Lorchen wrote:
Lorchen, it is so funny that you said that today! I spent the morning getting my neutrals BOM on the frame so I can get it quilted! This is one I made while helping Sue to test the patterns for this year's BOM!

So happy to read all these ways to approach quilting. I am a fairly new quilter and felt guilty about putting off certain tasks. Now I can quilt with happiness and joy knowing that I am just like all my sister quilters. Thanks for that.

Margo, you'll have Alex visiting after showing that picture...... all those lovely neutrals in the middle on the left....

Mine are in labeled clear plastic boxes on top of my stash cabinet. When I run out of boxes, I make myself finish one before I start another project!

All the answers are useful and should help with the little bit of guilt I feel when a put one aside to work on something different. My question follows the idea of putting some projects away for future work. What thoughts are there out there for storage? I have different size projects, quite a bit of space to put things away "for the moment" and wonder what everyone likes for still being able to see the project easily, but keeping it clean and all together.

I have several projects going, but not because I'm bored with the current one. I can only do design work when my mind is fresh. When I am "brain dead" I go straight for the hand quilting or hand applique--everything's already planned--and it's done by muscle memory, I think! Machine work sort of falls in between.

Renee

I get bored really easily making block after block. I have been making a pieced butterfly quilt with 20 blocks. I do about 2 a day. Then off to something else. Yet I can sit all day and hand applique. I am currently working on one of Suzanne Marshall's patterns, Midsummer's Dream. Then I bought a couple of hand applique patterns, Baltimore Halloween and Baltimore Bunnies that will take me through to the end of my life. Maybe I will be able to finish all of those UFO's that are stacked up in my quilting room, in between hand applique. I am like some of you who have to have the latest fabric and the latest pattern and want to make more and more instead of finishing what I have. Oh, well. It is what I would rather do than anything especially here in the HOT summer of AZ. Judy in AZ

Okay wellllll......as well as having about 20 UFO's, I have just finished watching disc one of series five TQS with Paula Nadelstern....aaaahhhhh now I want to make a Kaleidoscope quilt........

I really envy all of you that perservere to the end with one quilt--I just get distracted by all the new stuff out there and want to make all of it! I've been quilting for 27 yrs. and have alot of UFOs--I'm past the guilt and just having fun! My favorite part of quilting is making the blocks, so I am tending to make quilts that incorporate many different blocks (like the 2009 BOM). I also like very scrappy quilts. I think these two things keep me on track a little better.

TQS member [url]community/my-profile/littleflower[/url] has a good blog entry today:

http://terificreations.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/sometimes-youre-just-done/

i HAVE 20 UFOs IN Project boxes... I just sorted my sewing area and counted them. The are now all organized with everything needed to finish that particular project.

I sorted them into hand work, machine work... almost done... I have 8 quilts with blocks done... middles finished .... just needing borders or putting the blocks together... for some reason I am great at doing blocks but I get bog down when I try and assemble a quilt. I now am leaving my weekend free available to finishing those half done projects.

I am now grabbing a different project trying to pick the ones almost done first.... but then if I am traveling or waiting for appointments I grab the hand work project box to take with me. I am finding right now I am very productive because I have re fallen in love with projects I had forgotten about or put aside for some reason.

Just keep plugging away.

As for the idea of not finishing a project.... I can not afford that philosophy... FINISHED IS BETTER THAN PERFECT... I DO NOT HAVE "DOGS" AS I only buy beautiful fabric... If a technique has stumped me ... that spurs me into I MUST MASTER THAT MODE...

HAVE A HAPPY QUILTING DAY AND KEEP PLUGGING AWAY AT IT.

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You guys are awesome. I loved your posts and had a few good chuckles. I feel better knowing I'm not breaking a quilting rule by only working on 1 or working on 3. Thank you for liberating me!

PS - I think sampler blocks will definitely be the way I'll have to go.

Maybe you should try a sampler quilt--every block different.

Well, it feels a little like coming out of the closet, but I have to admit (and I do so happily) that I have too many started projects to count. There must be one for every mood I may be in. I love them all, they all get attention now and then, and they all will get finished. I would go mad if I'd have to stick to one project only. But other quilters feel like having a nervous breakdown if they feel like giving in and start project number two. We are all different. It's ok, as long as we enjoy what we are doing.

You may find that you can stick with one project for longer if it has several different blocks. Or if assembling the blocks gets a little monotonous, some funky music might help.