5 Ways to Jumpstart Finishing Your WIPs [works in progress]
I pulled this quilt out of the dryer yesterday, and started thinking about WIPs--those projects that go from super exciting to Works-In-Progress-no-womans-land.
This quilt lives on my son's bed (or floor, lets be realistic). We started it together as part of a Not Your Mama's Quilting Bee (a group of friends with kids 6-10 at the time thought it would be fun to sew with our kids, and have them participate in a bee). We made good progress, and then the quilt sat for about 2 years.
Works in Progress--most creatives have 1 (or 30) works in progress. Projects that you were excited to start, and that for whatever reason (no firm deadline, didn't love the fabric pull, got bored making repetitve blocks, lost a chunk of sewing time you were used to, got distracted by a new project or one that *did* have a deadline) ended up in a project pile/bin.p.s. You can find Fresh Lemons Quilts greek cross block tutorial here:
Here are 5 tips I use to tackle works in progress.
1. Write them all down Did you know we have a WIP tracker? You can download it (for free) at the link below. Go through, inventory, and write them all down! We have also included a sheet of graph paper, and a sheet of on-point graph paper.
2. Give away, throw out, or set aside the ones that don't bring you joyIt sounds cliche, but sometimes, works in progress aren't worth finishing. You can do a Marie Kondo on them, thank them for the joy they gave you, and get rid of them. I have given blocks to friends, given projects away on Instgram, and given them to guild-mates to finish for charity projects. On the rare occasion, I have just thrown them away. Works in progress can cause some people stress--and even if they don't, if you know you aren't going to ever finish them, getting rid of them can free up mental space for new projects.
3. Choose your favorite project, and start thereWIP are like anything else--if you rediscover a project and find that you love it, you will be much more likely to finish it. And if you finish one project, you will be more likely to *want* to finish another!
4. Team up with someone to finish the part in the process you dislike mostI don't like basting quilts. It isn't so much the process as the idea. Mop the floor, make the quilt back, spend the time. I've found that getting together for a basting party with friends, or sending my quilts to be long armed, clears up the backlog of WIPs for me.If you hate piecing quilt backs, look into 108'' wide fabric. Sometimes you can find it on killer sales, and there are so many great prints out there now. If you don't like binding, see if you can trade services. I have traded babysitting for binding before, for example. I'm lucky now, my mom loves binding, and she has bound a bunch of quilts for me!! Or learn to machine bind!
5. Join a finish a longSometimes, being able to post photos with a hashtag (I like #finishit2019, started by Megan @canoeridgecreations), or signing up for a more formal finish a long is just the motivation that you need to finish a project.Happy finishing!And, if you are looking to start something... the Mt. Olympus Quilt is a great one ;)
Buy the Mt. Olympus Quilt Pattern--includes instructions for baby and throw size quilts
