Monday, May 22, 2023

Finishing Up Those Quilts

Do you have trouble finishing things? Is there a pile up of unfinished quilt tops or blocks in your sewing room? Join the club.  


Lately, I seem to be having a more difficult time than usual finishing up some quilts and other projects I've started. Then, just yesterday I read something (not necessarily about sewing or quilting but appropriate) about how just getting in the room can motivate you. I've been avoiding my room because it's messy with tons of projects in all stages on "incompletion". . . .  and it drives me crazy that I keep starting new stuff. So I went in there and spent a few minutes and something happened. I got motivated to organize some things. Then, that led me to think about the piles of blocks that needed to be sewn together. I made myself a promise to just sit in there this week, without a plan. See what transpires. 

I posed this idea to my Facebook group. In the coming weeks and months, some of us in my Facebook group are going to be working on finishing up a few incomplete projects we have started but set aside. Join us if you need encouragement or motivation to get back to a quilt you started but never finished. No need to join in if you're an on-track quilter who always finishes whatever they begin before moving on to something else. Sigh - if only . . . . I'm terribly guilty of putting things aside when something new inspires me. I'm aiming for one hour in my sewing room every day, or at least several times a week. Believe me, this has been difficult lately for one reason or another.  
                                 

These are some Peony Star blocks I started for a second Peony Star quilt (from my old book Remembering Adelia). I pulled them out and decided I would really like to finish a few more. 

Sometimes airing something in a group and committing to working on it again can be motivating. My FB group is full of gentle encouragers. We're going to be starting this in June, showing a project that we would like to finish - a recent one (large or small) or maybe one we started years ago but set aside for some reason or another and yet it would be oh so lovely if we actually had some motivation to finish it. And then we'll commit to working on it regularly over the next few weeks or months. No pressure, no shaming. Life happens. But sometimes taking something out and airing it before others is all it takes to become motivated to work on it again. Maybe all your project needs is a binding or - maybe some of the blocks are made and you really want to make more. Maybe someone in the group is working on the same Kathy Tracy project and you can encourage each other.



These are such fun blocks to make. Lord knows why I need another Peony quilt, but we'll see what happens.


Someone in the group posted something recently that reminded me that when we decided to challenge ourselves to work on some UFOs in the old Yahoo group, a bunch of us wanted to finish our Dear Jane quilts. And it actually worked - some got the motivation to finish it and some of us became motivated to at least head in that direction a little more (no names here LOL).




I know, I know - it's like, Finish it already!! But when I post pictures, I get motivated. So maybe it will get closer to being done if I commit to spend an hour on it every now and then.

I get sidetracked quite a bit with new ideas or new fabric I want to use. At times, I look at some of my unfinished projects and for some of them think - maybe it's not really worth the effort. Maybe the colors or fabrics are wrong or I never really liked the pattern. Maybe I don't really need another little quilt -Shockers! LOL.



Or maybe I did it for a group sew along and others liked it and became motivated to finish. But for some reason I got sidetracked and never did. That cute little star quilt will definitely be on the list.


Old projects that are half started can sometimes be bad energy for us and just a lot of extra baggage carried around in our heads. Getting rid of things you feel "pressured" to finish is somehow liberating. And getting past it can free you up to work on something else instead of hanging onto it.


We're planning on starting this in June so I'll have to sit down in the room, pull some UFOs and mull it all over. My motivation for finishing projects can get a little off track. By tomorrow, it may not even be the Peony blocks I plan to work on. Join us in the FB group if you're so inclined and see what happens. I'll keep you posted if I make any progress.





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