I've been whittling away and trying to finish two secret sewing projects, both of them new quilt patterns, which leaves me just shy of two finished quilt tops... one more row on the first, and the last border on the second. There's way more done than what I can share right now, but teasers are always such fun, don't you think?
I'm always so back and forth with myself about how much to share before official announcements... perhaps you can help me with that? This is planned to be my fourth quilt pattern, which will be a medallion quilt. My previous pattern testers have usually only done a one block, or smaller pillow/wall hanging project. This quilt will be larger, would need to be a full flimsy finish, and is heavy on applique. What time frame do you think is realistically needed for testers? (interested?... let me know)
My concern that if I share the full quilt too far in advance, and testers need a longer time frame to finish, then the excitement about the quilt has fizzled out by the time it's been tested. I think that realistically this would be a 2018 spring release. (I have to finish the top myself, quilt it, AND finish writing the pattern, not to mention the third pattern that releases ahead of it, but it's good to have a plan, right?)
In addition, I unfortunately I've had to put this to the side because I ran out of fabrics for the last border. The joy of living in Germany is that I will have to wait at least three weeks or more. The missing border is my heavily appliqued border, which should take a good bit of time, but I have started working on some of the applique shapes. I just love these little pomegranate buds. It's not a final design, but still fun to lay them out in a mandala arrangement.
Do you plan a year's worth of projects ahead of time, or do you just take it project by project?
Linking up this week to Let's Bee Social.
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.
