Stopping

I'm not good at it. People always look at something like a quilt I've made and think it took MONTHS to make, when really it took about six or seven hours. Sometimes all in a row. I have this mindset that if I don't finish it right now, I'm going to forget what I need to do and screw it all up. Of course, I have done this, many times.

So, I want to teach myself how to stop, put things away, and come back to a project at another time. I am going to learn how to NOT screw things all up. How to put things where I will be able to find them next time

Here's how a project usually goes for me. I get SUPER excited to start, so I do. But most projects have steps and stages and sometimes one can't start right after another is finished. Paint has to dry. I don't always have everything I need to finish. I don't always have unlimited time to work on something. So I usually do one of two things: I leave everything out, exactly where I left it, until I have time to work again (sometimes DAYS later), or I put it all away and get intimidated because I'm worried I'll forget what I was doing and screw it all up so MONTHS go by and I don't work on it again. I'm going to break this cycle. I'm determined.

Here is today's unfinished project:

More hourglasses. I LOVE them. I adore this fabric line, and when I went back to get some backing fabric for Tena's quilt, I found more fabrics in the line and got them all. I couldn't help it. I might even have enough for a third quilt. I'm insane. Either way, this is only six completed hourglasses. LOTS to go.


Here are some half-finished, and not even close to finished blocks:

Here are some strips that still need to be cut:

I'm TOTALLY that girl, the one who can't wait till the fabric is even all cut to see how the blocks are going to look! The look fantastic, and then I can't wait to see a couple more, and so I cut for a little while and sew for a little while and cut for a little while and sew for a little while. The bouncing back and forth seems to work for me, so I'm just going to go with it. But I don't want to leave all this stuff all over my house. I just don't want to. Some of it is on the couch, some on the table, some on the ironing board, which is set up in an awkward place. My habit would just be to leave it until I was finished with the sewing, the cutting the pressing. Instead I'm going to try and get it all cut tonight and put it all together in a little plastic bin about the size of a shoe box. Sew when I have time, press when I have time, put it in the box when I don't have any more time. You think I can do it?