I promised my husband I would not buy any more material for quilting until I finished the WIP's I had on the shelf (there are now only 5 of them). Well in starting one of them I realized I had no coordinating fabric for the back...so off to JoAnn's I went.

My husband say's I broke my promise!

One of my daughters said "nope no promises broken...that is for the back and you only quilted the front".

Well if you needed the material to finish one of the said WIP, surely that doesn't count? Right?

I don't consider it a broken promise to buy fabric to complete a project you promised you'd complete.

I makes me feel like one of those chicken or egg things. You promised to finish the WIP before buying more fabric, but you couldn't finish the WIP without buying more fabric. Leaves you at an impasse. Maybe if you'd mentioned it to him before heading to the store, he wouldn't feel like you'd broken the promise?

How did he expect you to have a back for the quilt?

Although some people piece together the backing, most have a back made from all of the same fabric. The exception to this unless a turn down is added to the backing, which would be blocks or a design co-ordinating with the top.

Without the backing (just purchased) it would continue to remain a WIP.

The other way to look at the top, is that it's a completed top, waiting to be sandwiched for quilting. Put it in the completed (tops) pile.

Pam M

that is the same problem I am finding with my own stash.. there is scaps, some just enough fabric, others, not enough of that fabric..

really hard to do.. just don't promise . ha ha

I agree with your daughter, you need the backing to complete the quilt, thus still working on a WIP.

Well, maybe next time you could put the one that is needing more fabric at the end of the line. This way it's last and then you'll be done with the others and just finishing up that one. Make sense? Still don't think you broke the promise. Really you know us quilters have to stick together. We think the same on a lot of things like this. :) Good luck finishing all of your WIP so you can go buy more. =)

Well you promised you would FINISH it competelely, all the way, done. You had to put a back on it, or you would be wasting batting and fabric for a quilt with no back! Lol. No promise broken.

I think Deema nailed it. Most of our partner-woes can be boiled down to lack of or mis- communication.

And really, it doesn't matter what WE think about whether or not you broke your promise. (We're not married to you.) The key is: your spouse felt you did.

I would simply apologize, and then come to a revised agreement about what you should do if/when this situation occurs in the future.

Best to you,
Jillaine

Without the addition you could not finish the project. It's simple. No promise broken.