How do you get started?
#11
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: dallas tx.
Posts: 5,172
I don't have trouble starting something. I have trouble finishing something. Back when I was young and married, I would have 4 or 5 dress tops done, but no bottoms!LOL. It seemed I did the hard part first, but didn't want to finish the skirt part[the easiest part]. grin PS I never had anything to wear!
Last edited by barny; 08-29-2012 at 01:54 PM.
#12
I put off starting a quilt because I don't like all the cutting. I have to tell myself that it is just one quilt. If I mess it up or am not crazy about the colors when I'm done, it is only one quilt. No big deal. There will be another quilt after this one.
#13
You're not alone. I have much more trouble starting a project than I do finishing one. For me the hard part is making the decision of WHAT to start. I have so many fabrics, so many patterns, so many ideas, and picking one is hard for me. Maybe I should just give up and start 5 projects (or 10? or 15?) at once - maybe that would be easier than picking just one? But I would still have to get off the computer and get started...
piney
#14
Super Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Texas, USA
Posts: 5,896
I have no trouble starting . . . IF I buy fabric specifically for a certain pattern. My trouble is drawing from my stash. "Oh, there's too much of that one and I don't want to waste." "That one would make a nice dress for DD/DGD." "I really love this piece, so should save it for something more special." "I don't have coordinating fabric, for that one." The list goes on and on.
#15
#16
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: northern California
Posts: 1,098
You sound like you have a vision, at least a partial vision, in your head. I don't use patterns (I study them and decide how I'd like to copy them and no one would ever relate what I have created to the one I copied!). I use graph paper (prefer velum) and put in the geese the way I "see" them. Obviously they are flying over ...... so that gets sketched in. And geese like water, so maybe a lake needs to be there... and bit by bit the picture comes to life. Then I resketch because I need to reproportion the sizes, etc. By the time I get to this point I am so anxious to begin that it just happens.
Of course, when you work on a quilt this way it takes on a life of it's own and you can't be held responsible for how it comes out. I took a "viewers choice" first place at a very large fair with a NW Native American totem bear one year. It is hard to take credit, but I did follow the vision (I couldn't stop byself). This is my favorite way to make a quilt and I do it for someone specific each time. When I just "do" it, the quilt is never completely satisfactory.
For those who need quilts I find fabrics in my stash I loved once and don't so much any more and dig around until I find the "perfect" mix and make the quilt top, usually geometric, perhaps simple squares. I think of who might get that quilt and the fact that I have so much and others have so little (think after a hurricane!) I find myself pouring myself into the making.
Hope this helps.
Of course, when you work on a quilt this way it takes on a life of it's own and you can't be held responsible for how it comes out. I took a "viewers choice" first place at a very large fair with a NW Native American totem bear one year. It is hard to take credit, but I did follow the vision (I couldn't stop byself). This is my favorite way to make a quilt and I do it for someone specific each time. When I just "do" it, the quilt is never completely satisfactory.
For those who need quilts I find fabrics in my stash I loved once and don't so much any more and dig around until I find the "perfect" mix and make the quilt top, usually geometric, perhaps simple squares. I think of who might get that quilt and the fact that I have so much and others have so little (think after a hurricane!) I find myself pouring myself into the making.
Hope this helps.
#17
I am going to make a big admission... I will do every form of displacement therapy to get away from starting a quilt. I have even been known to clean the oven rather than start cutting. I know once I start I will be fine.
Actually I am sitting here tonight looking at a great selection of fabrics and yet I am posting on here...
I have a flying geese quilt in my sights, I have planned it in my mind's eye... so please someone, tell me to get on with it... and it would be lovely to hear that I am not alone!
Actually I am sitting here tonight looking at a great selection of fabrics and yet I am posting on here...
I have a flying geese quilt in my sights, I have planned it in my mind's eye... so please someone, tell me to get on with it... and it would be lovely to hear that I am not alone!
Sometimes you just have dive right in.
(I started an applique mug rug yesterday )
#19
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Stanley NC
Posts: 981
Ditto for me! I get so excited about starting a new quilt but enthusiasm starts going downhill when I get to the binding because that's my least favorite part. I have to make myself work on it and finish it BEFORE I start a new quilt. That doesn't mean that I'm not already thinking about that quilt that's just waiting for me to begin.
#20
I have the same issues.....it's been a few months since I've been in my sewing room to sew....I iron in there and touch all my fabrics on a regular basis! lol Many years ago I made a quilt for my in laws and I made myself work on it one hour a night until it was done. Now a days I don't like to burden myself with time constraints so I sew when I want. There are some things I hate to do and putting away laundry is one of them so I put laundry away during commercials....my husband just laughs at me. He says I make a game of everything!
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