Sunday, June 15, 2008

Slice and Dice

Part of my clean up effort in the basement was to slice strips off of the newest batiks in my collection and then put the remaining fabric away on the shelves. I am going to do another double 4 patch quilt since I enjoyed making "Chocolate and Caramel" so much. Here is a shot of early summer color in the front flower bed. It is always so pretty in June.
This is one of the digital photos made from a slide. I made this piece in 1990 or 1991 and it sold at the IL Artisans Shop in Springfield, IL many years ago. I made several pieces with the illusion of overlapping squares. I think I may do another one in brighter fabrics. I think it is time to get out all of my trays of squares and have some fun. I think the biggest part of my slump is that I feel guilty starting another piece when I have so many UFO's. I go in cycles of not caring if I finish anything and then feeling driven to finish quilts. Since I don't have any deadlines for the finishing it doesn't become a priority.

My new plan is to list the UFO's in order of priority for finishing and to finish one each month. As far as starting projects, yes I will continue to do that. I have my blog to write, and I need pictures..........

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Several years ago, one of my friends told me that if I had learned everything I could from a piece, I had permission to either throw it away or just not finish it. I've been using that permission to weed through my many UFOs, and I've gotten them down to just a few unfinished things. Those few are things that are too good to throw away, and others that I can still learn from. Life's too short to spend time finishing stuff that you can't learn from.

Connie

Karen said...

Every two years our guild has an auction. You can donate books, patterns and ufo's (with all the components). Not only does it raise money for our guild programs, but the ufo's get a new home and most times, finished!

Vicki W said...

Those batiks are beautiful! I think your UFO mamagement plan makes a lot of sens.

Kristin L said...

Have you noticed that the colors you just cut for your 4 patch match the colors of teh front of your house? Or at least the photos match. A UFO a month sounds like a great plan.

Sequana said...

There ya go. Blame it on us blog readers. *L*

The front of your house looks so beautiful. It shows a real gardener lives there.

TB said...

Oh, I like the color combinations of the fabrics you sliced and diced!

Sharon said...

Those batiks look very luscious! I can't wait to see the top you make from them.
As far as UFO management, I agree with Connie. I don't think I can or want to finish all my UFO's. Some of those pieces will go in a "leftovers" quilt, some will be passed on to someone who wants them, and some I'll finish. I've been trying to finish up projects the last few years, and moving really showed me HOW MANY UFO's I really had. Yowsers! Time to sort and cull. The one-a-month plan sounds like a good deal. Good luck!

Fiber Babble said...

Deadlines are definitely an integral part of my 'time management' plan. Going through my UFO stack is like an archaeology dig - the miniature period, the scrappy period, the free-form period.... There are very few partially completed tops, but there are very MANY tops waiting to be quilted!

What are you going to do as you finish your UFO's? If you commit to getting the finished quilts to a new home by a certain date, looky there! You've got yourself a deadline!!

ps - you do still have my address, right? LOL! :-D

Anonymous said...

WOooo I really like the piece you made for the Artisans Shop in Springfield. I can see why it sold, immediately it is gorgeous. And certainly timeless. Love those calico prints you have made them glisten.

Nice explosion of color in the front of your house. And I agree it does look similar to your batiks.

J~MT

Elaine Adair said...

Do you think your 'slump' is because you might be ready to approach or bring your quilting from/to another level? You really are so very talented - maybe something is calling you.

Anonymous said...

At the risk of sounding "out there", did you know Mercury is in retrograde? I heard 2 people mention that so I googled it, and found out that right now until about June 28 it's best to finish up old projects rather than start new (cuz the new ones would get goofed up). Blame it on Mercury, the messenger.
Anyway, love your blog and colorful sensibilities.
Also from the Midwest (Grand Rapids Mich)
Vicky F

Anonymous said...

Thank you for putting blog reader satisfaction on your priority list! Woo Hoo!

Shelina said...

These are really pretty fabrics. I loved your chocolate and caramel quilt, and this one looks like it will be just as pretty, if not more so.

Silverthimble said...

I made myself a list last year of UFO's that I wanted to finish--12 in all, one per month. I did not work my way through the entire list, but I feel that I did finish more projects this way--more than I would have finished without a plan. Of course, I did start new projects along the way--but I committed to finishing anything new that I started. My UFO list did not totally disappear, but I believe it only increased by 1 by the end of the year--not a bad goal since before that, I rarely had a finish, but had many starts! I quilt for fun and not necessarily the finishes! LOL Keep up the inspiring work!