Remember WIP Camp? (If not, you can still sign up for all the goods here).
At the start of the year, with that "new year, new me" energy running through our veins, we made some plans to organize our stash, clear out the projects we didn't love, and smash that WIP List. And with the momentum of every January gym-goer, we pressed into the darkness of January (or the sweltering heat if you're a southern hemisphere dweller) to GET. IT. DONE.
If you're anything like me, that momentum waned somewhere around June, and you were left with something that looks like this:
It's me. Hi. I'm the problem...
I call this the binding chair, but in reality, it's where all my projects go to stall indefinitely. And until mid-summer, it was absolutely covered in projects. But I needed a quilt for our guest bed and pulled one off the pile to bind. It's definitely given me some momentum, so I'm here to issue a challenge to you. But not an unpleasant one - this week I'm hosting a party, and you're invited!
How is it a party you ask? I've teamed up with the TGIFF gang for a linky party. Joining is easy:
Complete a project, no matter how big or small. Could be a pouch, a wall hanging, or a quilt, it just needs to be DONE.
Share the link to your project with the InLinkz party below.
But what kind of host would I be if I didn't offer something to get the party started? My recent finish:
This rainbow version of my FREE Phosphene pattern uses some of my favorite stash fabrics to get a perfect funky rainbow: Deco Glo and my standby Spectrastatic from Giucy Giuce. It's hard to believe that it sat on that "binding chair" for more than 6 months before I got it together and added the binding. Turns out that finally being able to machine bind a quilt makes a fast finish of a queen size!
Glue basting my binding has really made all the difference in getting a well-aligned, even stitch line on my machine bound quilts. I gave up on machine binding years ago because I could never get the quality of finish I wanted, and I always ended up needing to spend more time with the seam ripper than I ever would have if I'd just stuck with my tried-and-true hand binding method. And while I do enjoy the slower pace of sitting down on the couch and hand binding my quilts, being able to add glue basting to my arsenal has also made it a lot easier for me to get over "the hump" that happens in the summer when I don't want a warm quilt all over me in the sweltering heat (even if we do now have air conditioning).
I love the look of that nice, even stitch line!
If you're struggling with your own version of the binding chair, is there something you can do to make it more approachable so you can get those WIPs done?
Some things to try:
Have a pile of quilt tops taking over? Can you send them out for long arm quilting? If not, consider if simple straight line quilting or organic curves that don't need measuring or pre-marking.
Boxes of already-cut projects stacked in the closet? Try chain piecing or bulk sewing to get things moving on those ongoing projects.
More hand sewing than hands? Pack projects to work on while waiting at the doctor's office or in the pick up line.
Anything you can do to squeeze in those finishes is going to make you feel nice and accomplished at the end of the day.
A cute helper goes a long way too.
All that's left is the doing! Get those finishes all tied up and add your link to the party below. Don't have a finish this week? That's okay too - take a look at the links and join me in sharing some oohs and ahhs! Being a cheerleader for others might just give you the motivation you need to tackle another WIP (which you might be able to drop into next week's party, or show off when I host again later this year)!