Term of the Week: UFO

UFO

Our Term of the Week may sound unusual to an outsider – and trust me, when I first saw ladies using it in one of my Facebook cross-stitch groups I had no idea what on Earth they were talking about. I had to Google it, and of course the results were all about aliens and space ships, so I didn’t find my answer until after I added “cross-stitch” to the search.

To the cross-stitch community, UFO stands for UnFinished Object. What does this mean? Whenever a person is working on a cross-stitch (or anything really), that project is known as a WIP, or work in progress. Sometimes along the road the project gets put aside or put on hold, for any length of time. That’s when the project moves from being a WIP to a UFO, or Unfinished Object.

The biggest use of UFO in the cross-stitching community is a part of what’s known as UFO Wednesday. It is an event that the community has created to help people fit stitching into their busy lives. While the title suggests that Wednesday is the best day to do it, it can take place on any day of the week whenever you have time to stitch. The object is to pick up a UFO or a WIP and get as much done as you feel like doing. Overall it’s very relaxed “rules” and it’s just a day to have fun and enjoy stitching! 🙂

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“Term of the Week” is a weekly blog post highlighting a new word or phrase commonly used among cross-stitchers but not found in an ordinary dictionary. These posts are to help explain the words’ meanings in context and provide a resource for anyone wondering what a term like “frogging” means. Check back every Thursday!