RRQuilts

My WIP pile has gotten out of hand. And for me, this is a problem. It is giving me an intense sense of overwhelm and has played a role in me not meeting some of my goals and finishing very few quilts this year.

I used to have a self imposed rule that I would have a maximum of one quilt in the piecing phase and one in the quilting phase. And I used to only buy fabric for my next upcoming project. But those numbers have gotten quite inflated over the past year. I now have several unfinished quilt tops, numerous small quilts or blocks in various states of completion, abandoned BOM projects, and have a acquired the fabric for a couple of garment projects but never actually started them. Anyways, the WIPs and clutter and lists have overwhelmed my sewing and storage space and my brain.

I have big dreams and big goals for my quilts, pattern writing, and blogging. And I can’t do any of it with such a messy backlog and a messy space.

So, I’ll be starting this blog series as a way of accountability to keep track and make some progress on these WIPs. If you’d like some accountability as well, comment below, or follow along on Instagram @rrquilts, or shoot me an email (rebecca@rrquilts.com) so we can help keep each other on track!

P.S. although my huge puke of WIPs is a problem for me and I want to essentially eliminate it, that doesn’t mean everyone is bothered by their WIP pile. If you’re not interested in reducing or eliminating your WIPs, then don’t! It’s ok to have different goals or to just not want to finish certain projects. We’re all different 😊

How I’m making my WIP list

For me, all projects for which I’ve acquired fabric can go on this list. You might have a different threshold for which things make the list and that’s ok. I’ll list the project and the current status below. I’m going to list my projects by Quilting, Garments, and Other. You may decide to have different categories or none at all. And that’s ok!

Quilting projects typically progress in the following order: fabric and pattern selection, cutting, piecing, basting, quilting, and binding.

While I’m new to garment sewing, Ill use the following status updates for now, since I think they’re mostly right: fabric and pattern selection, pattern printing and cutting, fabric cutting, sewing.

I also have some other crafty projects that I want to get out of my WIP pile. These are pretty random projects so they each get their own status update. I’ll do my best to make it make sense 😂.

For each new bog post, I’ll simply copy the list and update the status, highlighting the changes and progress that has been made. These lists are not in priority order, they’re just lists. I get to make progress in any order I choose 🤪

Quilts

• Solitaire Quilt – pieced, backing ordered

• Keystone Quilt – pieced, backing ordered

• Brass Ring Quilt – pieced, backing ordered

• Scrappy Campfire – pieced

• “Make us truly thankful” wall hanging – pieced, awaiting a replacement block

• Paper Triangles wall hanging – quilted, waiting to be faced

• Color Transparency mini block – pieced

• Front Door Quilt – wall hanging sample pieced, need to finish pattern and another sample

• 2021 HST BOM – partially pieced

• 2022 Roaring 20’s BOM – partially pieced

• Luna Moth EPP block- pieced

Garments

• Wrap top – fabric acquired, need to choose pattern (probably Hannah top/dress from By Hand London)

• T-shirt upcycle – fabric chosen, need to pick a free t-shirt pattern

• Assorted mending projects

Other

• spoon – I started carving a spoon a few years ago and never finished

• a crocheted project – i got halfway through a project years ago and the yarn has been taunting me since then. I want to use and enjoy something made out of the yarn rather than be haunted by it. I need to frog the project and pick a new one since i don’t remember what i was working on

• my blog backlog – I have a backlog of blogs that are in “draft” form with almost no work don on them. They either need to be written or need to get out of the queue.

• A secret writing project

• A website re-design – I have some changes in mind and I need to work out exactly how I hope to accomplish those and what my goals are.

My Goals

After working through this list, I plan to re-instate my WIP limits of 1 quilt in the cutting/piecing stage, 1 in the quilting/binding phase, 1 garment project, and 1 “other” project or handwork sewing. I hope this helps me from feeling distracted and overwhelmed and helps me finish things and enjoy my work more. I hope it helps me feel a bit more freedom to take up a small project or work in the mending and other household projects without getting overwhelmed.

This is a long list, but I’m hopeful I can focus and smash through it with some help from a longarmer!