The Rotation System |
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No More UFOs!
My house looks like the typical cross stitcher's house: the three drawer chest bookcase in the hobby room has stacks of leaflets, kits, and magazines hiding behind the doors, and three shelves of cross stitch books. I have enough cross stitch patterns and ideas to last several lifetimes! In the dresser in the guest bedroom are two drawers full of fabrics and a fabric chart and order form. And under my bed is a long plastic craft box filled with DMC floss, Kreinik metallics, and several other kinds of specialty things.
But one thing you will NOT find in my house are UFOs. You know, those dreaded UnFinished Objects: the one you started three years ago, and got so sick of that you hid it away behind the boxes in the back corner of the closet. I don't HAVE any UFOs. And I haven't had any for more than 4 years, ever since I started using the Rotation System for my stitching. I was working on a trio of Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum's Angels for my parents 50th wedding anniversary, and I was getting angel overload. So I started switching off on the angels. And I found that the stitching went better. And the Rotation System began to evolve.
Over the past four years, I have refined my system, and now I never have a project that I am sick of, that keeps sitting there, staring at me saying: "stitch me!" Let me describe how my system works:
All of my current projects are stored in plastic vegetable storage bags--the kinds with the tiny holes, so the projects can breathe. Every project is numbered, and I work on one project for 10 hours of stitching time, then move on to the next project. When I have completed 10 hours on each of the ongoing projects, I get to start another project, adding it onto the rotation. Then I go back up to the top project and start over. This way, I start a new project about every 6-10 weeks, depending on how many projects are going on. During some rotations, I may not finish a single project, but on the next rotation, I may finish two or three. So the number of projects being worked on ranges from about four to no more than eight or nine. And those old UFOs? When I have finished 10 hours on that awful project, I can put it away with a clear conscience: I made 10 hours of progress toward completion of the project, and I have permission to do something I like a lot better.
I devised a simple chart with a series of X marks to show how many hours I've done. Each X represents 10 hours of stitching. At present, my chart looks something like this:
1. Earth Angel x x x x x x x
I am currently working on #5, and when I reach the 10 hour mark, I will add an x to my chart and move on to the wedding sampler for my brother and his wife. My new project is called Casa de Dios. Then I will go back up to the Earth Angel and start over. Projectslisted as 8-10 are ones I am thinking of starting. Before I get there, I may have changed my mind, but that's part of the fun, thinking of which one I'll do next, and getting the next project ready to start.
If this sounds like fun, how to get started? First, go on a treasure hunt. Find all the UFOs in the house--even the one in the bottom of the suit bag in the closet. Get them ALL out. Now choose about four of these projects. Make a good variety among the ones you select. Unless you only do samplers, for instance, don't select only samplers. You want to have some variety as you go from one to the next, you want some fun ones. So include Christmas ornaments, or something easy for some of them. Number them in bags, and write out your chart. (Make a separate list of the UFOs you didn't put on your working list, and the new projects you want to do, as a "seed list" from which to add new projects to your working list.) Then stitch 10 hours on each of the four in turn. When you get to number four, decide which one you will add as number five. After you finish number five, go back to number one and do the cycle again, adding number six this time. Make some of these added projects totally new ones you have wanted to do as well to give yourself a treat. Repeat again. Even the project you are totally sick of looking at will eventually get done, and there's no guilt at putting it down at the end of 10 hours. After all, you are 10 hours closer to being done. Within six months, some of those UFOs are going to be DONE, and you will have started at least a couple of new projects. I think you will be excited about your stitching again.
But what if you have a project with a deadline? Work it into your rotation: Do 10 hours on number 1, then 10 on your urgent project, and go back to number 2, then your urgent one, etc. The urgent one will work up quickly, and you can keep your rotation going.
One last comment: Save all the dimes you get. You're going to be doing a lot of framing, and the dimes will come in handy to cover framing costs. Keep on Stitching!
