UFO Sunday – KISS

What does KISS stand for? Keep It Simple Stupid.

At least, that’s the acrynym from the Marines, you could also call it Keep it Stupidly Simple or Keep it Simple Sweetie, but the meaning is the same:

KEEP IT SIMPLE!

I could win awards for the way I can complicate things. I think of a simple project I’d like to make and immediately think of 10 ways I could turn it into a total mess of multiple steps, phases, tangents, and purposes.

And what do I usually get? Another UFO!

Complication isn’t fun. It isn’t creative and it doesn’t FLOW.  When something is complicated with too many purposes or steps, it becomes bogged down and impossible to work on.

I found this out the hard way with the 365 project. It should have been simple to post a design every day for a year, but if you add videos and books and DVDs and teaching on top of it, that simple fun project has suddenly become a tiresome burden that can’t be completed on time.

This week I’ve once again been reminded of the joy of keeping things simple.

My studio has been clean. My mind has been clear. I’ve been able to walk in and get to work. Simple, clean, clear mind. It makes it SO much easier to work.

I’ve also taken the steps to start working on a big giant business UFO – a DVD of this quilt that’s been sitting on my computer harddrive waiting to be edited. Why did it wait so long? Probably because I was trying to make it too complicated!

Simplicity is a blessing. I think I want to tattoo that phrase to my forehead. Or maybe on my arm. Or maybe on the palm of my hand. Somewhere I can see it every time I pick up a pencil to write a list, to outline a book, to plan a design, to write a blog post.

I don’t have to make things complicated. I’m choosing to.

Last year I began asking myself the same question – Why everything always have to be so hard?

Over the last year, many things have gotten easier, but I still have a bad habit of seeking complication, often at the absolute worst times. It is not a fun habit to have, and it is one I seriously want to break.

So in a stab towards simplicity, I’m going to stop numbering these posts. Numbers indicate order and there is no order to these posts. They’re random! They’re only whatever rant I have building up all week!

No more numbers, no more complication. Keep it simple stupid. I’m going to try to keep those words in my head this week while I work on my UFOs. It doesn’t have to be complicated in order to be good, in fact, complication is often very, very bad.

Instructions for Linking Up Your Blog or online photo:

1. Write your blog post about your UFO project. Publish it on your blog.  If you’re linking up a photo, first upload it to Flickr or Facebook.

2. Copy the link of the specific blog post. This is not just the link to your blog itself (www.freemotionquilting.blogspot.com), but the link to the specific post: https://freemotionproject.com/2012/01/quilt-along-2-quilting-in-rows.html

3. Click the blue link up button above and paste your link into the box.

If you have any questions about finishing your UFO, make sure to post them clearly within your post.  5 questions will be selected and answered on Monday or Tuesday’s UFO Followup article.

By the way, if you’d like to share this program on your blog, grab a button below!

Let’s go quilt!

Leah