Sporadic quilter!
 

I have quilted for 30-35 years. On & off. I go in streaks & I am now in one of those on periods. The problem is, I want to make everything I see! I buy fabric that I will probably never get around to using. I must have at least 20 unfinished projects & I want to start another! I have been working on some of those this time but have also started a couple new ones. I am a very undisciplined person & know I must work on that but at 65, is it even feasible to make such a huge change in character? Would my family & friends still love me? Oh well, I think I'll go do some quilting & worry about it later.:o

LOL... welcome to my world

sounds so familiar!!

Hello, my name is Jan and I'm a sporadic quilter.
Join the club! And, yeah, at our age, it's way too much bother, and trouble, to try to change.
Accept who you are, that's another club,:o.

Jan in VA

I would love to start another project, but I am too disciplined therefore frustrated. Today, instead of working on what I have to work on, I am organizing scraps. It has become a monumental task. I am looking forward to it being done, but think I will take a nap first...

Did I write this thread under a different name? You have described me perfectly, even down to the 65. I spend a lot of time looking for new ideas rather than doing the things I have already bought. I get so mad at myself, but I can't stop. I have started finishing some projects though. I am making myself finish UFOs before starting anything else. I have a list and I'm sticking to it! Right.

I'm a "Mood Quilter"--when I'm in the mood to quilt, I could quilt all day for several days at a time. When I'm not in the mood, it could be a couple of weeks before I do anything quilty. I'm in one of my non-quilty moods right now :( and wish I could get out of it, I have at least two quilts to finish by April.

I too am a mood quilter! I love being a mood quilter, sometimes I am in the mood sometimes not! Today, I started using scraps for a baby quilt, instead I finished 4 bibs! Gee, it is just the way it is in the quilting world!

If left to my own devices I would never complete anything, as the impluse to start the next quilt "vision" is so powerful. Sometimes I think its ADD coming to the surface, other times I think I am just without any self discipline. I have improved and will not allow my self to start with out finishing. Think of it as a "diet of the mind" its all about willpower. Sometimes I just have to "trick" myself and promise myself if I sew one more day on a current project then , I can start another, then do the same the next day till its done.

Me too. I haven't quilted in a while. I look at it every day but just can't get motivated. Hubby has been having health issues so I use that as my current excuse. I also think I have self-diagnosed adult ADD. I don't have too many UFOs except in my head. But, oh well...

I also go in streaks. I'm that way with my house, my quilts, my cooking, my computer etc. LOL why not. If I go the other way, it becomes a job. I just left upstairs looking for binding material. I just turned off the light and came down and am on this machine. Gonna watch football and maybe nap along. I'm 83, why can't I?

I am very disciplined I totally finish a quilt before starting another.

There are times I am very productive and then times when I allow the heaviness of life to interfere with my quilting. I generally do a good job of finishing projects. Although, the one I am working on right now should have been done last November. It is for a coworker who went out on disability for ALS. It makes me sad, and I refuse to work on it sad. Hope and Love only...no sadness!

I get distracted when I see a quilt I want to make. Then I drop everything else and start a new one. Lots of unfinished quilts in my sewing room.

I think I am ADD late in life. I love quilting and the many paths it has taken me. I have even set a goal this year to learn to appliqué - then I get side tracked and now want to make cathedral window pincushions for Valentine gifts. I also have some potholders that are perfect for Valentine's Day that need to be finished and mailed this week, oh wait I have this cute lattice quilt and all its strips sorted on the table - will it never end.

Yep - that's me - a sporadic, mood quilter!!! My attention is easily caught by this and that. I could look at website after website of design ideas and such, get inspired by Bonnie Hunter and scrappy quilting (I did get a lot of my fabric sorted into bins), etc. - rather than spending time quilting. I get pulled in so many directions as to what I want to do - that I then do nothing! As I don't want to have multiple projects around that need to be finished, I normally do not have more than 2 projects going at once. Right now I have a tumbler lap quilt that is about 2/3rds of the way quilted, and I have the squares ready to put together for another lap quilt (x's and o's pattern from Missouri Star Quilt). That one is scrappy - my first. ;)

I am semi in the mood to get back in my sewing room again, and actually got my sewing machine set up for FMQing on my tumbler quilt. Hopefully soon!

Even knowing we are moving from Michigan to Nevada this next year has not stopped me from starting new projects. I keep replacing what I sold with more. I have refrained from buying books and patterns...so far anyway!!!

My problem is I want to make about everything I see. So I get that started and before I know it I have put it in a plastic bag for later. New project has come along.

I think that's just the nature of many of us. There's nothing wrong with quilting when you feel like it and doing other stuff when you don't. Unless you have a deadline for something that absolutely has to be done! :) As for all your projects you have you want to do, who knows, you may surprise yourself and finish all of them :)

:) yeah, I hear you!! I have the same problem!!

It seems that I am just like most of you. If I have something going on that disrupts my quilting, I can't get to sewing. I am a one tract person. I have my current quilt ready for the borders, and haven't done anything with it for a week. My DH has been sick and seems to "need" a lot of attention. On second thought, he doesn't need to be sick to need a lot of attention. lol I am going to the LQS to get the fabric for the borders today, so tonight I may finish it and be able to send it to the long arm quilter. Do you think joining a guild would help?
Sue

This is so me, I could have written this thread.

