Using the UFO Action Sheet to organize my sewing UFOs

Here I am, trying to organize my sewing UFOs so I can work on finishing them. As you know, it’s a journey. Here is Part 2. 


You can read Part 1 here: gathering my UFOs. 

 

They are now bagged up and ziplocked. But then I stopped. 

 

So I decided to try a new approach: 

 

Step 1 – go deeper into my UFOs to find the answers.  

 

I decided to start with organizing my UFOs, and including the information on my UFO Action Sheet. 

Materials list:

Large ziplock bags

UFO Action Sheet print out – lots of copies

1 pen

1 sharpie

0 cats 

 

I gathered my UFOs into groups, and put each stuff in it’s own bag. A good decent size ziplock. I sure was glad to have mostly small items. 

 

I used the UFO Action Sheet to start understanding where each UFO was, why I stopped, where I stopped, any extra bits I needed. Most importantly, I asked myself how it made me feel. I wrote all this info down on the sheet, one for each UFO. Then I wrote the emotion I felt on the front of each ziplock with a sharpie. 

 

I did this over 2-3 sessions to get through all the UFOs. Some of them brought up immediate emotions, and I had to have a few goes at getting through all this. 

bed with ziplocks on it with sewing projects in process in ziplock bags

I thought I was all done. Then I found more UFOs and had to do them as well. 

 

When I finished, there were roughly 30 UFOs in various stages laid out on my bed. Mostly small projects, thankfully.  

 

I looked over them all and found a range of emotions, ranging from sadness to curiosity to excitement. A couple were insipid or uninspired. But most I do want to finish – based on the feeling I had from them. 

 

Step Two – where I discover that my UFOs triggered emotions in me. 

 

When I started assigning individual emotions to them, the big blob of shame started to go away. I allowed myself to acknowledge that some of them brought up sadness, and still others curiosity and excitement. 

Step Three – acknowledging why I had stopped. 

 

It made perfect sense now. Of course I had stopped working on the ones that made me feel sad. Why would I want to work on something that made me feel sad? 

 

But what about the others –  the ones that made me feel curious or excited? Why had I stopped working on those? 

 

To be continued in Part 3…