How many projects do you work on...
 

actively at any one time?

I have spent the last couple of months taming my backlog of scraps from the past 14 years of quilting (that's alotta scraps). I had postponed dealing with them because I am not really into scrappies, and because other, more interesting projects kept coming up. Then I saw a pattern in a book, and a technique on the Board, and I got all inspired to make a TON of blocks that (someday) I will turn into a quilt (or six). Now I have a scrap management framework, and I can deal with my scraps as I generate them. Yay for me!

So today I decided to turn out the closet that holds my stash in order to find fabrics for my next regular quilt (the William-Morris-fabric bargello quilt that I have been eager to start for months...). I found tons and tons of great fabrics that will work well with each other and I also found...another giant tote box full of scraps!! Aargh!!! So now I will go back to cutting and "processing" scraps until I get the decks cleared again and can start my planned, non-scrappy quilt because I can only work on one project at a time!

How about you?

Alison

I usually have at least a couple WIP. I think I have AADD because I have trouble with getting board with a pattern.

I try to limit myself to 3 - one in piecing, one quilting, one binding. However, I have to admit to 2 Block of the Month currently in addition to that. I just finished 2 quilts (ready for quilting), so now I can start my next "big" one. But I'm probably going to jump into a mystery quilt too. I think the most I'm ever actively piecing, aside from BOM and mysteries, would be 2. And the second one is usually just if I need a leader/ender project for a big quilt I'm working on (or bored with). More than that and I start to lose pieces.

Now, having said that - I have a pile of scraps I was just eyeing today. Will you share the pattern/technique that got you inspired?

I have about a dozen in the works. Some quilt tops ready to quilt. Some quilt blocks ready to sew together.

It depends on the size of the project. If it's a bed-sized quilt, I'll only work on that one project. But right now, I'm working on placemats, a table runner, potholders, fabric postcards, pillowcases, and christmas ornaments. They're all kind of in limbo until I decide to work on one of them, and some are further along than others. With the small ones, since I make a bunch to try and sell, I like to change up what I'm working on so I don't get bored. For the larger quilts, though, I don't like to lose my focus. And they take so long that I like to plow through. If I didn't, they wouldn't get done for a very long time. Even going straight through, my last quilt took me 4 weeks, all told (from shopping for fabric to hand-stitching the last bit of binding). It's a bargello, actually, and it's here:

http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...o-t198506.html

I get bored very easily so I usually have 15-20 WIPs in progress; some big, some not; some for babies, some for pups and kitties and some for some very grown-up kids! I guess I do okay, I've finished 29 projects (the smallest was 20"x20", and the largest was a king-size) in the last 14 months...and what's even better is I'm not completely nuts (yet)...but I do cheat a bit, I use my LA to quilt...:)...and I LOVE scrappies!

The pattern is just a square framed by rectangles, like the individual blocks in this photo:[ATTACH=CONFIG]361877[/ATTACH]
(The frame is two rectangles 4.5 inches x 1.5 inches, and two rectangles 2.5 inches x 1.5 inches; the middle square is 2.5 inches) You can quickly cut zilllions of sets of rectangles, and zillions of squares, and then mix and match.

The technique is string piecing on a foundation; I'm afraid I can't find the post. The person posting used 6 1/2 inch square backing; I'm doing 4 1/2 so my finished "box" squares and the string pieced squares could be used in the same quilt(s) if I want. This technique uses up all the offcuts of long skinny bits left after I've cut the 2 1/2" squares and 1 1/2" strips for the rectangles!

I admire people who keep their scraps organized by width and shape and value, but I just ain't there yet. I think this system will work better for me...but ask me again in fourteen years!!

Alison

14 years of scraps!!!! WOW that would be Lots and lots of scraps. Hope you are having some fun making up quilts from them.
I can only work on one project at a time. Maybe its my up bringing... I can still hear my Mom saying "did you finish....?" when I would ask for fabric for a new project. I was never allowed to start something new without finishing anything I started. I tried it a couple of time but I got too anxious ..and this overwhelming feeling of I had to get one done so there would only be one project in process.

I remember admiring this when you first posted it - it is gorgeous!!

Alison

If I may, you might try strip chain stitching the rectangles (and the inner squares for that matter), a la log cabin construction. It goes so much faster, and you'll be making all the identical blocks at the same time.

Also, I also found the string quilt technique today and thought it'd be a great way to use up my scraps!

I have more than i can count.
if i had to guess... somewhere between 15 to 25.

Just one at a time for me so far; I've only been at this for 1 yr. I take over the living room while I'm working on a quilt and I just couldn't have more than one going at a time at this point.

I am about 3/4 through FMQ a quilt, am doing 5 BOMs, have a quilt ready to bind, and am in the process of cutting out a quilt. I enjoy having several projects going at once. Oh, I just remembered that I have one more block on a Civil War quilt and then I can start putting it together.

Yes, strip chain stitching is certainly the fastest. Most of my scraps are truly tiddly, though, and I don't usually have more than two or three "sets" of rectangles for any given fabric - and it is often pretty tight to get even one set. Also, without getting too obsessive about it, I am trying to have as many different combinations as possible, which makes strip chain piecing problematic. I do chain the blocks though - I can do about thirty completed blocks in an hour, from selecting the combinations from my larder of squares and rectangle sets, to having the pressed, completed block (she says boastfully). I wonder how many blocks I have at this point? The mind boggles...

