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Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Two days in...


After only two days of working to clear my Pile of Unfinished Projects, I am very pleased with how much I've completed. I started by finishing the things closest to being done, so this may be why so much was finished the first day. Yesterday I worked on small things (wall-hangings and table runners), and today I will do the same. I fully expect today's production to be much less, because there is more to do on the projects to finish them. And I'm saving all the large quilts for later. But it feels very good to get things done, and add to the pile of things to sell. (Maybe what I really need to work on is my tendency to pile stuff...hmmm...)

As I finish projects, and an empty spot appears in my project shelf, my mind is wandering to the new projects I will start when more 'old' things are finished. I would love these new projects to include fabric that I already have, but this may be a challenge. Who was the girl who bought all of these of bright kid fabrics and Japanese prints? I am not sure that same girl is still here...my "design aesthetic" (as they would say on Project Runway) must have changed. I spent a little time last night looking at quilting magazines and books that I've bought most recently, and trying to decide if what-I-have can become the new what-I-want-to-make. I may have to still think about this, as I finish the project pile...Of course, I don't seem to be willing to get rid of any of the brights and Japanese fabrics -- how could I part with them? I loved them at one time, and I still appreciate them. So, if I don't want to give them away, I have to use them...such a dilemma...Can I make something old look up-to-date and new?

Hopefully this dilemma will solve itself in my mind while I clean out and quilt up the 'old'. I read somewhere once that you'll find that when you're free of stuff, your true creativity comes out. (I just Googled it -- Tina Turner said this. Not exactly word-for-word, but close...)

Maybe it's not a dilemma, but a happy challenge...

Monday, September 13, 2010

The Curse of the Pile of Projects


I was cleaning up my creative space, and found a bunch of unfinished projects. Then, I worked in the garage, and found another box of unfinished projects. THEN, I went to lunch with my mom and SHE had found some of my unfinished projects in a box at her house. I think 12 or 13 years of working in a quilt shop has caught up with me, and I am extremely embarrassed by my unfocused tendencies. :)

To try to get my unfinished-ness in order, I made a list of all of them. The piece of paper started to not be big enough, so I began to write the projects down in smaller writing. I really don't think writing them smaller made it any better, though. 31 unfinished quilts and bags and other things on one page! And that was just getting started...I have a slew of fabrics in ziploc bags with other coordinated fabrics, and some even have patterns selected, some are cut out, some are just ideas -- I did not count these! AND THEN, I found more pieces of fabric, and added them to the bookshelf which houses all the fabric I have collected over the years...I tried to think of a word to describe the scene I was witnessing. I was torn between "chaos" (even though the room is now supremely organized), and "decadent". Clearly having this much invested in a hobby is pure decadency.

Today my goal is to put bindings (or at least the machine-sewn half of the bindings) on two small projects, and quilt two other small projects. I'm not sure I can get this all done today, but it is a start on this embarrassingly pile of projects.