Closing the Loop
Quilters have a wonderful vocabulary for unfinished projects. There are WIPs (works in progress), UFOs (unfinished objects), and an apparently endless supply of jokes about fabric collections and the number of projects waiting to be finished. There are even fabrics printed with cartoons about the whole business. It's clearly a familiar part of quilting culture, and I understand how it happens. I've had my own collection of unfinished projects over the years, although I've discovered that I'm not particularly comfortable having them around.
I've never been very good at forgetting about something I've started. Even when a project is packed away and out of sight, I know it's there. I've occasionally found myself with several quilts at different stages of completion, usually because I was waiting for something and decided to start something else in the meantime. Before long, I had a little backlog of projects, all quietly reminding me that they weren't finished. Some quilters thrive on having several things going at once. Apparently, I am not one of them.
The 100 Quilt Project has made this tendency even more apparent, largely because finishing a quilt is no longer the same thing as finishing a project. Once the binding is on, there's still a pattern to write, diagrams to create, photographs to take, and all the other digital work that goes into preparing a pattern for release. Last year, I got a little carried away with making quilts and allowed that digital work to accumulate. Eventually, I had a backlog that took an entire month to clear. I did not enjoy that month.
Since then, I've gradually changed how I work. I still tinker with designs while I'm finishing the current quilt, and I usually have the next one chosen early enough to order fabric. But I've become much more deliberate about not starting the next quilt until the current project is completely finished, including all the digital work. The new fabric can sit there waiting, even when I'm itching to cut into it. And I am always itching to cut into it.
None of this means that I finish absolutely everything I start. I've abandoned designs, completely reworked others, and once threw away an entire collection of quilt blocks after putting them on the design wall and realizing that I absolutely hated the colors. I love color. I love playing with color. But those blocks were just ugly, and I knew I was never going to make them into a quilt. Keeping them around wasn't going to change that.
The studio is usually pretty tidy, even in the middle of a project. This photograph shows the leftover fabric from my latest quilt, along with a few possibilities for the backing. I use larger leftover pieces in quilt backings, supplementing them with fabric from my resource center, and eventually cut the remaining scraps into 2½-inch strips for donation. It's one more part of wrapping up a project before moving on to the next.
There are plenty of ways to enjoy quilting, and I'm certainly not suggesting that everyone needs to work this way. A studio full of half-finished quilts might be someone else's idea of creative heaven. For me, the 100 Quilt Project has become an opportunity to figure out how I like to work, not just what I like to design. I've found that I enjoy the process more when I can finish one thing, put it away, and turn my attention to the next.
And so far, I'm still excited about every new quilt. The ideas keep coming, the fabric keeps arriving, and I haven't lost the urge to start something new. I've just become a little more patient about when I do it.
Your results may vary.
