What do you do?
 

When you start a project and decide you really really dislike it?

I started working on a rag quilt I had started back in January or feb but the more I work on it I realize I don't like the fabric I chose for it and not sure I want to continue working on it or add the fabric to my scrappy quilts stash. What do you do when you find yourself in this situation?

If I have enough of it done, I just finish it off and make it a dog quilt.

On a few select occasions, I've tossed it in the trash and found it wonderfully liberating!

I put it in a plastic zip lock bag and donate to my guild's charity committee for someone else to finish. I have done that twice now. I included the pattern and all supplies necessary to finish it, so it is sort of a "kit." Our guild has fabric that members can take to make charity quilts and my kits have been taken by someone and finished. I know they got finished because they were shown at "show and tell."

Just in case that would work for you...

Dina

Like a previous post... I have found it very liberating to just "make it go away" and have tossed some just to ugly to finish. For years I stressed and made myself finish projects ... it really impacted my quilting in a very negative way, being bogged down in "bummer quilts". Free yourself of projects that have become a burden.. Life is too short and there are better quilts waiting to me made.
Sometimes I cut the fabrics into scraps , if the blocks were large enough.

I finish it and let the grand kid's use it as a picnic or beach quilt.

This is what I did. http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2013/...laid-love.html

We have received many items that need to be finished as the maker has lost interest in the project. We are always thrilled to receive it as many other charitable organizations would be as well.
Thanks for passing it along.

Give it away or throw it away. I did the same thing recently and it actually felt good to just let the darn thing go and move on to something I want to do.

If you haven't used too much of the fabric - I would probably just toss the few blocks I did and put the rest into my stash. If I have all of the blocks or most of them done I would finish or pass it on.

I have packed it all up with the intended fabric, put it away for a length of time, got it out again and found "this isn't so bad after all", and then finished it!

I agree 100%. Bravo.

It depends to me on how close to finished the project is and how much work I have put into it. Sometimes I get sick of a project and am not happy with how it is turning out. If I finish it and set it aside, it usually looks much better to me at a later date.

On the other hand, sometimes the solution is to scale down, simplify the pattern, finish it, and give it to charity.

I have done a few I wasn't real crazy about, although not many. Just finish it up and you may discover it isn't as bad as you thought.

I've done this, too!

It happens to all of us - I don't have a good imagination when it comes to color, tend to buy what I like, then when it gets home, gets washed and in to the block there is some bizarre change and I wonder "what was I thinking?" when I bought it. So I have been known to take the blocks apart and get another fabric, if it is the pattern of the block then will scrap the entire project. My hardest projects were making an Oakland Raiders quilt for my daughter's friend and then a SF 49'ers quilt for a friend of mine. (Kept feeling like a traitor to my San Diego Chargers.)

I stop working on it and set it aside. If I still no longer care for it I put the fabrics away and will use them for another time.

Oh my dear girl, I will stand in confession with you; let's shock them all!!:D Just as long as my mother doesn't find out!:shock:

Jan in VA

It's a rag quilt pattern and I have a lot of the blocks quilted but only two rows put together, think I may just use the leftover 6" squares for scrap fabric. This is the second rag quilt I've done and I really don't seem to enjoy doing them at all.

This has happened to me and each time seemed to be different.
1 - donated for someone else to finish
2 - finished but donated
3 - the most surprising of all: finished it and changed my mind again and loved it when it was fully done.

Go figure.

I have an agreement with my quilting buddy. When this issue occurs,I give the project to her. What happens to it after that, is not my concern anymore. It goes both ways.

I'm with you - rag quilts are not my favorite thing to do - made two of them one year - one for my husband and one for my son - bought a kit in Wyoming and liked the fabric but it was going to make a huge quilt and I really didn't want it on my bed. They both got couch throw quilts so we were all happy.

Or a purse. or a cat mat (like a dog rug!) tee hee

I've been reducing my stash doing personal sized rag quilts that are WOF strips. Fairly quick-----------if you don't count the time I use to pick fabrics out of my stash.

I would put on one side next time I may like it.

Whew..so glad others have confessed to just throwing the darn thing out. I now will no longer feel guilty:D

I have a set of 72 Dresden Plates that were given to me. The fabric in them is really quite ugly, but I can't throw anything out. I have worked on it off and on the last two years, and have most of the edges basted and center circles have fabric softener sheets sewn on and are turned. I was planning on doing a Quilt as you go method, stitching around the plates with a decorative stitch with black thread in the bobbin. That way the back may look better than the front. LOL I'm a lilttle excited to see how that turns out, and someone will be kept warm.

Our guild has a country store to sell UFO's at our annual quilt show that I regularly add items to or I give to hospice group or charitable union.

It sounds like you need to find a different type of quilt to bring back the enjoyment.

I went to a class a couple of months ago and the quilt we were making was fun during the class. I have struggled to finish it. I don't like my fabric choice, the last few pieces are not matching right and I have ripped out stitches so much the fabric has stretched. I wadded it up in a ball and tossed it in my scrap bin. I may find it later and decide to do something with it or toss it but for now I'm done with it. I don't feel guilty about not finishing it. That's a silly thing to feel guilty over.

We have a "free table" at our quilt guild meetings where you can put anything you want to get rid of and someone else will love.

Finish it off and get rid of it. Charity etc.

Ditto Oma66. What she said.

I did exactly that on my very first quilt. I called it "Grandma's Practice Quilt" and gave it to my visiting granddaughter with instructions to take it outside and have fun. She loves it!

I've never made anything I would call ugly. I make doll quilts for our guild if I don't think I particularly like it. We do a lot of charity in our guild and they can always finish it. Waste not, want not, as my husband says.

I have one right now that I have packed up into a jumbo plastic bag and put it in one of my totes. The fabric is gorgeous, but when I put it together it was just too busy. I took it to my quilting class. They loved the quilt, but someone there suggested that I add a thin border of black around it, then add a couple of borders. Sometime soon I will unpack it and try that. Sometimes you just have to put it away for a while, then go back to it. You know when I packed this quilt top up and put it away, the world didn't end and I wasn't a failure. Quilting is so much fun for me that I won't let one project ruin it for me.

I finish it and gift it to someone that thought it was beautiful

The last time I did that I made a table runner from some squares and put the rest in my stash. Donated the runner immediately, liked the fabrics, but somehow it didn't please me put together. Be GONE!

If you have a wood burning stove, you could heat the house.