WIP Round Up
I’m experiencing my first-ever slow down in my quilting process and production. Ever since I started quilting in 2022, I’ve felt so singularly focused on what’s next, chomping at the bit to sit and sew on whatever is pulling my mind. A few things have been going on for us lately, including finding a homeschool co-op that feels like a good fit for us, and we are getting out and about a lot more in the beautiful Frederick spring weather, and I’ve been spending time creating this website and writing and preparing blog posts and newsletters (all good things!). But I’ve been feeling a wee bit disconnected from my spark.
Every Wednesday on The Quilty Nook, Zak Foster invites us to share a Work in Progress (we call it “WIP it Wednesday”). I set an intention at the beginning of this year to share a post every Wednesday, but last week we were coming back from a trip and I didn’t have the time or energy to share. This week was starting to feel the same way, and I thought to myself: what do I want to work on? What do I want to share? And I didn’t have an answer. So I thought about how I’m an external processor and sharing helps me figure things out, and I decided it might help me to do a “round up” of my top 10 WIPs that I might *like* to work on, and use it as a (judgement-free!) way to explore what I might like to prioritize next.
So without further ado, here are the top 10 WIPs I imagine I might like to pick up (roughly in order of what might be pulling me the most, with 1 being the highest priority), the next step for each, and any thoughts about why I might be stalling on each one.
10 Surprise Quilt
Started: April 2025
Story: I pieced what I thought would be the backing for my SPLAT quilt, and it ended up going in a different direction that didn’t seem like a fit for the SPLAT backing.
Next step(s): Figure out backing and quilting plan
Roadblocks: Since this quilt top emerged as a surprise, I have no idea what to do with it! The quilt top I chopped up and re-sewed has some very thin fabrics that make it not a good candiate for a charity quilt, I don’t think it’s a quilt for the wall…it’s just an experiment!
9 Big Block Studies
Started: October 2023
Story: The blocks are outputs from my time in the Block Studies Collective with Tara Faughnan, and I have this idea of taking the Serpentine block (center) and making a BIG block studies of several of the other blocks in a similar palette, possibly to make a baby quilt.
Next step(s): Design and piecing
Roadblocks: Just need to start! Writing this is making me think that pulling solid colors from my collection to go with that center block might be a starting point…
8 Quota
Started: April 2024
Story: Quota quilt pattern by Andrea Deal, made the quilt top as part of the Quota Quilt Along with Gotham Quilts
Next step(s): Basting and quilting
Roadblocks: I conceived of a desert-themed palette and at the time I was hoping hard our family would be able to visit Phoenix and Tucson for QuiltCon in 2025 - we weren’t able to make it, and now despite a very fun quilting plan and thread colors, I feel stuck with how to proceed - it’s like I don’t know what the quilt is “for” anymore, whether I want to keep it or perhaps turn it into a charity quilt.
7 Brown Square Dance
Started: February 2025
Story: This is intended to be my twin-sized quilt for my local guild’s community service drive this year
Next step(s): Design
Roadblocks: I started out with this idea of simple plus blocks, and I loved my test block, but as soon as I made a second block all of a sudden I didn’t like the idea anymore! It just doesn’t look like what I had in my mind, and now I’m stymied trying to figure out what I’d like to do instead.
6 Aperiodic
Started: December 2023
Story: Aperiodic quilt pattern by Janice of Prairie and Ocean, light and dark shades of purple Essex Linen
Next step(s): Quilting
Roadblocks: I made progress quilting this on vacation last year, and ever since coming back I haven’t been able to get back into it!! I feel like part of it is I’ve decided it’s a surprise for a friend and I’m feeling uncertain about whether she’ll like it. The layers are also a little heavy feeling and quilting with the hoop is fun, but takes more effort in some ways as I move it along each row. I love the freehand Baptist Fan motif I’m doing, but it also sometimes feels like I have to concentrate more because I’m not just following markings.
5 DTQ
Started: July 2024
Story: My Destroy this Quilt 1.0, a year-long process led by Zak Foster on The Quilty Nook in 2024 (I joined mid-year), my piece ended up being about the elements: earth, water, wind, fire as well as my word of the year, which was MOVE. Let’s just say this quilt has a lot of ideas in it!!
Next step(s): Quilting
Roadblocks: The quilting I’ve chosen to do is extremely detailed, and is taking a long time. I made amazing progress by focusing on one 14” circle at a time (using a new-to-me hoop I bought at a guild sale), but I would say the big reason I haven’t been picking it up recently is it feels heavy. Not just physically heavy (which it is) but there is a heaviness of all the thought I put into the top, and all the thought I’m putting into each little section of quilting that is feeling hard to make progress with right now.
4 BLOEM
Started: Idea stage - not yet started
Story: Make a quilt with Libs Elliott’s BLOEM pattern using ice-dyed fabrics
Next step(s): Fabric pull
Roadblocks: Indecision!! I’m not sure what colors I want where, likely need to add some solids to the mix, and also haven’t decided which layout or size of the pattern I want to do.
3 Snow Bear
Started: August 2024
Story: My first exploration with using garments as quilting fabric, cut up one of my old button-down shirts to explore the Snowball quilt technique Maura Ambrose shared in a workshop on the Quilty Nook - stalled and then recently got inspired to combine the snowball blocks with bear paw claws (hence the name Snow Bear)
Next step(s): Layout
Roadblocks: Feeling really uncertain about layout! I put it on my design wall, moved it around and around, and couldn’t settle on something before a different WIP needed the space on the wall. Perhaps just put it back up and play some more?
2 Vignettes
Started: January 2025
Story: Joined Heidi Parkes’s Vignettes quilt along in February, made a quilt top using prompts and video tutorials from Heidi, each vignette is a different story about the coast/where the land meets the sea
Next step(s): Finish applique-ing these four circles that I forgot to include, cut batting out, baste
Roadblocks: I have this “should” feeling - I “should” finish quilting my DTQ before starting quilting this one! Otherwise, I’m feeling ready to quilt this, I have fun thread to play with and I’m curious to try quilting with a large piece of hand-woven silk as part of the backing for the first time.
1 SPLAT
Started: March 2025
Story: My DTQ Reboot, made with prompts by Zak Foster on The Quilty Nook
Next step(s): Quilting
Roadblocks: None! I’m currently hand quilting this one :)
So there you have it! The process of writing and sharing about this was definitely helpful to me. I hope you enjoyed reading, and that it helped you in some way too!