I have a very small sewing area so I have to pick up as I go. Company can walk in at any time! ;-) I do however try to keep to one project at a time. Occasionally I will have to fight off burn out by changing and working on a small project for a day or two, but otherwise it's just the one until done. I used to do 5-6 at a time when making Christmas gifts for the entire family all year long, but my DH couldn't keep up with me & thought I wasn't finishing them all. I did, but it was sometimes Christmas Day on the way to deliver it! LOL!! So now I only do one at a time.

I, too, have a very small sewing area. By the time I finish a project I have no room to start another so I have to fold and put all the fabric away. As I am cutting pieces, I put ALL my scraps in fresh bin -- that way if I need to recut a piece or a block I have the fabric (Sometimes I have had to sew the scraps together just to be able to recut a piece, but isn't that what our thrifty housewives grandmothers did?) Once the project is completely done (including sleeve and label) I will combine the scraps with the rest of my scraps.

Since my Rowenta Iron smoked, I put my iron on a power strip and turn it off when I am sewing or cutting.

No, but perhaps I need some rules! I've just started a top that requires totally accurate cutting and seam allowances, or it's going to go badly wrong. It's a while since I last did anything like this, and I'm discovering that I've perhaps recovered a bit TOO completely from the perfectionism that spoiled my first few years of quilting - I'm realising that I've become a bit sloppy with my measuring and seams, and too content to bodge when necessary. I can't get away with that this time, and I'm enjoying the challenge of going back to taking more care over accuracy - hopefully without returning to the bad old days of obsession, and tears if I got it wrong!

Thanks so much for this idea. I am currently quilting En Provence and wish I had known this trick! The edges where all the squares connect are having some unstitching issues.