Thread: how to I break my quilting block?

All my quilts are made for charity. I just finished a big clean on my sewing room, I donated all my strings and scraps to a new charity quilter on freecycle. I gave her 6 computer boxes full of stuff because I was so tired of doing scrappy and wanted to focus on planned few fabric quilts. I posted about my scrappy adventures here: My scrappy quilts

I had a huge stack of 6", 8" and 12" strip blocks leftover from what I made last year. I put them up for adoption at one of my sewing dates. A few people took some to play with. I was completely amazed with what they came back with.

Now I remember about 4 yrs ago, I borrowed a friends accuquilt Go and her strip die and cut a huge amount of my fabric into 2.5" strips and made probably 20 quilts in different variations. I also cut a lot into 5" strips and made scrappy 4 and 9 patches.

I guess I'm just more comfortable with wild scrappy with 1 fabric to pull it all together. Guess I need to cut down my small pieces again and go for it.

I guess the worse that will happen is that during show and tell when I turn in my quilts for distribution I won't get many oohs and aahs. I feel I've done a good job when, after I finish it , I don't want to give it to anyone.

After I leave this world my dh has been instructed to contact my quilting group and donate all my stuff to them. So I know that it wil be used by someone for the same purpose.

I have a problem with mixing colors too. Cutting up my stash was made easier when I made the Farmer's Wife sampler quilt. I was able to cut what I needed from pieces of my stash. To me, it wasn't like cutting up an entire piece, I was just "snacking", not eating the whole thing.

Originally Posted by charity-crafter

My problem is I get quilters paralyzis when it comes to cutting out a new project. As long as the fabric is whole, it has the possibility of so much but once I cut it...maybe another pattern will show up tomorrow that would have been perfect for it. So I collect and fondle my fabric and dream quilty things. Arrange it into piles that might go together, then change my mind.

Another problem I have is matching fabrics. I can match 2-3 fabrics ok, but then usually I don't have enough of the fabric so I have to find more fabric to go with the project and when I finally put my blocks together I wonder what I was thinking.

I have a huge stash that I bought on various sales and yard sales where I didn't buy coordinating fabrics or I have ~1/4 yard pieces. I go to my sewing room with great expectations then after 20 minutes of look at fabric I give up.

It's so annoying. I have time to sew now but can't get started.

What do you do when you have this problem?

ha, I like that phrase. been there. usually when my space is too clean.

I have been making quilts for longer than I want to say and it still happens to me a lot.I have some beauties that I hang on to that I just can not cut.Just pick a few that look good together and dig in-it should be fun.start with a lap quilt and after you get 1 done maybe you will be happy to cut more fabric.