Lorchen wrote: I love words used so delightfully.

Giggle...... Debbie, that B.A. in English language has to be used occasionally.

I had a professor at university in the early 1970s who wrote underneath an essay of mine about 'The Role of Women in Victorian Literature': 'Please, keep your anarchic mind in check. Marking your essays is a nightmare, but never boring!'

Lorchen--I had never heard the word "anarchic" used in this manner so I had to look it up. What a great word! Thanks for the lesson.

Oh dear, Cath, I don't think I can afford to buy enough shoes so that I have the right amount of boxes for all those projects that wait for me to be in the right mood to finish them.

I'm a very anarchic and totally chaotic quilter. I do whatever I feel like, and if nothing that I have started already feels right I just start something new. In order to get anything finished I sometimes need to set myself a deadline. That occasionally works. My best way to sometimes focus is to tell friends what I'm working on. I then feel that I really need to get on with it and finish it before they have forgotten all about it.

Rita, you are so right. My married friends all trust me with their husbands.

Hi,

I thought I'd share my own journey and how I deal with this...

I like others have a couple of projects on the go at a time. I now keep them in shoe boxes.

My tricks, I use graph paper and colouring in pencils just to see the colours together...

The second I use, is to lay it out somewhere where I can just walk past and see what it needs... after "living with it" fora couple of days, I usually get back on track..

The third, don't be scared to unpick!! Sometimes, I just take something back off..

The fourth, post a picture hear for feedback/suggestions or ask non-quilty friends whether it is working or not (ask them to be honest.. they can provide invaluable input)..

If all else fails, it goes in a shoe box, until I can deal with it again!

Hope some of this helps... I started piecing panels with borders only... and just for cushions... then graduated to table runners... then lap quilts... and just recently my first bed quilt... sooooo keep going, keep going, keep going!!

Lorchen you are a hoot! Phyllis don't mind her she's not really predatory it's just with the owl in her hands! Glad to see you on the forum - keep in touch, it helps. And don't forget there is a mine of information about quilting in most of these quilters and they are only too happy to help. Happy Quilty New Year. Rita.

Yohoo Phyllis! Does the hunk in your picture quilt??

I would like to thank all you for the words of wisdom . I get overwhelmed and a little to hard on my self thank you

cettlb wrote:
Margie, I was re-reading your post and caught the idea that you're feeling "flustered", as you put it. As you've noticed, a lot of us have lots of projects going on at once, not all of them that we want to finish :shock: . When I was a new quilter, I sometimes felt overwhelmed about how much I had to learn or how much work this was going to be, or didn't like what the project was looking like. Guess what, I feel that way now at times too. It's part of the creative process, I think. You're in good company with the rest of us. Do you have a group of quilt friends that you can get together with in your life? That helps me immensely. We encourage each other and support each other- even though we have different styles and ways to do things.
Kathy

ritzy wrote: Definitely! and I am sure some of it rubs off onto you too

PosyP wrote:
LOL!!! Thanks for the heads up. I guess this quilter is not intelligent; do you think maybe my quilts are?

I don’t just have one quilt project at a time I have many, that way if I get tired of working on one for what ever the reason I just go and work on another one, then if/when I have problems or tired of working on that one I move onto another one....again and again and again, this way I find it helps me keep my interest up overall......hope I am making sense......and I know that most of us quilters have a number of projects going at any time. I have different size projects also, as suggested I may have a large quilt, carry bags, table runners, placemats, cot quilt etc etc etc......so if I am really having a hard time continuing I just move onto a small easy project and settle on that and work away merrily. At the moment I have about 12 different projects I am working on at all different stages.

Welcome to the world of quilting and I do hope you find the help you need on this site especially on the forum, we have all been a beginner, so don’t feel alone, not one of us are born a patchworking/quilting expert, so also don’t be to hard on yourself either.

Just thought you may get a bit of a laugh out of this, I had sewn most of my life, you know the kids outfits and dresses for yourself etc etc but over time and with what you can buy these days in the shops ready made had stopped many years ago, well when I retired about five years ago I looked around for a hobby and first thought no I would find something else other than sewing as a hobby, well I looked and looked and kept coming back to "sewing", but I did not want to make clothing at all, then I found patchworking/quilting, well one day I went to a patchwork shop and started one of those sew as you go mornings, the lady in charge was showing me how to make this table runner and I had to make 1/2 square triangles, well she gave me this long clear plastic thingy and just said "mark on the fabric" well I sat there holding this clear plastic thingy and did not know what to do with it, so I started to try and draw triangles with this thingy starting from the top corner and working across, as you can imagine it was not in the least accurate, well after a little while the other ladies noticed what I was doing and grabbed my hand and whispered no no no that’s not what you do, you use this template and then use the 1/4" ruler (is that what it was) to mark your 1/4" sewing line to sew on......oh dear......what a dill I was........anyway the lady in charge saw us all whispering and came over to see what was going on and did I get into trouble (she was not a nice lady at all and quite nasty I thought, obviously so did the others as they all whispering).........well that was my introduction to patchworking.........needless to say I never went back to a shop for over a year and ended up joining TQS and have learnt so much, as I have been watching the shows and reading about teachers on this site so I have since changed by attitude to teachers and can say I have not come across another one like this lady was, what I have learnt from this experience is that if you are interested in and have a love for something like quilting then don’t let anything or anyone take the joy out of it for you, just soldier on at your own pace and at a working level that you are happy with and knowing you will grow with it. Five years ago I would never have thought that I could have sewn last years TQS BOM let alone this years TQS BOM.....so I have come so farrrrrrr........well you will have to mark in your diary for five years ahead to come back to this page and read your words again and tell us the quilting difference in your life.

ritzy wrote: Some of the quilters are quite bright as well

You're not alone. What I find best about your question is that you feel the flow of creativity already, so you are trying to harness that. I agree with what the other commenters have suggested, and I also encourage you to try making some small quilt projects until you get the techniques down. Quilted bags, table runners, table toppers, place mats, wall hangings, local dog rescuers small quilts for the dogs, baby quilts for Linus, even pot holders and just plain small journal quilts that have the entire purpose of trying a new or improving an old technique. I find sometimes I just have to keep on keeping on working on a project until I finish it, and surprise myself with a fairly nice quilt--or surprise some dog or cat or doll with a fairly odd quilt. But if it gets too frustrating, I will lay it aside and work on something else for a while or even stop it altogether and do something else.