It’s absolutely beautiful! I really enjoyed hearing your journey. It’s so interesting when you said that like most things in life, there is no pain free pathway. Our struggle is trying to find one.
I have been working lately on acceptance rather than struggle. Younger me would have found this akin to giving up, but older me is understanding that sometimes there is no pain-free path, in which case acceptance creates lightness.
I really love this post! Your way of expressing the need to be gentle with yourself, and shift to other things to offset the more mundane tasks is so helpful. Also the encouragement to pick things back up with fresh eyes and push through to finish wips. It’s all refreshing and lovely. Thank you!
I really appreciate this analogy that you’ve used for your WIP‘s. I do the same thing, work on several projects, depending on where my enthusiasm lands. The only time I get really overstressed is when I have a deadline for a gift. I work on several different types of crafts throughout the day and now that I’m retired I can enjoy it more and be a little choosier. Thank you for your words, for your beautiful quilts and for sharing them with us.!!
Good things are coming is a bit of a rocky road for me too, those endless background triangles! So to make progress, I’ve been working a single round on a single block. The reward is sewing fun houses to diamonds once the second round is complete. It was also very ambitious of me to choose the 16 blocks so if I make it to 9, great! I can always add the other blocks and more sashing if I want to pick it up again.
I loved making my first 16 block Good Things are Coming Quilt! But I've made a few queen size quilts lately, and I just didn't have it in me to make another. Quilts around here seems to get used more too if they're throw size. I had all of the shapes basted for the 16 block, so I've reused them into something different. Hopefully I'll share that next week!
Throw seems much better here too, although everyone seems to enjoy more of an oversized option. Kids snuggled next to each other and my husband is tall, so oversized works for us! I’ll look forward to seeing your repurpose of your GTAC shapes, mine are all based and can be repurposed too. ❤️
This is why I pursue a variety of crafts; besides quilting, I also knit, crochet, embroider, cross-stitch, do several other kinds of needlework, and play with beads. The other thing is that I rarely make things for anyone else; I just do it for the joy it brings me. The few people that I do occasionally make things for understand me and accept that they'll get it when they get it. My muse is fickle.
The joy of this is that no matter what I'm in the mood to do, I have a WIP for it. I have a hexie EPP quilt that I've been working on for about a year. The blocks are brightly colored, but they have black borders. It's going to be a really nice effect when I put it all together, but I swear, those black borders take longer to do than the blocks that they surround.
I have a crazy quilt that's been on the back burner for over a dozen years: I made over 100 blocks and have embellished almost 40 of them. I may be getting close to working on it again, because I've started collecting things that could be embellishments for it.
I always have a plain sock on the needles for when I need something to do with my hands during meetings and movies.
Plus at least half a dozen other projects that I can think of offhand that are waiting for attention. Rather than list them all, I'll leave you with this true story:
My late husband used to tease me about all my unfinished projects. I told that if I ever complained that I was bored and had nothing to do, he could start throwing unfinished projects at me. Needless to say, I never told him I was bored. 😺
I totally agree with this Andrea- also a knitter and have multiple knitting projects on the go and yes always a sock. I also love to dress make so often there’s a outfit to make at the machine. I’m also a selfish sewer and make things for myself. If at the end I don’t like it it goes to salvos. I tell myself I get the joy from the making.
And yes well the quilting WIPS that’s another rabbit hole too. I’ve lost count of what’s current
I also have a log cabin type WIP I’ve started this year using scraps. I’ll figure I’ll just keep making blocks and eventually there’ll be a finished quilt at the end
I love it! And I know what you mean about single coloured borders. They always feel so slow!
I've also stopped making things for other people. I get in my head too much and stop enjoying it. Instead, I keep a cupboard of all my finished quilts and when it fills up, I invite friends around to choose their favourites. :)
The problem isn't that it's a single color; each round is a single color. It's that it's black ⚫️. Here’s a link to my progress pics so you can see what I'm doing: https://invite.bublup.com/he02kulFK4G2
My problem is a closet full of quilt tops. I have no problrm finishing the top but for some reason i would then fold them neatly on hangers and hang them up with my others. What was my younger self thinking! I am trying to get one quilted per month but that's not working out too well!
I'm exactly the same! Mine are on a quilt ladder and I have this idea that I limit it to one quilt per rung, and then I need to start basting. At the moment there are 10 quilt tops on the 5-rung ladder!
It’s absolutely beautiful! I really enjoyed hearing your journey. It’s so interesting when you said that like most things in life, there is no pain free pathway. Our struggle is trying to find one.
