My Quilt WIP Stocktake 2025 - Learn to Love Your WIPs Again!
January
It's January 2025 and I am back at work after a 3 week break. Happy New Year! I always find this time of year tricky, do you? I have my kids home for summer break. The lack of routine that we so lovingly embraced before Christmas now feels like a curse. I don't remember the last time I was alone, and if I could just get some time alone, I could probably think up a pretty good routine to see us out till the end of summer, happy and engaged, but instead, I will keep juggling work and family poorly, letting each day spill out into the next, and saying yes, again, when my 10 year old asks if she can play Hogwarts Legacy.
This summer, however, I have one saving grace. My husband, generous and thoughtful, and aware that his work doesn't allow him to share the summer parenting as easily as mine, is taking the 2 of the kids to his parent's house next week where they can have a beach holiday, and he can work from home up there. Hurray! It's not quite the same as taking all three kids away, but my middle girl wanted to stay home to work and save money, so I'll have a considerably quieter week than the noisy, bustling summer of the last several weeks.
So between trips to the local pool and policing screen time and catching up on email, I've been making lists, and piles of quilts, and more lists of things I really want to get done while they're away.
Tidy up
I have a plan for this year. One I'm pretty excited about. But I just can't quite make myself dive in until I get my quilt WIPs (works in progress) in order. It's starting to be a bit of a recurring theme for my Januarys. I push through the final pattern launch of the year, the kids break for the summer, and I leave everything unfinished and untidy, waiting for me until now to wade through before I can start anything fun and new. There are probably things I could do to make it easier on myself, and maybe I'll think about that next December, but for now, I'm motivated to try and tidy up the mess and close a few (ahem, many) projects left open at the end of last year.
My WIP Stocktake
That means it's time for a WIP Stocktake! This week I've been going through my quilt WIPs, taking note of where they're up to, what, if anything, has made them stuck, and what I need to do next. My goal is to journal here about each of them over the coming weeks. I'm hoping that documenting them and processing some of the roadblocks in writing will help me clear out my head and my WIP cupboard ready for a new year. And when I say 'clear out', I don't mean everything finished before I can move on. I just mean that things are in order and understood. I've learned over the years that I need to focus and push through a bunch of WIPs a couple of times a year so that I can make space in my brain for new things.
Here's my January '25 WIP Stocktake:
Writing them out like this makes me feel so motivated! I can't wait to cross them ALL off the list! I know this feeling will fade though. I'll finish a few, make some progress on others, and then start to get the itch for something new. And that's ok with me. The point of a WIP Stocktake for me is not to crack the whip or punish myself for starting things, but to make space for creativity and joy. At the moment, I know that these will come with a good tidy up and some progress on almost finished quilts.
My Stocktake tells me that I could easily finish a bunch of quilts by focusing on the final steps - trimming, choosing and making binding, attaching the binding. Usually my bottleneck is the basting part, but for the past year, my 14 year old has been looking for odd jobs for money, so I've been giving that to her. My quilt finishing came to a bit of a stand-still around Black Friday, when my machine died, and the repair guy is still on his Christmas break, so I've borrowed my mum's machine and I plan to give finishing some of these my attention.
Often, when I think of giving my WIPs some attention, I think of pulling out a collection of blocks and making fabric choices for another batch. I think I would have automatically turned to that if I hadn't gotten out all of my quilts and made a list first. My stocktake helps me see where I can put in my effort, finish up some quilts, and clear the headspace they're taking up. I'm looking forward to that feeling of an almost clean slate, knowing that a bunch of quilts I enjoyed stitching are now completed.
(Also, I painted my living room green over the holidays. Do you like it?)
Love your WIPs again!
How are your quilt WIPs treating you? Do they sneer or whine? Are they smothered under several layers of Christmas mess? Is it time to bring them out into the light and make some decisions you've been putting off until the right time? Or maybe you need to set aside an afternoon, take over the dining table, and finally finish that quilt that's been waiting for space and concentration.
Let me email you my WIP Tracking Toolkit, complete with 5 different ways to sort your WIPs, give them attention, get a birds-eye view of your projects, and set up easy future progress. Enter your email below and I'll send it to you! It will help you love your WIPs again.
I enjoy reading your blog Jodi and it did make me think of all my WIP’s. Each year as a family we make a list of Hopes and Predictions for the following year and each Christmas we review to see how we went. It is a bit of fun and not to be taken too seriously. My hope for this year was to finish 4 WIP’s. I didn’t want to put myself under too much pressure so felt 4 was achievable, also because I’m really good at starting new projects🙃 My other thing for this year is to be kinder to myself. Good luck with your WIP list and be kind to yourself xx
Love the idea of bringing out all of my WIPs
I love your green room, so pretty! You need to hang a quilt on the wall, it would look so nice. I used to be able to juggle working on several quilts at once. Now I just keep going when I start a quilt until it’s in the flimsy stage. Then I try to take it to the long arm quilter right away. Happy stitching and enjoy your quiet time over the next several weeks.
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