A friend of mine shared recently with me about a quilting blog that she follows... beautiful and inspiring projects, but the quilter has 97 works-in-progress! To put it mildly, I was blown away. Now, I know I'm not really one to talk about starting new projects, but seriously? NINETY-SEVEN!?!... how does that even happen?!?
Even though it is not evidenced by this post, I've really been making a concentrated effort to be more disciplined with the number of projects that I juggle at one time. I'm a project jumper, which means I flip a lot and need to work on a project until I hit a mental road block, then switch back to an older one. Although I don't suggest this method, for everyone, it actually does work for me... and believe it or not, I still get things finished too without collecting too many WIP's.
Having said all that, let me just explain. A few weeks ago, my husband took me out for a fabulous birthday brunch... just the two of us. You know that feeling that you get when you treat yourself with something special like a fine meal at a fine restaurant? When it's not your everyday, you tend to soak things in, your senses are heightened, and everything tastes divine and just melts in your mouth. When it's accompanied with a beautiful ambiente in a quaint setting to capture and saturate ones thoughts, that feeling is multiplied. As I was looking across at my husband, I have to admit that my gaze keep resting on a vintage embroidery piece that was hanging behind him. As soon as the other guests left, I snapped a few shots to take the memory home with me. Well, as a quilter, you know how it is when something sparks an idea for a quilt... need I really say more?
Perhaps you've had that inner burning when an idea is hitting you like a ton of bricks and rolls along like a frieght train that can't be stopped? That feeling of nearly exploding if you don't translate that idea into something tangible...
... thus, quilt pattern number four. My inspiration piece even comes with it's own story... and I can't wait to share the rest of the story.
Linking up with Let's Bee Social.
When it comes to my quilting projects, I feel that I am somewhat of a realist. It's never been my goal, or intention, to whip out one quilt after the next as fast as one can blink... in fact I've actually intended my long term projects to be just that, and something that I work on throughout the year. I want to enjoy the process, and be satisfied that a quilt is not something that is just thrown together over a weekend. (well not at least for normal people anyway) I want the freedom to set something to the side if I am not feeling motivated or inspired, and pick it back up when if feels right. While finishing is so vital, setting time constraints for when is not. I've enjoyed moving at a snail's pace despite the fact that I know that such a pace does not exactly grow blog readership, but my projects are growing little by little, bit by bit... and believe it or not, I'm OK with that. As for the progress on my Facing East quilt... talk about a not-done-overnight quilt, yup, you're looking at the epitome of it!
Last week I shared my Scrappy Windmill quilt top finish, and after peeling all those papers out of the seams, I was more than ready to set it aside. Since it came together so quickly, I gave myself the liberty to do so, not to mention that I am waiting on the batting to finish it. My husband graciously took our two little guys for the weekend, and I was able to have some time to myself. Usually my sewing room is an explosion after being granted such freedom, but I had several things to ponder in my heart... thoughts of change, unanswered questions, and what if's. Things are shifting and moving, and the quiet and stillness was just what I needed. But nonetheless, after working so intensely on the quilt top, I just wasn't ready to pull out one of my tedious, long-term quilts.
You may remember me adding a few,... er, well, ahumm, several... ok, ok, a huge stack of fabrics that I hauled back recently from vacation. And while in the land of fabrics, I found that I simply could not resist the Farm Girl Vintage book from Lori Holt either. While these blocks are a little off the beaten path from my usual style, I found myself gravitating back to it.
You might notice several of those fabrics all sliced, diced, and sewn up together in these blocks. Working with low volumes with a little touch of color has been on my to do list, and up until now, my low volume's have essentially been black in the black/white category.
Somehow I'm still stuck on going for a fresh and juicy look... I really want to have colors that just pop! When I first saw the Word find fabric from Melody Miller's Playful collection, I have to admit that I wasn't too impressed... until I saw it live! Talk about a story change... for me THIS is the absolute perfect shade of pink!
... and my little house block ends up boasting not just one, but several favorites of mine... Alison Glass, Heather Ross, Cori Dantini, and I am just as smitten with the Eric & Julie Comstock Baby Jane in yellow.
What's your approach on long-term quilting? Do you take on year-long (or longer) projects or do you prefer quilts that don't need as much time to finish?
Linking up this week to WIP Wednesday and Let's Bee Social.
In the most recent issue of Love Patchwork & Quilting magazine,
regular columnist and contributor, Jeni Baker, gives
a few tips for saving time in the sewing room and maximizing the actual time
that you can spend sewing. Her tips were insightful and gave me something to
think about in regards to my own projects:
*Plan and prep your projects ahead of time - Jeni said that she saves
time when she sets aside time to plan a project, i.e. look for material sources,
fabric prep, washing, etc. She suggests to do this at all once because it
saves time. There is no need to decide what project to work on because it's already prepped, and you can
simply sit down and start sewing.
*Repeat steps. When you are cutting, cut everything. When you are
pinning, pin everything. When you are ironing, iron everything... well, you get
the point. Flipping back and forth from station to station can cause you to lose
valuable time.
"Planned creativity" is somewhat of a new concept for me... it almost
sounds like a contradiction. I often find myself working according to
inspiration, and may not want to work on an already prepared project at that particular time. On
the other hand, it is definitely something for me to seriously consider to be
more disciplined with my projects. Without question, following such a
suggestion results in far less WIP's.
When I start a new project, I can hardly wait to just sit down and start
sewing, so I usually cut what is necessary to do so. Sometimes in the middle of
one project however, I actually feel like I need to mix things up, take a mental break, and work on
some other step. For instance I might get bored with cutting and need to move
onto another process, or even project, or I find that I lose interest. Does
this statement give any hint as to why I avoided quilting for the longest time?
One thing that "time saving sewing" does not allow for is when issues or difficult design decisions arrise. If I
run into a problem, or I am simply not feeling inspired to
work a certain WIP, then it often works best for me to set it aside. When I force
myself to work on what I'm not inspired to do, then I end up making major
mistakes... and I mean sit-down-on-the-couch-with-your-seam-ripper-for-the-evening
mistakes.
We are planning a little trip where I will also have a little time to
sew and I am excited to make progress on my two major WIP's. Cutting is
finished, then it's just sit down and sew time. I will be interested to see if
I actually have as much time to sew as I would like, or if other distractions
will keep me busy. Either way, it feels nice to have everything prepared.
How about you, do you plan your creativity or do you just let it happen?
Do you do assembly line sewing, or flip back and forth between steps?
