Need challenges!
 

I've been quilting for over 15 years, not quite 20 yet, but am finding lately that every pattern I peruse I simply don't want to do. I started one the other day, cut everything all out, and started working on it, and just now packaged it all into ziplock bags because I don't feel like doing it anymore.

I was chatting with one of my friends and she said I simply need more challenges, and to try something radically different LOL ... like the bali wedding star quilt that I did this year wasn't challenging enough!

So I'm going to try and hand quilt a quilt (again, I tried earlier this year and didn't like it) ... but I discovered big stitch handquilting, so am willing to try that one.

I also remembered that I bought in inktense derwent pencil crayons a long time ago (and put them away, and totally forgot about them) ... so might try those out.

I'm also toying with the idea of really truly practicing free motion quilting ... I've tried it a couple of times and simply don't have the patience to keep at it long enough to get good!

Does anyone else get like this? Just totally uninspired?

I still love quilting, and it's the best thing for me to do in the evenings as I share this time with my parrot (we share a large room) ... if I didn't do this, I'd have to find another hobby to do in the same room as her.

I get like that at times. I do find that a change of pace helps. I have YoYo's that I set aside and pull out when I'm feeling blah about my current projects.

Yes, sometimes I just don’t want to do anything that I’ve already started (even if I just started it 2 hours ago). When that happens, rather than starting an official project, I grab some fabric and PLay. I might just sit and stitch some of my machine’s decorative stitches on a scrap of fabric and batting, or I might FMQ “scribbles” all over some scrap fabric sandwiches. I might look in a book or on-line to find a technique that I’ve never tried before and play with it... the point is to PLAY. Playing with my fabrics, threads, machines, fabric paints, etc. without having any purpose in mind often helps me learn new techniques that later on get incorporated into projects. I find that letting loose and just playing also helps me recharge when I’m not feeling creative. A bonus is that sometimes the scraps I’m playing with turn out to be nice art pieces, other times they end up being samples that I can refer back to.

When I’m playing I ask myself “what if” questions like “what would happen if I tried to combine these two decorative stitches”. or “what if I did some quilting on some fabric and then painted it with fabric paints or with my inktense pencils.

you might want to check out the National quilter’s circle— specifically the techniques taught by Heather Thomas, even if you don’t like her very non-traditional approach to quilt making, you may find that there are some techniques you would enjoy trying that could be incorporated into your quiltmaking practice. Another thing you may want to try is doing some pattern free quiltmaking— Joe Cunningham teaches a good introduction on Craftsy (called Pattern Free Quiltmaking) with some tricks to help you set some boundaries or rules to help guide your exploration into pattern free quilt making. It’s a good class for folks who are used to using patterns but want to get their feet wet doing some improvisational quilting.

Rob

When I get Blah and unisnspired I go to pinterest and click around and enjoy what others have done. Or I start cleaning the sewing room, ironing and folding and sorting fabric and scraps. It seems a clean room says "let's make something" to me. If nothing pops to mind, I may just cut scraps into 2 1/2" squares, or 2" strips. If that doesn't kick it, I make something for someone else....like a baby quilt or a QOV quilt or a shelter quilt and think about others. And before you know it, the blahs have passed, and you are on your way again with soring creativity.

That hasn't happened to me yet, but I'm newer to quilting. I find that having many projects planned and organized helps keep a forward momentum going, because I am always eager to get to the next thing.

I have so many projects on my bucket list that I want to hurry through the one I'm on to get to the others!

When that happens to me I dig into my scrap pile and do crumb piecing.

Yes I think we all get those periods of time. I usually walk away from my sewing room and do something completely different--like housecleaning :). Doesn't take long before the 'itch' gets me back to my fabric.

At the moment, I just completed a QOV top for our local chapter, have a charity quilt that I promised to bind and a desperate need to get at a couple of bags for Christmas gifts. Plus I need to decide on my next big project--several patterns are in the running. Too many ideas and not enough time!

This is why I have a lot of different projects going on at one time. I am new to quilting, just started this spring, but I been involved in the fiber arts for years. Right now I have lace curtain fabric on one loom, yardage for a shirt on another, a partial tapestry woven on the big tapestry loom, a wool pick-up band on the floor inkle, a leash on the core braiding stand, another band on the high stand, 2 or 3 partial sewn items, plus a couple of quilts to finish. It sounds like a lot of half-done projects, but my interests seem to change with my mood so I always have something fun to play with.

Learning a new technique or working in a different medium is what gets me going. Right now quilting has been a pretty big focus for me, but I sat at the loom a threw a few pirns worth of yarn on the curtains this morning and it was wonderful:-) I love having the variety and the toys to play on.

I also love to challenge myself. Celtic Layers was a challenging quilt. https://www.quiltingboard.com/pictur...s-t280563.html

Jungle Abstractions was also a challenge. https://www.quiltingboard.com/pictur...n-t282067.html

Someday I want to make Bella Bella. https://www.quiltingboard.com/pictur...es-t96705.html