Liz E, Bead Contagion
Margo Lynn Hablutzel, My World and It's Full of Books
Cynthia Machata, Antiquity Travelers
Cathi Salzarulo Kent, The Cat's Meow
Liz Hart, Treetop Life


Personally, I'd hoped to finish two of my longest-standing UFOs.  I didn't quite hit the mark, but one is complete, and the other is much farther along than it was at the start of the year. 

UFO #1:  My Orange Blossom Tea Cozy definitely held the record for my oldest UFO.  One that I'd always planned to finish.  I started the cozy for an embellishment round robin for a sewing group in my old hometown of Columbia, Missouri back in 2001, right as I prepared to move from Missouri to Seattle.  I crazy-patched the cozy, then started its travels through the group - it spent a month with each friend while I worked on their pieces.  All of the machine embroideries are their work.  I moved before the Round Robin was quite complete, and I finished the last few turns with a little help from the post office.

Before: this is where it sat for the better part of 15 years!

After the cozy returned to me, I did a fair bit of hand embroidery, but at some point I put it away.  I'd say it was out of sight, out of mind, but I'd pull it out every now and then and think 'I really ought to finish this', before putting it back away for another day.  Pulling it out for this challenge, I made sure to photograph the back side because several of my friends signed their contributions. 

I haven't done any embroidery work (except bead embroidery) in years, so this was a fun project to pick back up.  Some of my stitches were a little shaky, but I still love french knots! And here it is finished:

I continued layering the embroidery, and added sequins

And the other side

closeups of more recent stitching

I first added french knots to the feather stitch.  Then, I had a great time 'enhancing' the boquet just above it with both french knots and tiny sequins.  The machine embroidery made a fun background for further embellishments.  One of my favorite early embroideries is the away I 'completed' the orange slice stitching it's outlines into the blue fabric.  It was tempting to keep going and keep adding additional embellishments - but down that path lays a continued UFO.  

Wondering where I left off with UFO #2:  Starry Night Collar?  It's the one that's not quite done.  Truthfully, I figure I need another ten hours or so (don't ask how many hours I've already put in).  For some reason, this piece reminds me of beaded crochet - I think because of the texture.  Although my sister recently reminded me just how different beadweaving and crochet really are. 

comparing the stitching and components to my original mockup 'pattern'

combines snowflakes, random RAW and freeform beadweaving

On the plus side, I've finally figured out how I'm going to manage the clasp.  If you compare the photos above to the one from this post, you'll see just how much further along it is.

So, I didn't meet all of my goals, but I was pleased to make progress.  And it makes it quite easy to decide what to work on for the next month's UFO project!