A new year is just around the corner.
The beginning of a calendar year is always the time we quilters start thinking of fresh starts, new projects, and seeking out challenges. I know that’s true for me. Though I dropped off the making of a personal new year’s resolutions a long time ago, I still keep to making a resolution in my quilting life. I find myself taking a deep breath by the time December rolls around and begin taking stock of what I’ve accomplished, or haven’t accomplished, in my quilting life. More often than not I have WIPs (works in progress), BoMs (Blocks of the Month), UFO’s (unfinished objects) and the occasional ‘WTF was I thinking when I started that project?’ lingering about (acronym definition I assume is not required). Doing a quilting inventory can be really confronting. I ask myself every single year “how have I accumulated so many unfinished projects?”
I’ve come to the realisation that not every project I’ve started will come to a satisfactory conclusion. There are lots of reasons – the purpose for the project has longed passed its deadline and frankly to finish and give it now would be embarrassing…; the project really took my fancy when I started it at the time but that time has passed and now I’ve completely lost interest; and finally frankly some projects have been a WIP for so long that my tastes have changed and now I have no desire to work on and complete a project that when finished is no longer ‘me’. And then there’s always the outrageously ambitious projects I’ve started that I presently have neither the talent nor skill to see to completion. *heavy sigh* So what do I do with these orphans for yet another year?
The romantic in me likes to believe that even my unfinished projects will become something of value when I’m no longer on this Earth. Maybe my granddaughter will find some blocks I’ve made that ended up as a UFO and she will complete the project, all the time thinking of me. Perhaps that’s the value of a textile craft. Quilting is creating ‘art’ with the basics of skills. Skills that most adults and many women in particular have; the ability to sew together pieces of cloth using either a needle and thread or a sewing machine. Knowing this I live in the hope that maybe one of my UFO’s will take hers or another person’s fancy and they will complete a quilt leaving a legacy for myself in the process.
So, now that I’ve taken inventory I’ve accepted there are projects I will finish and some I won’t. I think I’ll just keep those orphans stashed safely away. They may have a life ahead of them one day.
Looking forward to 2017 I wish all my quilting compatriots of the Perth Modern Quilt Guild a safe and happy holiday season. May your stockings be filled with fabric, the dreidel fall in your direction, and your lights shine bright on Diwali.
Peace and Happiness….