Don't you hate it when ...
 

You have some unexpected free time and you want to sew only to find that every one of your UFO's need trimmed or something cut out?!?!?! Even my crumb blocks and strip blocked needed something cut and I wasn't in the mood to cut anything ... all I wanted to do was sew

You get your sewing area all clean up and everything sorted and organized ... and you can't find a darn thing?!?! I lost my Dear Jane blocks ... have no idea what I did with them. I remember gathering them up and putting them in a ziploc type bag and now they are now where to be found.

Geez I actually has some time to play and nothing to play with ;-(

Suzy

I actually hate to reorganize because then I can't find anything.

Maybe you can use your free play time to plan something new, if you aren't in the mood to cut? Look over your stash and do some thinking??

At any rate, you will figure something out.

Dina

I hate it when I have put fabrics together for a specific project only to forget what the project was....... I'm with you love to sew, not fond of cutting. Cutting is a necessary evil though. Put some music on and sing along as you cut:-)

I am like you. when I feel like sewing that is all I want to do. I spent yesterday cutting and today I do not feel like going back in my sewing room as I still have cutting to do.

It changes with me sometimes all I want to do is cut, and there is so much sewing to be done. Other days I just want to sew and there is nothing but cutting. And yet on other days all I want to do is shop my stash and put together fabrics , but my sewing room is such a mess , it would just create more mess!
I never thought of myself as a moody quilter... but I guess I am.

I find myself not knowing what I want to do or not remembering what I would like to do for someone. I made me a list of stuff I would like to do and when I feel like sewing, it is something on my list or there is something for cutting or planning. It is on my list of to do.... I got one more thing off my list today.... added 3.

My problem is putting projects in plastic bags and then forgetting I have them. Once in a blue moon I'll reorganize my space and find these baggies of fabric and no idea what I bought them for. So then, they go in my stash and get used for whatever comes up!

That's me to a T! Glad I'm not the only one out there.
Suzy

It seems like all I want to do is cut stuff out right now! I keep cutting out stuff for future projects. THen I sit down a sew for a few minutes and get antsy and hop up to cut some more. I guess it's my way of "committing" stash to patterns and getting it off my shelf... but I'm running out of project boxes! I need to start sewing again.

This sounds like an argument for leaving everything out until it is finished...(as I do...)

When I start something, I generally stay with it and I always keep it out so that I know what it is that I am working on and if anyone wants to see what I am doing, it is right there to show (even in its roughest shape). Right now I am in the process of hand tying a little boy's quilt and when I am not tying, it is sitting on my rocker next to the sewing table. Everything I want to do next I keep in my mind (no one can see the clutter there) and when I am done with a project, I write it into my book and go on to the next thing! I sort of anticipate when this quilt will be done and work towards that, which I know is next to impossible, what with yard work, mowing, spring cleaning and stuff, but I know exactly where I am with what I am doing and it works for me. I have most of my fabric in shelves next to me so while I am sewing I am working on the next project. I am picking out the fabric I am going to use, the pattern and everything. Ok, now everybody, back to what you were doing!!!!!!! Edie

The longer I look at quilts waiting to be quilted I notice things like one was too skinny for my taste so I'm putting borders on it. One the inner border is a print and I don't like where they cross so still can't decide if applique or rip.
I'm with you my youngest wanted a pillowcase made as soon as she saw a scrap of hello kitty fabric (only have enough for the accent strip) of course I set it aside so I remembered to make it. I searched and searched for weeks finally found it tucked under quilts waiting to be quilted. My batting order just got here so I am hoping to get all the quilts quilted~

that makes you a true QUILTER. Yup - I heard that from many quilters......

I can sympathize. I recently painted my craft room, about 2 weeks ago, so had to put a lot of stuff away. I'm still looking for things.

If I were capable of doing Dear Jane blocks, and they disappeared from my quilting room, I would call in sick to work and begin a methodical search of my entire house until I found them, starting with the garbage and recyclables, and leave no piece of furniture untouched until I found them. Of course, I can't quilt like that, and I tend to lose things which are nearly in plain sight unless they are exactly where they belong...good thing I don't have more than three or four things going. LOL
Sympathy!

That's what exactly caused mine to be UFOs in the first place! You'd think I would stop a project at a place where it would be easy to start up again! But NO, I stop when I'm stuck or have a lot of cutting or squaring up to be done. When will I learn to stop when I'm ahead?

while i was fixing a dress for my niece - her mom (my sister in law ) who just can not help herself refolded my stash - now i don't know which is cotton and which is not. i am still looking for things from the last time i cleaned. i am a totally unorganised sewer.

I have a shoe box of triangles, in stacks of approximately the same size. I use them for beginners/enders but sometimes, when I just want to sew, I just sew a bunch in a long strip. (Square up when I feel like cutting) When I have four blocks the same they become pinwheels, the others can be used in all kinds of triangle type quilts. Eventually I have enough for a quilt. The pinwheels make great baby quilts. Good to have on hand when you need one quick. It comes close to feeling like a free quilt.
When I have gathered all the fabrics I need for a quilt but need to put it away, I put them in a zip bag with a note of what I planned to do. Add the pattern or give the name of book to find it in and page #.

Total opposite for me!! I have tons of sewing to do!! I was in a cutting frenzy and have three quilts cut out and ready to sew.

