Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Tip Tuesday! When Things Don't Go As Planned

"Tip Tuesday!" - When Things Don't Go As Planned

I love learning new things and then sharing that knowledge with my quilting friends. So, every Tuesday I'll provide some tips, hints, tricks, tutorials, shortcuts, etc. that I've learned over the years and share them here on the blog. 

"Tip Tuesday" will be a collection of information about a wide variety of subjects garnered from a large variety of sources.  I am not an expert by any means and do not take credit for being the great wizard behind all of these hints and tips. I will gladly give due credit whenever possible.

These tips will be archived and accessible to you just by clicking on the "Tip Tuesday" tab above. 

Read, enjoy, and be inspired! 

I'm sure it's happened to all of you. 
You get excited about a project, buy fabric, cut it up and start sewing. 

It doesn't take long before you get that feeling that it just isn't what you expected. You keep going, thinking it'll get better, but it doesn't. 

You just don't like how it's turning out. 

What do you do?

Sometimes those projects are bundled up, put in a box and shoved under a table or on a shelf. I just need to get them out of my sight. My hope is that when the project resurfaces, I will have changed my thoughts on it or perhaps figured out a way to make adjustments so I'll like it again.

I guess deep down I really hope that the fabrics will magically rearrange themselves, and maybe even change colors or print so they look great together and create a wonderful quilt. (A girl can dream, right?)

Well, when I finally come to the realization that is just a dream and I have to make some decisions, I kind of go into panic mode. I know how much time I've already spent on the project and I also know how much money I've spent on the fabrics, patterns, thread, etc. Do I really want to waste all of that? 

I just can't bring myself to throw the project away (yep, I know someone who's done that on more than one occasion) so I am more inclined to either deconstruct what's already been done or give the project to someone who likes it or can do something with it. (I've been the recipient of such giveaways and although they are often quite a challenge with which to work, it is still a very satisfying experience.) 

Yesterday, I read a blog post from Connie over at Freemotion by the River and it seems like she's having the same problem. Click HERE to see how she deals with the's situation.

What do you do when you don't LOVE the project on which you are working? 

1. Do you work your way through the pain and complete the project as planned? 
2. Do you finish the project and quickly donate it because you want it out of your sight? 
3. Do you make design changes and then go ahead it finish it? 
4. Do you pack it away and forget about it?

If you choose to continue working on the project, do you enjoy the process, even though you are working on something that you don't love?

I'd love to hear your thoughts because I have a few projects that fall into this category and I really do want to finish them this year.

4 comments:

Vroomans' Quilts said...

Interesting post. I haven't had too many projects that fell away from me. When they do I either deconstruct or donate - never just tuck it away (or throw it away-heavens). I felt bad for Connie (and there were a lot of others with the same thought/experience with that one). I'm a scrap quilter, but sometimes overly scrappy is just crappy.

Needled Mom said...

I think we have all been there. I will usually finish them and then donate or use them as "car" quilts for picnics, beach, etc.

Bonnie said...

As someone with over 50 UFOS I guess my modus operandi is to put it away. Looking over my UFOs the largest majority of them are block swaps I've participated in. I love making blocks and shipping them off to someone else. But, when I'm getting other ones back --- not such a good idea. I also found that some of the blocks I've made and put away for years I still love my fabric choices. Amazing. So I'm committing to making up some of those block collections. And, yep, most will be donated because there is a need and I don't have enough space to store all of them as finishes.

Quiltsmiles said...

Interesting topic. As mentioned your tips I've done it every which way but only thrown a UFO away when nothing was salvageable.