I have been working lately on acceptance rather than struggle. Younger me would have found this akin to giving up, but older me is understanding that sometimes there is no pain-free path, in which case acceptance creates lightness.
I know absolutely nothing about quilting, but I know that is gorgeous, in process and product.
I really love this post! Your way of expressing the need to be gentle with yourself, and shift to other things to offset the more mundane tasks is so helpful. Also the encouragement to pick things back up with fresh eyes and push through to finish wips. It’s all refreshing and lovely. Thank you!
I love how you blend your literary gift with your quilting gift. So much respect for your thought process!
I really appreciate this analogy that you’ve used for your WIP‘s. I do the same thing, work on several projects, depending on where my enthusiasm lands. The only time I get really overstressed is when I have a deadline for a gift. I work on several different types of crafts throughout the day and now that I’m retired I can enjoy it more and be a little choosier. Thank you for your words, for your beautiful quilts and for sharing them with us.!!
Such good advice ,I a must have the attention of a gnat, I have some major tips atm.🤣🤣🤣
Glad to hear it! The new ideas are definitely the funnest part!
Good things are coming is a bit of a rocky road for me too, those endless background triangles! So to make progress, I’ve been working a single round on a single block. The reward is sewing fun houses to diamonds once the second round is complete. It was also very ambitious of me to choose the 16 blocks so if I make it to 9, great! I can always add the other blocks and more sashing if I want to pick it up again.
I loved making my first 16 block Good Things are Coming Quilt! But I've made a few queen size quilts lately, and I just didn't have it in me to make another. Quilts around here seems to get used more too if they're throw size. I had all of the shapes basted for the 16 block, so I've reused them into something different. Hopefully I'll share that next week!
Throw seems much better here too, although everyone seems to enjoy more of an oversized option. Kids snuggled next to each other and my husband is tall, so oversized works for us! I’ll look forward to seeing your repurpose of your GTAC shapes, mine are all based and can be repurposed too. ❤️
If you like slightly bigger than throw, maybe you could make it 12 blocks rather than the full 16. That would make it twin size. ❤️
This is why I pursue a variety of crafts; besides quilting, I also knit, crochet, embroider, cross-stitch, do several other kinds of needlework, and play with beads. The other thing is that I rarely make things for anyone else; I just do it for the joy it brings me. The few people that I do occasionally make things for understand me and accept that they'll get it when they get it. My muse is fickle.
The joy of this is that no matter what I'm in the mood to do, I have a WIP for it. I have a hexie EPP quilt that I've been working on for about a year. The blocks are brightly colored, but they have black borders. It's going to be a really nice effect when I put it all together, but I swear, those black borders take longer to do than the blocks that they surround.
I have a crazy quilt that's been on the back burner for over a dozen years: I made over 100 blocks and have embellished almost 40 of them. I may be getting close to working on it again, because I've started collecting things that could be embellishments for it.
I always have a plain sock on the needles for when I need something to do with my hands during meetings and movies.
Plus at least half a dozen other projects that I can think of offhand that are waiting for attention. Rather than list them all, I'll leave you with this true story:
My late husband used to tease me about all my unfinished projects. I told that if I ever complained that I was bored and had nothing to do, he could start throwing unfinished projects at me. Needless to say, I never told him I was bored. 😺
I totally agree with this Andrea- also a knitter and have multiple knitting projects on the go and yes always a sock. I also love to dress make so often there’s a outfit to make at the machine. I’m also a selfish sewer and make things for myself. If at the end I don’t like it it goes to salvos. I tell myself I get the joy from the making.
And yes well the quilting WIPS that’s another rabbit hole too. I’ve lost count of what’s current
I also have a log cabin type WIP I’ve started this year using scraps. I’ll figure I’ll just keep making blocks and eventually there’ll be a finished quilt at the end
I love it! And I know what you mean about single coloured borders. They always feel so slow!
I've also stopped making things for other people. I get in my head too much and stop enjoying it. Instead, I keep a cupboard of all my finished quilts and when it fills up, I invite friends around to choose their favourites. :)
The problem isn't that it's a single color; each round is a single color. It's that it's black ⚫️. Here’s a link to my progress pics so you can see what I'm doing: https://invite.bublup.com/he02kulFK4G2
My problem is a closet full of quilt tops. I have no problrm finishing the top but for some reason i would then fold them neatly on hangers and hang them up with my others. What was my younger self thinking! I am trying to get one quilted per month but that's not working out too well!
I'm exactly the same! Mine are on a quilt ladder and I have this idea that I limit it to one quilt per rung, and then I need to start basting. At the moment there are 10 quilt tops on the 5-rung ladder!