I have only done about 20 of the string pieced blocks so far (ran out of skinny bits long enough to use) and I must say they do look nice! My non-scrappy brain is forcing me to make them monochromatic, which actually looks pretty cool.

Alison

Lynnie, how do you keep them all straight?! Do you change thread for every project, or use a basic neutral for everything?

That's amazing! (I get confused just imagining it.)

Alison

Actively maybe be the sticky point-------------but right now, I've got two dresses for my GD cut out-or partially cut out. Two personal sized quilts going----------one close to being done. And 4 reversible cable scarves in the knitting bag.

AND I TOOK MY FIRST SPINNING LESSON SATURDAY--------------the alpaca fleece to yarn kind of spinning. I'm using a drop spindle. (like I need another bad habit!)

I have about 6 - 8 "donater" lap tops, 3 queen size, 2 double, and one 1 (mystery quilt) carpenters star top to sandwich and quilt. Oh yes, and one baby quilt top. I have a single top sandwiched and basted in my hoop (which is about a quarter quilted), and a matching pillow sham.

I have a maple leaf quilt with 72 leaves cut out, and about 12 of them are hand appliqued onto squares, (of which 4 are embroidered). I have an apple core quilt that I have started to cut out.

I have a queen size scrappy, that I designed (with 2" finished squares), and cut out, but have not yet started to sew them together.

Not to mention the block of the month kit my sister gave me, with one block missing, that i will have to design and try to find fabric that will play well with the rest of the blocks (it is from 1994), but I have 11 of the blocks completed and sewn together.

And to top it off, my fellow Senior Quilter Ladies and I visited a Quilt store a couple of days ago, that we have never been to before, where we saw a neat little bag. We tried to buy the pattern, but they said it wasn't for sale. We tried to buy the bag, but sadly, they said it was one of their class projects and not for sale. So I spent all morning putting this bag together. I showed the ladies, and they said it looked just like the one we saw. I am now making 6 of them for the rest of the ladies.

yikes!! I didn't realize that I had so many on the go. Guess I better hunker down and finish some of these projects! I also just got a new sewing machine 2 weekends ago (which I have been playing with and getting to know), a house that needs a good cleaning, and I just purchased 3 new James Patterson books (I like to read).

I wish the quilt fairies would come clean my house, and weed my garden............. siggghhhhh.....

I usually have 1 big WIP and a couple of smaller things going on at a time. Seems like I get board with a the big one and it helps me to have something smaller to work for a change of pace.

Too many but I can sort of justify the numbers...only 10 right now beyond just the planning stage...because some days and cut, some days I sew, somedays I iron, etc etc. I spend more time than I should looking at magazines and the internet as to what I should try next. I did just finish 2 tops but one of those I finished a long time ago but ripped it all out last week and did it more to my liking. Hopefully, I can have the patience to finish a couple of Christmas ones I have going. In the meantime, I found a great Halloween panel (silhouette witches) and can move forward again. Just no end!

I have many more than a sane person should. Last year I worked on 12 BOMs. I have finished all but two and it is getting very hard for me to go back to them and they are almost finished! I will never do that many BOMs again! Right now I am actively working on two quilts at the same time because I am using the same color combo and they are both scrap quilts.

When I first started quilting, I would start and finish a project. Now I am all over the place. I probably have 5-6 WIPs that I work on intermittantly (sometimes I have to stop to make a b-day gift, etc.). Sometimes I start something new just because it looks like fun, which just adds one more WIP. I used to sweat it, but now I just do what I want when I want. I sew because I like to create and it is my therapy. It makes me happy!!!

How many quilts in progress? I have no idea and I don't think I want to go find out:D

At any given time I have 2-5 "active" projects, since i get bored easily. Right now I have 3: a lap quilt for a friend, placemats for other friends and a crazy quilt for me. When I see a pattern I like, I often make up one to fix it in my mind. I have about 15 UFOs at the moment, mainly at the quilt top stage. I generally spend the fall making charity quilts, which those flimsies will be.

Like Ronie, my quilting is for my pleasure. I generally finish everything because I don't want my storage to get used up on UFOs when it could be for something useful, like STASH!

One. Only one. I don't know why. I worked in a very complicating industry so many tasks at once does not effect me. But my answer is One.

you mean I have to count them???? LOL... I just recently moved my sewing space from one room to another, and in the process, lost a LOT of storage space, including a closet.

My son is going to deploy in October, and my daughter in law and granddaughter will be coming to live with us, so we gave up the familyroom, and moved the office/sewing studio into the familyroom space.

I am certain I have probably 8 quilts that are either flimsies and/or sandwiched and need quilted, let alone 8 or so that are in some process of being pieced, that then there are the others that are either kitted, or cut, or..... you get the picture lol...

If I live to be 100, I will never finish all that I have in the works, or in my mind... let alone the mountain of fabric (my rough guestimate is at least 800 yards!!!)