I put them all in plastic bags on the top shelf where I can see them...then try to get a friend to come and work on their choice with me...
If it is rainy and miserable weather, I get a couple of "chiller and thriller" audio books from the library and listen to one of them, while I work on ( perhaps ) the smallest or quickest project! jp

I put them all in plastic bags on the top shelf where I can see them...then try to get a friend to come and work on their choice with me...
If it is rainy and miserable weather, I get a couple of "chiller and thriller" audio books from the library and listen to one of them, while I work on ( perhaps ) the smallest or quickest project! jp

ditto.

I subscribe to the notion that every quilt will reveal itself to me in its own time. Some quilts are in a hurry to appear and insist on being set free to their destiny right away and some quilts need to season and ponder before they are ready to fly. I'm okay with that.

Check out the amazing Sun Bonnet Sue quilt in the Picture section titled First Applique. This is an example of a quilt that I would let season and take my time to finish. As much fun as it would be to make all the little dolls I would want to break up that process with some other projects.

Skip the UFO stuff, they are works in progress. It's just that the progress has been temporarily interrupted. Come on! No guilt there. ;-)

My WIPs have gone into boxes along with their pattern or my scribbles AND all the fabric necessary to finish them. Then they go onto a shelf, sometimes for a few years but I know always can back to them. MY WIPs built up cos I took just about every workshop going when I first started and there was just not enough hours in the day to finish before the next class. Today I no longer go to workshops because income has shrunk considerably and they are dreadfully expensive now. My Wips are keeping my hobby going and my scrap bin is building up nicely. I do have alot of boxes!! I do start new things but only one or two a year now and usually with a recipient in mind. Doing a D9P for a babe due at end of the month - always leave things to the last minute!! Point of this rambling? Oh yeah - don't feel guilty all part of gaining experience and many an orphan or try out block has ended up as an arty pieced back.

Fear not! And don't let these moments off-put you into giving up this hobby, you really aren't a quilter unless you have the UFO's and lists of projects and/or kits you'd really like to get around to doing/completing.

I look at it this way: art and creativity takes time. Many of the masters of renaissance artwork took months and years to finish a project let alone the fact that some walked away from them them for extended periods of time or almost chucked them entirely because another new inspiration beconed in their heart and mind that they just had to express immediately. Bottomline, I don't sweat over UFO's, as I'll take much time as I need. Period.

Who knows... (and this has happenned to me before) if you lack inspiration on one particular project and put it aside, months later, maybe even years - you one day eventually find a perfect fabric or embellishment to finally finalize the project, or sometimes the project just needs a home (that is the perfect person to give it to). And it will always been "just in time" - as it often winds up being the perfect present for someone at the right moment in time for that creation.

I look at it this way: everything has it place in purpose in time. If I create something today with the intentions of finishing it later this week and it does not come to fruition, then it was meant to be "birthed" not "born" just yet. And when the time is right - it will be born just perfect through my own creative eyes. I openly accept the fact that as a quilter I'll always have UFO's, but I will never have UFO's that just never get used, everything has its purpose. That however, may just not be today, tommorrow or next week - no matter how much I want it to be!

As for advice on the guilt - the best advice I can give is to never feel guilty about it... it's apart of the process, the experience and both the joy and love of quilting!

Explosive blessings, abundance and inspiration to you all!
- The Creative Seamstress

Davidwent I have been quilting for MANY years and have many UFOs as they are called now a days. lol. I do not feel guilty because of them ,some I hit a snag or problem and let it lie til I can wake up one am and say ooooh so that is what I need to do.... lol and another reason for ufos is that it keeps them all fresh to me and I dont tire of them before they are finished. I do needleturn applique landscapes and old barns and houses, it takes a long time to do them this way I will finsih them some day.

yes creative seamstress that is what I was trying to say. You said it much better that I.