Taking Stock

It's time to take stock of where it's all at (or not) as the case may be.

By nature, I'm a finisher.  I like things to progress in their natural order towards a conclusion.  But of course, I'm also a quilter/sewist and I have far more ideas than time to finish - hence the WIP and UFO list of 11 items.  It might not sound like the biggest list in the world to some of you, but now that I find myself without any regular or lengthy time to tackle those items, it feels honestly rather HUGE to me.  

Ultimately, I'd love to reduce this list to three projects at any one time - one machine WIP, one hand stitching WIP and one crochet WIP.  This would leave choice of project when I spy an opening for some stitching amid the chaos of life, and also allow for small projects to be undertaken along the way without having loads of mid-progress projects cluttering up space (which they do).

Of course, that wish is the stuff of unicorns (I know... some of you believe).  Still, maybe I can do something to make headway reducing this list and freeing up headspace and storage space for the unfinished projects.

 Let's see what needs to happen -

Quilt Now BOM - I haven't taken any pics of this Quilt for quite some time, but there have been occasional efforts to progress the hand quilting. I've made it as far as the motifs in the outer border now and while it's slow, it is going to be worth it (eventually). 

Cosy Christmas Quilt - This one stalled somewhere after appliquéing the gingerbread man I believe. It's all in a box somewhere and I will get back to it.  However, Little Miss CT is still a wee bit wee to appreciate it, so there's no big rush.

Sarah Fielke's Happy Days BOM - There hasn't been any progress since this last shot of the completed quilt top.  In the absence of any free motion quilting skills of my own, I think that this might get some hand quilting attention when the time is right.

Dear Jane Quilt - there are 21 blocks stitched now (not all pictured here).  Still a VERY long way to go.

French Knitting Yarn Crochet Rug - I love crocheting with the yarn results from the French Knitting dolly.  It's chunky and squidgy but boy is it slow!  Though I have spied a gizmo being advertised which might speed up the yarn production aspect.  I need to investigate - could be a swizz.

Twister Quilt - Just binding and labelling required to complete this quilt now.

 B&C Around The World Quilt - Also ready for binding and labelling.

30's Repro Bed Quilt - Quilted and ready to be bound and labelled.

B&C Scrap Vortex Quilt - I have a small stack of scrappy shapes now from this leaders and enders project. Not one for a speedy finish yet though.

Crocheted Hexagon Throw - This project has been sitting on my UFO list because I really haven't touched it for an extremely long time.  It's too lovely to leave unfinished, so I need to think about how to bring it back into progress.  Maybe one for the autumn.

EPP Hexie Diamond Quilt - Another untouched project languishing on the UFO list.  I think I left it aside when I felt a bit 'meh' about the diamond shapes and didn't really know if I wanted to keep going with this plan.  I need to give it some more thought.  Though I have a lot of hexies already prepared that it would be a shame not to use.


So, while there are still a number of longterm projects to tackle, it seems the obvious place to start in reducing my WIPs is to finish the three quilts that just need bound and labelled.  After that I have plenty of options, don't I?  I'm not expecting to suddenly discover hours of stitching time each week (more's the pity) but I just don't want to NOT finish the projects I still love.  Progress is progress, even if it is just a little here and there.  Keep an eye out for my efforts to keep things moving!