WIP Box Overwhelm

One of my first blog posts for this year was The WIP Box Reflections. I shared how the challenge I set myself to empty my works-in-progress box taught me to use the box well, rather than feel guilty or overwhelmed that I needed one. I could freely put projects aside to wait for the next burst of inspiration. I could keep the lid on that box open and available for when I needed a gift or custom order, rather than hide it away to think about later. However, this year I've caught myself often feeling overwhelmed with the amount of quilts I have on the go. And it's made me wonder if my system needs tweaking?

I'm coming to realise that there are two kinds of WIPs: The ones that have been shelved because of lost love or motivation, and the ones that still inspire. The ones that have a clear deadline, and the ones that can be put off till the right time or mood strikes. Last year, my WIP box was full of projects for which I had lost motivation and had no clear deadline. The perfect projects from which to free myself of guilt and let them sit there waiting patiently. This year I seem to keep taking on quilts that I want to be finished NOW. I'm inspired by all seven of them! I want them completed by a blog hop date, or while the fabric line is still current to help inspire other makers or support the designer. When I have several of these quilts on the go, the pace seems frustratingly slow for all of them. They come off and back on my design wall regularly. And I use all my sewing time questioning whether I'm using my time well, and which quilt I feel like working on most, and whether that's even the best way to decide!

Part of my challenge is setting realistic goals. This involves thinking through the details. And I am not a details person. Sometimes, when the week goes well, the babies sleep, and I have an easy chain-piecing quilt to make, I can finish a quilt in a week. But as my designs have become more complex, as I play more with individual blocks and write tutorials, or hand stitch, I haven't readjusted my expectations for how long a quilt takes. Before I took on my Red Sky at Night project this year, I did not take a single second to think about how I was going to write 49 tutorials. That requires day-time sewing for good photos and research for history. At the moment, I'm spending a day a week on that quilt, and only just keeping ahead. Lesson learned!

I am very open to learning lessons. And because I don't always think through things first, mistakes and experience are my constant teachers. I'm learning to embrace that rather than tell myself, "I should have known!"
So last night I wrote out the quilts I was working on currently, and s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d out my plan till the end of the year. One quilt a month. And like every good addict should, I agreed with Tim to check with him before I take on another deadline quilt, for a blog hop or custom order. I find it tempting to just set a no-new-quilts rule. But a creative person still needs a little wiggle room right? A little space to follow whims or exciting opportunities. I'm just hoping the whim strikes in October, rather than next week!

If there's one thing I think I'd love, it's a week, or maybe even a month locked away in my sewing room, so I can dive in to all those projects floating around my head all at once. But assuming that won't be an option for another twenty years or so, I think I'm going to enjoy my sewing time, and my rest-of-life time with this new WIP box strategy. And maybe, maybe next year I'll become a bit more of a one-at-a-time kind of maker? I guess time will tell what this second half of the year teaches me.

And I'd love to hear, how do you combat project-overwhelm?

Linking up with WIP Wednesday