I have to admit that I do have trouble completing a quilt because I can't visualize it when it is done and begin not liking my color choices or my the pattern - it happens with almost every quilt! I am working on one now with embroidered patches that I will be sending to an LA to quilt because I want it done looking better than I can do on my DSM. I hope to finish it this month since I would like it done before Christmas.

Is your mother still quilting? My mom quit sewing over 40 years ago, she was going to make an outfit for my daughter 30 years ago. She bought the pattern, the fabric, thread and buttons. It never got done, she sent it all to me and I ended up using the fabric for the back of a quilt for my daughter. The rest went to Goodwill. When she gave it to me, she said she finally decided that she really liked looking at patterns and she loved to buy the fabric but she just didn't like the sewing. It didn't help that she didn't have a table to put up for cutting out the pattern and she wasn't able to crawl around on the floor anymore. She had a neighbor that sewed clothing for her missionaries well into 90's. So my mom had the inspiration but never got past that. She was thrilled when I said I wanted her Singer - it gave her an excuse she was no longer able to sew. It was too bad, she really was quite good. But she had CTS and when that would act up, it took her a week to make the flare-up subside.

So don't beat yourself up - just don't get rid of all your fabric until you are totally sure.

I just do straight line quilting and though they aren't fancy, my quilts are still warm and cozy. Since being introduced to basting with Elmer's School Glue, the actual quilting part is almost fun . . . and not at all intimidating! I use Warm & Natural/White batting, which simplifies it even further. :)

I've gone through these extended 'sabbaticals' twice in 30+ years and continue to comee back to quilting.
A few things that have restarted me:
*joining a new guild
*finding a community/charity quilt/sewing group
*taking on a massive project (for me it was initiating the Military Barracks Quilt Project here 4 years ago that sent 128 quilts to 1 battalion in Afghanistan)
*having to pack up my sewing space and move to a new state/apartment/house
*needing a bedsize quilt for my own bed in a new, colder, location
*finding, without searching, the 'perfect' table for inserting my machine down into it and it was long enough for cutting and basting as well

Jan in VA

I'm a new quilter and only quilt with a machine, it's super easy! My motivation comes from Google. I love modern quilts so I pick a colour, for example blue. Then I google 'modern blue quilts' and browse through the hundreds of results. Without fail, I will see one I really love and that will inspire me to want to make one of my own. Modern quilt patterns are great to start with as they are not as daunting. Complicated patterns can quickly become very discouraging.

I started by taking six beginner classes for machine quilting to learn all the techniques. They are really easy to do once you have been taught and you will be amazed at what you can accomplish. (Online classes don't work for me as I can never commit to finishing once I have started.)

Other quilters are definitely excellent motivators so if you can quilt in a group, that would be great. I have quilted all my own tops with a DSM too, using straight line quilting, with awesome results. What about 'quilting as you go' if you want to do FMQ? I haven't tried this but have seen some amazing work.

Good luck! I hope you wake up tomorrow and find your motivation waiting for you at the foot of your bed ;) ! If you do, stitch it to your side so that it can never get away!

Dreaming, my suggestion is to try to decide the "what and why" of why YOU like to quilt. I do charity quilts, I quilt on my domestic machine and it's a lot of straight line quilting with my walking foot. I too have taken lots of Crafty classes and I have learned so much from them. My quilts will never be show-stoppers nor will they be in competitions, they will not be stretched out flat for the critical eye. They will be crumpled, wadded, and loved. That's why I quilt! I love to look at show quilts, I admire the work of the artisans, I marvel at their skills, but all of that will not keep me from feeling the satisfaction of making my own humble quilts. Hope you find your way back to the joy of quilting.

My suggestion would be to do a quilt-as-you-go pattern. There are many simple ones and you could even just start with a rag quilt. Looking at Utube videos and Pinterest always gets me inspired.

I've read through all the posts but I don't see the answer to my question. You said you learned to quilt with your mom. Is she still around? Are you living too far away or has she passed? Either way perhaps your 'dry spell' is just a feeling of loss that she's not quilting with you. It may be that you've gone through the quilting phase of your life (I've done that with cross-stitch) but I'm seeing in your post that perhaps you're having a loss issue. I hope not but if that is the case maybe you need to participate with a group on loss to bring the joy back that you had when you were quilting.

If I'm way off on my comments, I'm sorry. And I do not want to offend. But, joining a quilting friend or group would help. I don't have any quilting friends where I live anymore. This board and another one are my quilting friends. I love you all but really, it's just not the same. When I broke my arm and couldn't quilt for 4 months, I thought I'd die. I missed my hobby so much. I do hope you get the quilting bug back because it sounds like you want it back.

Dreaming, some people seem to take to FMQ, like Vivki. My son's fiance is an artist and her FMQ is stunning - not just feathers and little stipples but all sorts of lovely designs. She FMQ'ed the lead characters of the Star Wars movies into a quilt for her brother, and she is just a beginner!

I, on the other hand, cannot FMQ without some kind of twitching, or pulling on the quilt, or going too fast or too slow. I'm told I have other talents (my dear DH is a sweetie! LOL) so I don't worry about what I can't do and I do a good job of what I can. Design, color selection, piecing...and then I SITD and do the simple meanders which I can barely manage without screwing up.

Are there parts of quilting that you enjoy? Look to the sunshine and the shadows will fall behind you :) once you get going, the boring or frustrating parts of the job may get put back in their place!

Or try making something different, like bags or potholders or placements which don't require a lot of hoo-rah?

I hope you can stop feeling guilty about your stash. Do you think you are buying fabric to try to get your enthusiasm back? Maybe if you sell some of it off it won't be weighing on you!

I was in the same place as you only for me it was collectng patterns. I collected so many I became over whelmed because one day I realized I could never make them all so I stopped doing anything. Now a few years later I gave all those patterns away and started over. I went and took classes on my sewing machine and found I really like making my own ideas and designs. I belong to a quilting group, a group of fun friends, but put my own spin on what I make.
Bottom line
relax and enjoy
do what you like and not what someone else says
if points arent points or squares not squares-so what- as long as you like it.
put all that fabric out of sight so your are not overwhelmed
Best thing to remember----there are no quilt police

I think most quilters have taken a class from your LQS. I signed up and took a class from Harriet Hargrave. I confess that I get easily bored with quilt projects so I put the boring ones away. I stopped quilting for over a year because of the stiffness in my fingers. I look for quilts that I can quilt being small and straight stitching.