I'm in the same fix--everything packed for my move to MT and hoping I can find things when I unpack!!!Even so whenever I "clean" my sewing room I can never find anything again. Thought I had put "stuff" where it can be found and usually find what I need after I no longer need it. lol

Every time I clean off my sewing tables I lose something. Then when they are a mess and everyone wonders how you can find anything, I can put my fingers on an item immediatly. Never fails.

I always lose things. I clean my room quite a bit so I misplace things. There are items I have that I have never found. I have this BOM and I can't find 2 of the months I did anywhere. Also, I love to cut and then stop and go on to another project. My problem is that sometimes I don't put the pattern with the cut pieces so I have no idea what to do with all the pieces. Yesterday I cut for 5 minutes and that was all the time I spent in my sewing room. Sometimes I get so sick of my sewing room. I don't work so usually I sew every day and I have lots of days where I feel like I'm being punished if I go in my room to sew. I love to sew, but every day...all day...is too much! I need to sew 2 or 3 days a week. I don't get a lot of housework done because I sew so much. I need to stop being compulsive about sewing and start living life.

LOL, you guys need to move next to each other, one can cut and one can sew!!

I've done this so often. Now I try to write an index card with sketches and measurements, # of blocks, etc. before I quit and put it away. Everytime I forget reinforces the habit.

I just cleaned up and reorganized my room. For the most part I know where things are. Each project is in its own basket in the closet with everything needed to finish. Well sort of. I wanted to practice FMQ this morning and couldn't find the little sandwiches I put together .. they were on the shelf Under a basket of patterns. lol I still haven't run across my pressing sheet. I was fanatic about putting it back in the case it came in , didn't one time and now its gone. I picked up another at a yard sale for times like this and . yep can't find that one either. <G> I need to redo my drawers by my machine and I am thinking about redoing things on my wall again. My brother is leaving for Italy the beginning of May and I will do it while he is gone. I Will get this room set up right, one of these redo times. And everything Will be organized and Clean annndddd ... Where is that glass of wine??

yep...I usually have something to sew on.....but I hate to clean/straighten up/organize cuz I lose too much stuff!

I just traded my big bedroom for my smaller sewing room. Thought I'd have more room but failed to take into account that I already had three treadle machines in my bedroom plus a fold up quilting frame and when I moved my other Singer in a cabinet and portable machines (5), plus serger & Go Cutter. Now I can't find my notions. While I was moving I just stuffed any & everything into a drawer. Now I'm paying for it. Boo hoo will I ever find everything. I did end up storing three portables behind the couch along with the serger. And I can walk all the way around my cutting table plus I have a 6' folding table up all the time.

Don't you hate when that happens. I hear ya. I too lose items when cleaning up (cleaning is a necessary evil). Good luck.

I try to stay VERY organized. I put all of the fabric, batting, and backing, pattern, and whatever else I could possibly need for that project into a laundry basket. So when I get to it....the entire project is all together. Only problem is that I am out of laundry baskets and they are too expensive to keep buying more. Maybe I just won't have to do any laundry again???
So lately I have resigned myself to cardboard boxes....they are piling up and I have exploded outside of my small sewing room. If I just didn't have to go to work...I would have plenty of time to get things done----darn!

My thoughts exactly! When I sort things out, it takes me forever to find them again. My theory is, it may be a mess but it's my mess... LOL!

Yes, that happened to me last night. All day while busy doing other things i kept thinking about an old project I wanted to work on. When I got it out I had to square up all the blocks I had made and cut out some other pieces. All I wanted to to is sew so that project got set aside again. I ended up sewing together some corners that I had to cut off blocks for another project.

About 1956 my Grandmother embroidered a set of squares for eighth grandchild, my little sister. Her embroidery was perfect, as always. Someone else (I won't embarrass her ghost) set them with plain squares, layered on cotton batting and machine quilted about 4 inches apart. Over the years the setting material faded, the batting deteriorated into little wads like a tissue in the washing machine. Somehow it came to me and was stored with other mementoes and forgotten.

One day, during an airing/reorganization day the little quilt came to light. I realized I might be able to reclaim the beautifully embroidered squares.....I needn't disassemble the whole thing, just pick the stitches from the decorated patches. Many evenings 'pickin' & grinnin' resulted in a pile of embroidered squares, ready to have a new life. They were carefully bagged while I tried to think of a setting to do them justice. And they set and they set until---you guessed it---I didn't know where they were (for a couple of years) until they showed up in a box of scraps. Hmmm, a nine patch with snowballs? a wonky log cabin? Off we went to Lenora's Fabric to select an assortment of coordinating pinks. Fabrics and blocks all tucked in a pink bag and set with other projected projects. A child leaves the nest and chaos and shifting result. Where's that pink bag?

Retirement and reorganization ensue....ah, there's that pink bag! My DS, the mother of five, will surely enjoy having her baby quilt resurrected. Retirement will mean so much time for sewing and quilting! Then, mammogram, and pink ribbon time for me. Four years survival and oh! look! there's that pink bag! how could I have mislaid it?

Life happens while we're planning quilts.

Kathy,

Next time you get in a cutting frenzy come to my house! I hate cutting!

If I put fabric in a zip loc bag, I put a picture in it to remind me why I gathered that particular group of fabrics. Otherwise, I'd forget also.

LOL! Now, how many times have I done that?