Finish 2, Start 1 - Enjoy Starting New Quilts without Drowning in WIPS

I used to think that this penchant for starting new things before I'd finished others was some form of laziness. I was too flighty, not serious enough, chaotic and undisciplined. Now that I've been making quilts for 15 years, I know myself better. I know that sometimes I need to take a break from a quilt before I start to hate it. I know that different seasons - the hibernation of winter, the busy, interrupted, lack of routine in summer, seasons of travel or change or grief or peace, all require different forms of creative engagement. Some need easy, mindless, same thing over again, and some create natural space for lots of thinking and planning - colour layout or fabric placement. So often for me, the seasons change suddenly and the quilt I am working on no longer fits. 

And so, I now happily keep a fairly large collection of Quilt WIPS (Works in progress). I embrace new ideas as a lovely gift, knowing that the quilt will one day get finished, even if not in one straight line, and even if it doesn't, that the playing with something new, discovering it didn't work (either as a design, or for my making preferences), was a worthwhile experience. 

In general, most quilts I start take around a year to finish, with lots of breaks in between. I've noticed that the hankering to start new quilts occurs monthly, often connected to my cycle, and sometimes when my brain is full of possibilities and ideas, it's easy for my to start three quilts in one week! If your quilt making process is also interrupted, if you too can't stick to a single quilt from start to finish, you're not flighty or lacking in commitment or unable to finish things, you're just completely, beautifully normal.

Sometimes, however, those fun little bursts of inspiration steadily build up to an overwhelming number of quilts in progress. I call this stage WIP Overwhelm. When I'm at WIP overwhelm, I get new ideas but I can't dive in, I feel overburdened by the projects floating around my head. Sometimes it comes when I hit a certain number - around 20-25. Sometimes, it's when my life is in chaos - a sudden change of routine with school holidays, or an interruption to the natural flow of life caused by something breaking down. For the last couple of months, I've experienced the trifecta - kids on summer break, my sewing machine in for repairs, and Peak WIP. I've spent most of the summer hand-quilting away my overwhelm under the air-conditioner, full of new ideas I wanted to start, but completely unable to.

A few years ago, I came up with a little rule to help me stave off WIP Overwhelm for longer - Finish 2, Start 1. I could absolutely start new quilts when I was inspired to, with just one little caveat - I need to make sure I'd finished 2 quilts since the last new start. I don't know about your WIP collection, but in mine, it's actually pretty easy to finish 2 quilts in a short space of time. I naturally make progress between my various quilts until they all hit the same bottleneck - basting the finished quilt top so that I can quilt and bind it. 

So when I was itching to start a new quilt, I used that motivation to knuckle down and do the job I always avoid. I'd choose my closest two quilts to the finish line, and I'd get them across. Usually that meant pressing a couple of quilt tops, basting them, and quilting them on my machine. It's a big job, but the motivation to start the new, exciting project gave me a natural tailwind.

When I first decided on the rule, I steadily got my WIPs down to about 5! Those 5 were all in the early stages of the first few, experimental blocks, and so I abandoned the rule and let my WIPs build up again. But I'm wondering if it's time to adopt the rule again? 

So this week, I took my 2 quilts that were closest to being finished, quilts that I had already basted and even quilted, and I took the time to clear my dining table, trim the quilts, then clear my sewing table, make the binding, and attach it. Listing it out like that makes me feel much less silly for having two quilts just sitting there so close to finishing. In the chaos and messiness of life (especially life with the kids home from school), finishing requires a whole lot more than just sitting down with something in the middle of easy progress. It requires making space, making decisions, continuing on with the next step when you've finished the last. It's tricky and stilted and lacks flow. And so I was glad for the little glimmer of a new idea I want to try that spurred me on to finish, to make space for something new. 

These quilts are Cinnamon and Macadamia, two quilts from Hexie Handbook, that I made as a fun little project to give my stash a good tidy up. It feels so good to have them finished!

After finishing these two quilts, I started a new Trip around the World Quilt. I love making these quilts with EPP! You start in the centre, and slowly work your way out until it's the size you like. If you were to machine sew it, you'd need to plan the entire layout before sewing it in rows, but here, I get to choose the colours, one or two at a time. Then I sit and stitch the round. I find the whole thing just the right mix of engaging and mindless. And I am just LOVING that new quilt feeling!

I find Finish 2, Start 1 to be a lovely, gentle rule that keeps my WIPs from hitting overwhelm, but isn't too strict. I could definitely find it easy to impose rules on my self like "I'm not going to start any new quilts this year", or "I can't start anything new until all these 6 quilt tops are finished", but soon I start to find them too restricting or punishing. And my goal here is not to punish myself for starting new quilts. It's to allow me to follow my muse in a way that still maintains a little order. Because you can't have joyful creativity without both possibility and discipline. And for a hobby, I want the discipline to be as light and easy as possible. 

Read more about creative practice and loving your Quilt WIPs in these recent blog posts!