The 3 Year Rule

Until I moved to France almost 5 years ago I had a 3 year rule for all of my UnFinished Objects (UFOs). If it sat, no matter what it was, for 3 years without me touching it, I would pull it out and evaluate it as to what to do with it. I find that after 3 years one tends to be less attached to things so if brutal methods need be taken, they are easier to do.

In ruffling through my UFOs, there are two things that could happen.

1.  I really am going to finish it someday and so it goes back onto the shelf with hopefully thought toward finishing it.

2.  There is no way I am going to finish it. In this particular case it is sorted out of its bag, fabric and materials back into my stash or in its entirety it is tossed out into the trash.

 

Nothing is exempt from the three year rule.

 

On one of the trips into the packed away things I found a kit.

The kit was from a week long licensing class I had taken just months before  moving to France. I had received the kit in class but I had never touched the kit, never opened it, never fondled the beautiful silk ribbon and satin materials inside the bag. When the licensing class was over the kit came back with me, intact, and had been stored away in a box.

The kit was everything I needed to make a Tea Cozy. Worthless to me really, since I do not own a teapot, hence the reason it had never been started. Even as a never opened kit, it was, by my definition, classified as a UFO and it was subject to the 3 year rule. Over the past 5 years I have wandered upon it twice when searching for other things. It was too pretty to break-up into its parts so it had be exempted from item number 2 above.

Last year, my mother asked if I had a pattern for a tea cozy. She enjoys tea and could not remember what had become of her old one. I remembered to kit somewhere in my stored away stash. With some lucky searching, it was almost like it had heard the news and had jumped to the top of the first box I opened, I was able to pull it out, find it's directions and threads and get it to a place where there would be a sewing machine available for construction.

I had the kit and instructions sent down to Florida, to my parents house, about 6 months ago when my little sister made a visit. During the holiday break, I was able to finally be in a place where I could make it. I have spent the last day doing just that. I am pleased to say that it is finished.

Now where is my cup of tea I was promised in trade?