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Leslie Don't let your rotation become an albatross around your neck. I have been rotating ever since I first heard about it in AOL. But, I don't watch the hours and I don't add a new piece every time I work thru the rotation. I didn't want to have that many different things going on at once.
I work up to 5 projects at a time. Some times I only have 2 going at once. When I get to 5, I make sure I finish one before I add another. That helps me keep some control over the UFO's If a project is giving me problems (lots of frogging) I move on to the next after 3 days. If it is going really well, I may stick with it for 7 days. Every day that I stitch I make a mark on the top of my chart and when I get to 5 marks, I go on to the next.
I just finished a baby sampler that was a rush job. So I worked the baby sampler for 5 days,, then the 1st project for 2 days, then the baby sampler for 5 days, etc. It took me 3 trips thru to finish and working something else in between helped me stay fresh on it.
So you go ahead and vary that rotation any way you want. Have fun stitching
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From: Linda J Flickinger I, personally am a mood stitcher -- also determine what to stitch by how my eyes feel -- can I handle the 32 count today, or can I see to stitch on the black? Or do I need to stich with the nice, bright, evenweave? That is why I really don't like to commit myself to doing projects with a deadline. Ineveitablly, I'm just not in the mood for that particular one when it needs done, and then it becomes a chore.
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From: Kelly I usually have at least 2 going at the same time and usually one is easier than the other. That way when I don't really feel like a lot of blending, counting, etc. I pick up the easy one. When I have a big chunk of time to work, I pick up the harder one. A lot of the time I'll take a really long break from a harder one, sometimes long enough to finish an easy one.
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From: Carolyn If I'm working on a darker material, that gets done during the daylight hours when I have a lot of natural light to help. The bellpull I am working on has birds and big roses. I might work on it till I finish totally (including backstitch) a bird, then work on something else for a few nights, then go back to the bellpull and do a rose, then pick up something else for a few nights, etc. It's easier when there are definite "pieces" to a pattern in the whole so you can pick a stopping point.
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From: Karen G I've found that I'm a "mood" stitcher too. When I originally started this rotation, I was using a strict plan of working on each project for a total of 10 hrs at a time then switching off to the next in line, but found that I just wasn't enjoying stitching as much as before. I would just get settled into working on a particular design and starting to enjoy working on it when it would be time to move on to the next. Made it through the rotation a few times, before I decided that I'd switch to the "mood" system, and stitch on which ever project I was in the mood to stitch on at the time, and am back to enjoying my projects again.
The best rotation system in the world is the one that you're comfortable with.
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From: Uli Ross I tend to have different projects going and often I pick up whatever catches my fancy that day. However, one thing that seems to work for me is the following:
[1] I have projects of different sizes. [One] a perfect "take to work" and "stitch in the car when hubby drives the commute home" [size]. Another little one. Then I also have one that will be a gift for my husband - I work on that when he is upstairs doing his studies etc.
[2] I also stitch by setting goals. For example, I might work on one design every night until I finish a certain section of the chart and I set those goals usually quite realistically so that I won't work on the same thing for weeks and weeks.
[3] Usually, when I get close to getting something done, the desire to finish it all up and do a Happy Dance wins out all and I totally focus on that.
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From: Dee I have four ways that projects are stored. This organizing system helps me to decide what to do next. Stitching stuff is stored as:
These projects are stored in separate containers and there is
another container will various *supplies*.
I rotate my work by picked a #1, then #2, etc. The project on the top, or at the front of that section is the one that gets worked on. I may not always *like* what comes up, but I have to face it, I intended them all to be worked on so I should just get to it. LOL
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From: StitchNMom@aol.com
I also have a #5 pile....those with a deadline (such as a RR or model).
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April 10, 2000
A similar "rotation by type of project" plan is detailed on this website's bulletin board:
For example, a stitcher may rotate by first completing a needle roll, then a UFO, then a larger piece, then a Christmas ornament, then by stitching something where a new technique is learned. The rotation then begins again with needle roll. You may wish to define categories by designer, type of project, by what you will do with it when it's completed or even by color scheme. Just pick a system that will work for you.
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