Yes, Susie, belonging to a guild helps me. A lot. We meet every month, so I try to make myself have something to "Show and Tell" each month. We are a very small club, but have a quilt show each year. That is a great motivator.
I have 21 grandchildren and 11 children, and I thought I would never be able to make them all a quilt, so I didn't even try. Then one year I completed 7 quilts, some of them charity quilts, and I thought, "I can do this." This last Christmas, four family members picked out a quilt for themselves. Quilt a few have received quilts over the years, so I'm on a roll. I need some kind of motivation to get things done.

Where were all of you when I was a kid?! My mother, God rest her soul, use to get so frustrated with me, a common exhortation was "can't you finish just one project before you start another"? Well things have not changed LO and I don't even pretend that I will even try. Project on
Oh did I tell you I just attended the Gourd Festival in Casa Grande, AZ what talent I have been trying to figure out a way to incorporate fabric into this medium - I think i can, I think i can:D

You've described me! That's why I'm spending way too much time on the board instead of in the sewing room. I'm blocked, pun intended. I can't decide on the design of a quilt for a friend, and since I want it to be a surprise 'thank you' quilt, I can't ask him what he wants. Dh is trying to be helpful, but he just says 'I like that' every time I show him an idea. Sign.

I'm a sporadic quilter, too, but for a different reason; some days I don't feel like quilting because my arthritis and my back keep me tied up in knots. When I feel good, I quilt up a storm. (I'm 77). Hope to finish the few things on my bucket list while I can still hand quilt.

I am also sporadic in that way, but try to keep the number of UFO's down. I sometimes make myself do at least 5 minutes work on a UFO before working on what I really want to work on. If I'm lucky, the five minutes turns into much longer, and once I get close to having a project finished, I get excited about it again. Then it's the quilt I really want to work on and I can get it done.

i am quilty also i have to have that pattern or that fabric guess i am addicted

Love this! I can relate.

I can relate to this! Keeping a few UFO's and WIP's in different stages helps me, but sometimes I just gotta do something new! :)

Noradi and Terry,

I never knew what to call myself... and now I do!!

Thanks

I think I'm a collector if fabric, patterns and ideas rather than a prolific quilter. I'm 70 yrs. old and my daughter is freaking out that "one" day she'll have to deal with all this stuff her Mom has ideas for. WELCOME SISTER!

So much to do - so little time! Wait don't I need to go to the quilt shop? See ya!

Too many UFO's?
 

I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. NOT LOL. I've had the problem almost since I began quilting, so many quilts I want to make, so little time. I have several projects I should be working on now, so what am I doing? I'm putting together a very, very simple log cabin variation from a kit with the pieces all cut, just nearly mindless sewing and not much thinking. It's the downtime I need before I begin some projects that require more thinking on my part - the family reunion quilt for this year's family reunion, a bed quilt for our DGD who has begun sleeping in a "big girl" bed, a bed quilt for my DS and DDIL, and oh yes, a Boston Commons quilt in batik fabrics FOR ME!! I think the someday I'll get to the Boston Commons quilt is moving up almost to the top after the first 3 quilts. Hey a girl needs one for herself every now and then.

OMG, I started out as a cross stitcher. I have over 2,000 charts with over half already kitted up ready to go. So I got bored with that and started quilting about 5 years ago. Now I have tons of stash and just don't have enough time to get to all the great quilts I want to make. I am a sucker for BOM's and have invested tons in them.

I haven't quilted anything significant in over a year, but am doing the cross stitch right now. As soon as the weather warms up and my basement gets a little more bearable I will probably be back down there sewing this summer.

As someone said above, welcome to our world.

My daughter trains horses. They get distracted easily. So the saying in our houses is "SHINY OBJECT!". When I'm distracted at a store or in the house, my husband uses this term "SHINY OBJECT". We laugh and I get back to the subject at hand. And then other times I'm having so much fun with the "Shiny Object" that I ignore him. He's so disciplined and doesn't like shopping anyway. But then women are gatherers (Oh, look at this option and then there's this idea) and men are hunters (let's just bag that sucker and get out of here). Buy the way there are 5 WIP's and 3 inspirations on my design wall's now.

DO whatever makes you happy... And if you have too many UFO's send them my way- they will keep MINE company!!!

My problem is a only have one project at a time (no UFO's for me!)....but if I get frustrated or bored, I just stop working on it and do nothing else. I have been working on the same project for 2 years or I should say I have not been working on the same project for 2 years. I have plenty of fabric and other projects I could start on but I have this need to start and finish a project before starting another one. Not sure why.

I'm kind of the same way, but I make myself work on old projects along with a new one. I'm working on a valentine wallhanging that I started either 3 or 4 years ago in a swap. It's almost a top now--maybe next year :)

Sounds like a common addiction! Can you imagine what a meeting would be like? Besides the size of the auditorium, we could bring our UFOs and trade!!!!