Friday, November 25, 2011

Friday Felicities #16

Today, what's making me happy is....knowing when to give up.

I have a WIP/UFO that has been haunting me. In 2007, I took a class with Judy Niemeyer. Her foundation paper-pieced quilts are absolutely incredible, and I wanted to learn how to make one. My guild hosted a weekend workshop and I signed up.

We had a choice of three patterns and this is the one I chose (the "easiest"!):


There was a boatload of precutting so that we could spend our time in the workshop learning Judy's piecing technique - one I use to this day, so that's good.

Here's what I accomplished in a full 2-day workshop.


Yeah. One complete block (top left), three outside units and two inside units. (Whilst rummaging through the box that houses this project, I also found an additional 4 outside units in progress, with 4 pieces left to add on each one, which makes me feel a little less terrible about my productivity.) Aaaaaaand that's it! Now in my feeble defense, within 6 or so weeks of the class, I did give birth to my little girl. But I truly have not touched this project since.

And do you know what? I'm not going to! Well, to be specific, I'm not going to finish making this whole quilt. I will commit to finishing the four blocks shown above as a housewarming wallhanging/table topper for my lovely Dad. But the rest? I'm letting go. 

The colours aren't really "me" anymore. I went with what was in my stash, hence the switch between the dark background/light flowers and no batiks, and I won't LOVE the finished product.

Thank goodness I was too lazy to cut all of the pieces for all of the blocks, so I can salvage the fabric scraps for future projects, or to give to someone whose palette they suit better than mine. In any case, I don't feel one bit bad about letting this project go - I learned valuable skills in the workshop, had fun with my guild buddies, and spent an entire weekend quilting. I'd say that's a success, wouldn't you?

Have a great weekend! I hope to have some finishes to share this coming week so stay tuned.

11 comments:

  1. I totally think you've come to a good decision. Finish the part you started & call it done. It's a good thing!

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  2. I agree! So nice that you can finish what you started and otherwise lose the baggage!

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  3. Letting go! It's very therapeutic, a bit like a Spring clean! Finish it and move one to things you REALLY love!!

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  4. It will make a fabulous wall hanging

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  5. All projects are not destined to be finished. I have a bag in progress that I think I'm going to ditch completely. It's well over a year old and I don't like it anymore.

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  6. Whew! Good for you. I'm sure it will be a relief to mark that one off your list!

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  7. It will get it off your UFO list. You could also do a Pay it forward giveaway. Where you put all of it you don't want in a box, ( pieces you do have done, any fabric already cut, and the pattern of course) and have a drawing of all of those interested in it, and then send it on to someone else to finish.

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  8. Success indeed! You learned and had fun....win/win!

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  9. Let it go. You will feel so cleansed! And besides, it will make a lovely wall hanging. I would call that success indeed!
    Who says we need to conquer an entire quilt before claiming that we learnt something successfully... not me! lol...

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  10. Sometimes you need to change the plan and adapt to be able to move past a project that is not making it.

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  11. Total success. Just let 'er go. That's a good girl.

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