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How do you get started?

How do you get started?

Old 08-29-2012, 01:51 PM
  #11  
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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.
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Old 08-29-2012, 02:19 PM
  #12  
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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.
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Old 08-29-2012, 02:24 PM
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Originally Posted by dunster View Post
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...
What she said..... *red faced*

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Old 08-29-2012, 02:49 PM
  #14  
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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.
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Old 08-29-2012, 07:28 PM
  #15  
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Originally Posted by quiltsRfun View Post
Well I have the opposite problem. I'm a great starter but I have trouble finishing. Hence all the UFOs.
Ha, that's me too. Love to start new projects, but never seem to completely finish them.
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Old 08-29-2012, 08:45 PM
  #16  
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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.
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Old 08-29-2012, 11:41 PM
  #17  
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Originally Posted by RosMadeMe View Post
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!
I'm a bit like you. I have no problems finishing what I start, but I have been dithering for weeks about making mug rugs for the Secret Pal swap Part of it is confidence (I'm a newish quilter) as I don't feel my quilting is 'good enough', but part of it is fear of not getting it 'right' (in my own eyes).
Sometimes you just have dive right in.
(I started an applique mug rug yesterday )
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Old 08-30-2012, 02:40 AM
  #18  
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I only have a problem starting if the "mood" to quilt isn't there. But once the mood hits me I GO!!
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Old 08-30-2012, 03:19 AM
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Originally Posted by Dolphyngyrl View Post
Thats funny, because I am a great starter and horrible finisher
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.
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Old 08-30-2012, 06:09 AM
  #20  
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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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