What to Do about UFO’s

We all have them UFO’s or UnFinished Objects. We challenge ourselves to finish them, we enter contests, our guild chapters have challenges, contests, and prizes.

I’m as bad as all of you.

But SPUN, the Society for the Prevention of Unfinished Needlepoint is here to help. They were founded in 2009 by Mary Smull “to eliminate the worldwide phenomenon of unfinished needlepoint.”

The site describes their origins this way:

Formed in 2009 by artist Mary Smull, SPUN has a short history, but an exciting one. The idea was born when Smull’s 96 year-old grandmother gave her the gift of a partially finished embroidered tablecloth. Smull was stricken to discover that the object still inspired feelings of guilt for her grandmother, who had begun the tablecloth in the 1960s and never completed it. Worse yet, Smull herself began to feel guilty, for she was also not completing the tablecloth. Figuring that the experience could not be particular to her or her grandmother, she launched into an exploration of the phenomenon of unfinished textile objects.

Smull finishes the canvases in white thread. “This strategy meant that the needlepoint was “finished” structurally while maintaining a visual record of the stitches the original maker completed before abandoning the project. The resultant compositions are a curious combination of the original design of the needlepoint project, an anonymous maker’s accomplishment (or lack thereof), and Smull’s intervention.” (from the SPUN site)

In SPUN’s Gallery, you can see completed works, showing the unfinished needlepoint both as it was received and as it was finished. There is also a gallery of unfinished works, showing pictures of uncompleted needlepoint.

I’m motivated to go finish a piece this weekend, are you?

Thanks to Renee at Pepita for finding this great site.