I go to Bath for a relaxing week in a flat. I decide to take with me a pile of Kaffee Fasset fabrics with a view to making them into a quilt for our bed. A great opportunity to get one planned project done in a clear period of time. I design a pretty pattern on the computer. I cut away happily. I cut a whole pile of square the wrong size but that is remedied easily (snip, trim) and is not the pickle. I start to piece. Yuk. the lack of contrast means the pattern vanishes. Should have known better. Now I have a pile of cut fabric. I know I do not love the quilt enough as it is to spend the time making it king size but do not want to waste the fabric. So I made this baby crawl quilt which I bound tonight.
However, what about all the other cut squares and triangles? Well, I have designed two more baby quilts and bought some extra fabric to convert my original vision into an entirely different strippy part - appliqued quilt. So now, my plan to get one quilt done has spawned four quilts.
Which is why I am in a pickle. Multiply that by several ( I can't bear to count accurately) add in a few swaps and challenges, a City and Guild course, inspiration from umpteen books and websites and .... well, I can't think. Literally. I keep taking projects out, moving pieces around and not doing anything because I can't decide where to start first. I take out a design sketchbook and can't concentrate because my head is carrying so many lists of things that are almost done but not quite.
So I decided that one of two things had to happen. Either the wizards on the back of the crawl quilt had to cast a miraculous spell on me ...
or, I just had to determine to Finish Things Up. I have never been in debt but I imagine this is a bit how it feels.... I really want to begin new stuff but I can't because I have to work a little at a time at clearing the decks from all the mess I created over the last year. One step at a time and It will get done and I can think again.
I have begun well, writing three patterns/ articles today and quilting and binding this quilt. The problem is, I can't decide which task is next. HELP!!
3 comments:
give each project its own scrap of paper, (heck you could give each "next step" of each project a scrap of paper), put them in a jar and reach in -- whatever you pick, that's the thing to work on that day... each day pick a new project (making sure at the end of each work section to put an updated scrap of paper re that project back in the jar if appropriate... takes all the "thinking" out of the equation :-)
Julie's idea sounds like a lot of fun! the crawl quilt is really cute. I've never heard of a crawl quilt before!
eat nutritiously, get enough sleep, do some physical exercise and plan to live to 95 -- many of these project will get done sometime before then -- others will pile up .. would you really want it any other way? And if in a real bind, you may give some unfinished quilts to charities to finish. That's both my philosophy and advice.
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