Prioritorizing Your Projects

Let’s pretend for just a few minutes.  Let’s pretend someone you’ve always wanted to meet is coming to your house for dinner.  You have a week to plan.  How do you know what to do first?  If you’re like me, you begin to make a list of things you have to do and then you begin to number those things in order of importance or how long a task may take.  Sanity is found by following that list and when the day finally comes and that person arrives for dinner, you know everything is spic-and-span and the meal is delicious.

Now let’s transfer that same line of thinking over to your quilt studio.  While the end result may not be dinner with your favorite, famous person, the outcome is still sanity:  You know what projects have a high priority listing and which ones can wait.  Knowing which projects are the most important (if to no one but you) and which ones aren’t, allows you to know what to focus on when you are in your studio.  I have a four-point priority system in my studio and one hard, fast, self-imposed rule:  There can only be one quilt per priority level.

• Critical/Urgent – These are the “fire alarm quilts,” and generally the quilt which falls into this category either has a “hard” deadline or is so close to completion I can taste it.  However, a quilt can also occupy this priority level if I need to learn or brush up on a skill set, I need to make some design decisions, or it employs a particular time-consuming technique (or one I don’t particularly enjoy – I’d rather get that out of the way first).
• High Priority – These are important quilts, but generally they don’t have a “hard” deadline (unless it’s a quilt show/gift quilt a year or two in the future).  The finish line may be in sight, but there’s still several steps to complete. 
• Medium Priority – These are the quilts I work on as “escapism.”  After several sessions with a critical/urgent quilt or a high priority quilt, I turn to these for a change of pace – especially if they require “mindless” sewing, such as strip units, half-square triangles, etc. 
• Low Priority – These are the quilts in project boxes.  They are quilt kits or quilts I may have cut out and are ready to start the next time a priority option opens up.  If I get tired of the other three priority options, I will open the low priority box just to give myself a little emotional “boost” about the goodies which are in my quilting future.  Often that’s enough to spur me to completion. 

Each of these priority level quilts can be broken down into steps, and if a couple of these quilts need the same action, I may work on both at the same time.  For instance, if I have two quilts I need to stabilize blocks on before doing machine applique, I generally will opt to cut out all my stabilizer and press it onto the wrong side of all the blocks instead of breaking it down into two separate actions for two different quilts.  This actually saves time in the long run. 

Once I have four projects prioritized, I try to remove any other “someday” projects from my line of vision.  This includes kits, designated fabric for a project, patterns, etc.  This is an important step for me.  For as focused as I can be about most things in my life, sometimes it’s easy for me to get sidetracked, especially if I run into a snag on the quilt under my needle. It’s easy to turn away from my problem and instead focus on something “shiny and new” and in the future. 

I also tend to have designated sewing times.  This was not so easy to do when I had kids living at home full time.  At that point, I tended to keep some portable hand sewing in the car to work on while I waited for Meg to get through with dance lessons or Matt to finish up music.  But now, with the kids grown and gone, and my non-working time my own, I can usually count on a couple of hours in my studio each night.  I always work on my Critical project on Monday’s.  I’m rested from the weekend and my mind is fresh, so I have the most mental energy for those projects.  The other three quilts get phased in and out Tuesday through Thursday.  On Fridays and weekends, depending on what’s going on in the Fields household, I may have some additional time to throw at my Critical project.  However, I love to find a good movie or TV series to binge on and work on my hand applique over the weekend.    

This is what works for me.  It may also work for you, or you may find you need an entirely different system – which is totally fine with me.  The most important thing is to know yourself as a quilter.  Know how many projects you feel comfortable working on at one time.  Know when you can spend time working on those projects and which ones are the most important.  Each step taken is progress, and all progress leads to finished projects – which is so important.  There’s something about taking the last few stitches in the binding that’s deliriously joyful.  You picked a project, worked on it, completed it, and now you can enjoy it and start something new. 

It’s equally important for you to realize if you’re not a multiple project quilter, and that’s also completely fine.  If you feel you’re at your best handling one quilt project at a time, that’s great.  Know what works best for you and everyone needs to remember there are no quilt police and very, very few hard, fast quilting rules. 

Some final thoughts about prioritizing projects.  I have also found it’s important to be semi-organized with your projects and sewing space.  Now let me assure you, most of the time my studio has the “There seems to have been a struggle” appearance.” My studio will not make the Top 10 List of Most Organized Quilting Spaces – ever.  My projects are out.  There are items on my ironing board.  However, I’ve always been a huge fan of project boxes.  Every project has it’s box and it that box are all necessary notions, specialty threads, fusible web, and the pattern – everything I need to make that quilt except for general quilting tools such as seam rippers, marking tools, pins, etc.  My general quilting tools are in caddies by my sewing machine.  This way, I don’t have to go digging through drawers and boxes to get to any special notions.  They’re in the project box. 

It’s important to think seasonal, too – primarily if you quilt by checkbook.  If you have Christmas or Halloween quilts you want to display, have a conversation with your long arm artist.  Ask him or her what their deadlines are for holidays – especially if you want custom quilting.  You may find you need to get a Christmas quilt to them four to six months in advance depending on the size of the quilt and the level of customization.  The same goes if you’re making quilts “hard” deadlines such as anniversaries, birthdays, weddings, or quilt shows.  This information may move such a quilt to the Critical or High Priority category. 

Don’t be afraid to give all of your projects a critical once-over.  Just because a project appealed to you a year ago (or longer), that doesn’t mean it may still hold your attention.  If you find it doesn’t, there are a few things you can do.  The easiest step to take is to give the project away.  Find it a new home.  If you belong to a guild, put it on the free table.  Find a Goodwill, Salvation Army, or some other similar organization which will take it.  There is no shame in this game and your discarded project may be just the very thing another quilter needs.  You can also divvy it out for the fabric.  Suddenly the pattern may not appeal to you, but you still like the fabric.  Give the pattern away and keep the material.  Finally, if the project still appeals to you, but you really don’t want to justify all the time involved, see if there is a way to make the project smaller.  If it’s an applique quilt, only make the blocks you like.  If it’s a pieced quilt, make fewer blocks.  The point is, make the project work for you, not you for the project.

Last, if possible, separate your stash from your projects.  I would love to be able to do this, but I can’t.  I would love to have a room for my stash separate from my quilt studio.   I am of the “quilting generation” which was encouraged to have a stash (it’s my understanding a lot of our new quilters don’t keep a stash – at least one as large as we were encouraged to have).  Most of that stash is out in the open on shelves.  I would really like to be able to get that out of my line of vision, as it turns on the “clutter” signal in my brain.  It may be helpful, if you can, to keep your stash out of the line of vision if possible.  This will help keep you attention on your projects, not the possible quilts you see in your stash. 

I hope the last two blogs have help you learn how to prioritize your projects as well as identify which kind of quilter you are – a multi-project one or a one-at-a-time quilter.  Learning how to manage your quilts, your time, and your personality is important for both quilting progress as well as your quilting sanity!

Until Next Week,

Love and Stitches,

Sherri and Felix