I have been sewing for years and years but only started to quilt last year when I retired. After a career in tech, I wanted to do something creative. Since I have loads of sewing paraphernalia, a good machine and no need for a wardrobe, I decided to take up quilting. My inclination seems to be toward art quilting. That's the explanation of why I quilt.

I have 2 projects going on now and I don't like it. I am a one project at a time girl and I finish them all. That's just me and not something I recommend. But since one project is at the stage of embellishment by hand, I can live with 2 projects. I can take the hand work project with me or do it when I don't want to be at the machine.

What do I do with my "unsuccessful" projects? I take them apart or I unstitch and redo until I am reasonably happy with the results. I am always trying new techniques and new challenges but I do a lot of practice before I commit to a "real" project. I am still searching for "my thing."

I am nuts, I give myself stress, and I have a list of projects I want to try to do that will takes years. Now I am fretting that I started this all too late in life and will not accomplish 10% of what I want to do. My only salvation is that I am learning to look at a designer's work and say to myself, "that's lovely, she/he is brilliant and creative, but it is not for me."

eileenkny wrote:
LOL. Probably both. New Years weekend I was bemoaning the fact that my sewing room was so cramped. I realized it was because it was filled and stuffed with odds and ends from projects like shop samples, gifts, class models, etc. I am too frugal to throw away fabric so i started chopping up fabric and finishing UFOs. The rest just sort of came to me as I muddled through the sewing process. I thought of all the great quilt artists that I admire and looked at how they move their ideas to the finished product. I still don't know how they do all they do, but I do try work now with a little more focus.

I also learn from you all as I log on each day. Thanks.

I always tackle projects that are harder than my ability. And if I can't get past some difficulty (after many tries) I procrastinate and it takes years to get it done. I'm in that same QU class with Darla and Carla and I'm working on a portrait quilt that has been on my heart for over 5 years. I tried several methods that didn't work for me but this one has gotten me the farthest. But still even tho I have a legitimate hangup - not being able to sit, I am dragging my feet cause I'm stuck on not being able to get what I have in my head onto the quilt. But I usually finish my projects even if it takes decades (unless I don't like them anymore). But so far I seem to pick projects I'm in love with a long standing love. I try to do piecing projects which are easy for me in between to juice up my courage.

I also find I have way more knowledge from my insatiable love of quilting than practical skills. I'm always surprised at my workmanship when it isn't what I have in my head. I think because I read it and retained it, I can do it somehow.

Wow, kmouse. You've really got it going! If I'm not imposing-what led you to your present frame of mind? It seems so thought out. Was there an epiphany or a gradual movement?
I really need this information.
eileenkny

I think my frustration with quilting has been similar to yours. I have finished and unfinished projects. But I wasn't realy thrilled about what I was sewing. In recent years I have been limiting gift items, guilds, etc. I am now only an occasional garment sewer. I even limit computer time...no blogging, chatting and limit forum topics to specifics. Even TQS is once a day.

I have limited tv time in my sewing room. I started this bad habit and have regretted it. I don't even want to add up the wasted time, wasted focus and materials screwed up because I was half focused on the boob tube.

My motto this year is, "Just Don't Get Lazy". I try to take time for exploring ideas and to go just one step further than before. Mostly, this has involved more machine quilting than previously tried. I don't have to start from scratch but I don't just want to copy someone else's stuff. I love Sue Garman's BOM series but decided to only use parts of the pattern for quilting motifs on my UFO tops yet to be quilted. I now have a goal to stretch myself in one way or another with every project. I want to say, "This quilt taught me about free hand straight-line quilting" or "about working with large scale prints", etc. Even projects that tell me, "this type of quilt is just not satisfying for me" is a step in the right direction.

As much as possible, I am trying to stay focused on one project at a time. Even great quilt artists like CBF, Ricky & Alex, or Jane Sassaman have to slug through all the ups & downs of creativity to cross the finish line. And that is just takes plain old work.

I hope this doesn't sound like a lecture..it's not meant that way. I just have come to find out that I can't do everything all the time, but I am now, thankfully, enjoying what I do.

Yeah 2008!

Thankyou Carla, I thought there was more than two of us in that class. My thread is in, and hope to start with the thread painting part before the class ends this week. I am saving Marylins e-mail incase I have trouble. I'm a little scared to do anything that will ruin it. Let me know when you work on you Beatle. I'd love to see the results.

