WIPS – works in progress

These have been stored in my laundry room cabinet – most of them since at least last January. And, if it wasn’t bad enough to just stick them there and ignore them.. I added a few more to it!

Two nights ago I brought them in and stacked them on my dining room table. There are 35 items which includes one UFO, some kits, orphan blocks and two bins of recycled thrift store shirts.

This year, I’m going to include them in my sewing room declutter project. I need to take each one out of the bag and reevaluate it – keep, re-stash the fabric, or fling it (give it away).

I’m hoping to make decisions on 5 items a day and be done in a week.

Having a WIPS page on the blog menu will help me keep track of what I still want to finish without having to open all the bags again.

Fling – The kit is called Frolic by The Vintage Spool. It was an impulse quilt show purchase many years ago and I have absolutely no interest now in making it. I’ll donate it to the guild in hopes that can sell it for a few dollars at their boutique/second hand items table. (I need to sit down and double check it tomorrow to make sure all the parts are there.)

Keep – Scraps I set them aside a few months ago to use in Donna Jordan’s Scrap Strips Diamond Trip patten.

Keep – A little kit I put together last year with scraps and a sketched idea to make hot air balloons with a rainbow border. I’m not sure if I have enough sky scraps so, I may have to mix in some blue solids. We’ll see when I get to this one.

Keep – Another little kit from scraps. The pattern is Big Modern Braid. (I’m binding another quilt from the same book this week. 🙂 )

Keep – These are orphan blocks from two different quilts and some chopped up blue batik strips. This is probably going to be more than one quilt if I have enough of the blue strip pieces. (Hoping there is enough to make a stained glass quilt with more scraps.)

I’m storing all the WIPs under my long arm. Even though I’ve said many, many times I hate keeping things there in my way… I sort of have the feeling that “in my way” is exactly where these need to be!

Ellen (from Stashbusters group) suggested I reward myself with a task well done to keep the motivation going. (I was concerned that if I stopped sorting and started sewing that I might not get back to the decision making task.)

I think she was right. I’m going to try doing the task in the morning and sewing a little in the evening. I’m anxious to start with the batik orphans blocks. That’s the good thing about taking them all out of the bag to look at them. You can tell right away if you’re anxious to go sew it or, feel a sense of dread just looking at it.

My only rule in finishing any of these squatters is that I have to use fabric I own to complete them. If absolutely nothing I own will work, the project gets evicted and I’ll move on to one of the many other quilts I can make with fabric I already own.