Thursday, May 7, 2015

Prioritizing

Sedona Star 1.0

For a change of pace, today's post is (mostly) about what I'm not going to make!

Early in January I had a big hunt through my stash for this orange fabric, which I wanted for My Country House. It is the perfect orange, not too gold and not too brown, but that's beside the point right now. The point is that my search started a whole process of digging through all my old quilty projects and making some decisions:
  1. Keep going
  2. Keep going but make some changes
  3. Toss.
The result has been that suddenly I've been working on, and thinking about, a whole bunch of projects at the same time. There hasn't been much to show, because I'm spread too thin. For example, in February I set myself a schedule to get Texas Star to the flimsy stage. According to the schedule, I should now have 227 stars joined up. As of today, the total stands at 146...


...which is progress over last time...


...but not ideal. Still, although progress is slow, I think we will all agree that it is looking pretty good. 

What you may not remember is that this is Texas Star 2.0. In 2011 (before this blog), after about 25 years and two cross-continental moves, Texas Star 1.0 went in the bin. At that point there were about 250 machine-pieced stars finished and ready to join. But, it just had too many problems, including dodgy fabrics and dodgier sewing. About 16 months later, Texas Star 2.0 got off to a much better start, and it will definitely be finished. But for now, I'm packing it away, because as I said, I'm spread too thin.

As you've probably guessed, the project I'm not going to be finishing is Sedona Star, shown at the top of the page. In fact, those photos are all that remain, because it all went in the bin in February. It had many issues, but the biggest was that it was big -- bed sized -- and my colour scheme was more suited to a wall quilt. So yes, Sedona Star 2.0 will be smaller. It is all planned, but not started.

I've already mentioned that this project, Trick or Treat baskets, was abandoned last fall:

Baskets 1.0

In fact I had about 12 to 15 done, but there are no photos, and these went in the bin in February too. Gosh, I imagine you are saying, I know they could have been used somewhere. And surely something could have been done with all those pretty Sedona Star circles. Yes, I thought about that quite a bit. But finally I realized that I can't do it all, and it would be a bigger shame if my newer, and much nicer, projects didn't get made because I was still flogging a dead horse with these.

So, Down in the Garden will get the nod, and we will see what happens when I focus on just one project at a time. I think it will be a perfect summertime project. :D

14 comments:

  1. You are one brave, determined woman. Although all of your projects would have turned out beautifully, had they ever been completed, I'll bet that you feel no regrets at the purge, and feel like a huge burden has been lightened. Regaining control and freeing up some space for creativity is likely more productive then storing all of the dead weight. Interesting prospect!

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    1. Oh no, there are definitely no regrets! It's the projects that are still on the books that are giving me grief now. To the basement they must go -- out of sight, out of mind seems to work for me. :D

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  2. I so agree with Seams French. It must be a great relief to purge the old projects, especially if you know you won't be happy with the results. I probably should do some of that myself.

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  3. I think we all are guilty of too many projects on the go and if like me many more pending! The texas stars look good but the garden project is a nice one to stitch in the summer and hand sewing too which I prefer.. When I was an embroiderer before I discovered quilting I only ever had one project on the go at a time think I have about 8 on the go now!

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  4. I was going to say the same thing, that you are very brave! lol I have dumped a very few projects, but mostly the orphan block tote works well for me. I am betting this frees you up tremendously to enjoy whatever project you do focus on though. So very glad to hear that the Texas Stars are being saved. I LOVE them.:)

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  5. I wish I had your gumption and could throw projects out. If I did I would start with Sedona Star as well. Half my problem with that project was the insufferable designer, her useless "instructional" videos, and her distracting nail polish. Texas Star looks great and you will eventually get it done!

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  6. I'm seriously impressed. Good for you. The Texas Star is looking really good so look forward to its re-emergence at some point. In the meantime, onward and upward - as you have said to me more than once!

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    1. Thanks so much, Jillian! I appreciate the encouragement. :D

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  7. Just because we start something doesn't mean it's meant to be finished. You probably gleaned or learned what you needed from each project and it was time to move on. Good for you. Your Texas stars are beautiful. We'll love to see more progress sometime in the future.

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  8. Sometimes it's just really liberating to "let it go". Good for you!

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  9. Those are very beautiful projects and I am sure you will progress well!

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  10. Really enjoyed your post and feel inspired to do some embroidery project spring house cleaning too. There are a couple of projects that I definitely want to focus on and I have to let go of the guilt of putting other projects aside or letting go of.

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  11. I can certainly understand where you are coming from with this clean out. I love the hand pieced stars though and so glad that you haven't hit that one on the head lol.

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I'm told Blogger has been bouncing some comments, so if it happens to you I'm sorry! But the settings look right so I can't explain it. In any case, thanks for reading!

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