Cheryl

I have been quilting over 20 years now, I'm a traditional quilter. I've learnt alot over the years but have yet alot more to learn, "its a never ending process". I sew and play by my own set guide of rules enjoying the process while learning,"to me its like what ever works best for you" while learning new things. Kathy

Cheryl.... ur fabric portrait of ur grandmother is turning out wonderfully. I got sidetracked with my mother and work and haven't progressed much on mine. Once I get mom settled in to a routine again I hope to move ahead.

Carla

For me, I try what ever catches my eye. I started with pieced quilts, but started getting bored, so moved onto applique, now its curved pieceing. But to try all of these i usually use the easiest method I can find. Like Eleanor Burnes applique, and Sharon Schamber's pieceleque. I was using Sharons method to make fan blocks, and mitred corners.. My most recent new project is a fabric portrait from http://www.quiltuniversity.com .That is a great site to try something new.

As for fabric I also started with1/4 to 1/2 yards of fabric, but then ran into the typical problem of needing more and it not being available. Soo I now round up to the nearest 1/2 or1 yd. mark if it is for a specific project. If it is simply something I like, I usually get a little more depending on my budget. My shopping spree's aren't very often so my budget is pretty good.
Cheryl

I know what you mean about buying yardage instead of just fat quarters... I use to buy fat quarters cause that is what I though you did when you made a quilt .... I though allll quilts were scrappy... It was not til I went to my first quilt show that I saw the coordinated type quilts.... Talk about being dumb. I still like scrappy quilts but have gotten a lot more sufficticated in my fabric choices and quilt selection.

I now buy 3 to 7 yards of great focus fabrics... I can always find other fabics to blend with the colors even if it is years afterward... I also by tons of blenders or tone on tone in different colors... I have tubs of those and always find ways of using them.

I have 6 quilts in progress but they are getting nearer to being done. YIKES how will I afford 6 quilts at the quilters? They are tooooooo big to quilt myself as they are all queen or king size.

I have been a quilter for 13 years. The first class I took was a very difficult hand applique project which I never finished.....but I learned to do great hand applique from a wonderful teacher. Even now, I still love hand applique. The next things I made were several baby quilts and lap quilts which were paper pieced, new york beauty, spinning star, etc...... The first full size quilt I made was Dear Jane 1998-2000. I loved that project and just the experience of piecing all those different blocks. The quilt is not my favorite style, but it was just a great journey and I came away with some lifetime friends. And in the end, it truly is a treasure.

In the back of my mind, I always admired people who could draw their own things or design their own quilts....that's what I wanted to do, but never thought that I could. I think I always lived by too many rules to try it. I didn't like to see myself that way, but it was the truth. So in the past couple of years, I've decided to change. I still love lots of patterns and traditional quilts, but I see myself doing different things starting with the Rhapsody quilt I made in 2007. I am having so much fun and can't wait to see what I find to make next. It's a whole new world for me with endless choices.

As far as the kinds of things I buy...for many years, I thought that I should just buy fat quarters and always have the most choices I could have.......now I don't do that so much. I've started to see that I'd rather have more yardage of what I love even if it means fewer pieces. So that's what I'm doing now.

The part I love most about quilting is that it is a changing process for each individual that evolves into something different all the time.

Dana in Olive Branch, MS

I have a habit of starting something new and picking out the hardest thing I can and then becoming frustrated because I don't have the skills. Since I am learning not just to quilt but to sew I picked a couple of patterns labelled easy and am taking 2 "learn to quilt classes" One on Quilt University.com and one at a LQS (it is using Alex's learn to quilt book and begins next weekend). I am giving myself permission to give or throw them away. Then I have my next 50 quilts picked out and they look HARD (and FUN!).

Lisa

I find myself doing very simple quilts because I have a longarm business and I'm usually busy quilting other peoples' quilts. I have enough bed quilts for now so I'm concentrating on wallhangings. I love to change with the seasons.
eileenkny

I pretty much sew what I like, regardless of my ability at the moment. For example, I started a Baltimore Album Quilt as nearly my first quilting project! Talk about being in over my head! I have 18 blocks completed and the other seven designed. I figure by the time I'm ready to quilt it (years from now), MAYBE Alex's quilting lessons will have sunk in.

Other than that huge project (which will be a gift for my son's wedding, although he's only 17 at the moment), I tend to jump into whatever tickles my fancy. I'm drawn to artistic, colorful quilts (Rhapsody, Convergence, Art Quilts) as well as fairly traditional (Drunkard's Path), and I have many projects in the works so I don't get bored.

Will I ever finish them all? Probably not, but I'm having fun trying!

'thann