SO Many Ideas

Everywhere I look, I see inspiration.

That leads to a LOT of good ideas for future quilt projects.

The problem is - I have too many good ideas.

To help calm the chaos in my head

I spent the better part of one day

writing down each and every one of the projects

that are simmering in my mind, 

have fabrics pulled ready to begin,

are partially cut out,

are cut out and ready to sew,

have blocks completed ready to assemble,

have tops made with backs to be sewn,

or

have tops and backs ready for quilting.

EGADS!

No wonder my head has felt like it might explode.

Within minutes of completing that list, I axed five projects 

because there were so many others that I wanted to make more.

After that, here is what I did:

Step One - made sure each project had a unique name

Step Two - listed all those project names in an Excel spreadsheet

Step Three - identified each project's stage on the spreadsheet

Step Four - determined which year I want to finish each project

Step Five - reviewed once again how much 

I really want to make each project

(another four were eliminated at this point)

Step Six - moved all projects not targeted for 2019 finishes

to another spreadsheet in the same workbook.

Ahh - that's better.

Now I can see what I want to complete yet this year

knowing the other ideas are safe on the second sheet.

So how many are on the Finish in 2019 list?

Twenty-Five

Five have blocks made and are ready to turn into tops.

Nine are waiting to be quilted and finished.

The remaining eleven are partially started

and just need to be dealt with one at a time.

So here is my game plan

to deal with the Finish in 2019 list:

Stay current with my 100 Day Project (Optic Strings).

Move forward with Optic Geese - the redesign.

Share my presentation with a local guild

at the end of August.

(rescheduled from February when I was ill)

Teach at The Folk School September 8-14.

Focus on projects that are closest to completion

with a balance between quilting/finishing

and the piecing side of things.

And I especially want to be sure that some

 of the tops waiting to be quilted are finished

in time for the October 29-30 take-in days 

for this year's 23rd annual Davies Quilt Show.

I'll deal with the other 20-plus projects 

listed as Finish in 2020 and Beyond

after the winter holidays.

* * *

And I must beg for comment amnesty once again.

It has been a hectic few days and I am

about 100 comments behind in responding.

I really appreciate the thoughtful/insightful

and often funny things you've shared!!

Quiltdivajulie

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“If plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters – or 204 if you’re in Japan.”
Claire Cook

How I Keep Track of Things

Because every post needs a dose of color . . . 

I simply could NOT resist these two fabrics

when I stopped by my LQS yesterday.

The selvage shows JuneBee by Ink and Arrow Fabrics.

These are funky, quirky, retro, and decidedly eccentric

but also complete and totally cool.

Now to the point of this post.

Someone asked how I keep track of my quilts,

their names, dates, sizes, etc.

Initially I started out by keeping all of the papers, 

notes, pattern info, quilting receipts, etc.

in annually-named three ring binders.

I also had a plethora of additional binders

for a wide variety of information sources.

But then things changed dramatically.

Scanning and online storage became a truly viable method.

It took a while, but each of those annual journals

was taken apart and scanned into PDF format.

The pile of papers above was just a portion of what 

moved to digital format.

As time has passed

digital patterns, scans of paper patterns, 

scans of magazine articles, PDFs saved from the Internet,

and more have joined my digital storage system.

(sorted in folders on my hard drive

and backed up off site)

I also started using QuiltAlbum software

to systematically document my finished quilts.

I never made it back to the very beginning with QA,

but have kept it up faithfully from that starting point

a number of years ago.

Each quilt's documentation page is saved 

as an external PDF and stored

in the annual folder on my computer

as well as staying inside the QA software itself.

To prevent my head from exploding with ideas,

I purchased this rolling file organizer last year

so I can set up an old-fashioned paper file folder

for each project that I am working on 

and for those I'm contemplating.

As things evolve, I can easily update these files -

tossing notes and papers that no longer matter

and using new labels to cover the old ones

so the folders can be used again and again.

When each top is finished, quilted, bound,

and has been shared on the blog,

entered in QA and on the spreadsheet,

I sort through the mish-mash in that file

and scan only the most important items

for my digital annual journal.

So far, this system is working better than any of the fancy

pre-printed organizer sheets I've seen around blog-land

or the widely-available made-for-quilting journals.

And then there is my down-and-dirty Excel spreadsheet.

I can't tell you how many times I've pulled

this skinny little notebook out

to double check dates, sizes, etc.

The entries are cryptic compared to QA's documentation

but they serve as a quick reference guide

and this list does go back to the beginning

of my quilting adventures.

This list also features a column

where I make notes about a quilt's destination

when it is a gift or a donation.

(and yes, a copy of this spreadsheet 

is also kept with our estate planning papers)

Recently added to my documentation process

 are the new photo books

mentioned a few blog posts back.

Between these visual photo books, 

the essential-info spreadsheet,

the detailed QA entries, 

my digital annual journals

with process notes, etc.,

and the 30,000-plus photos

sorted into albums by quilt name,

I can figure out most any detail needed.

And, if not, I can certainly come close.

(. . . just please don't ask me if all of these are

concurrently up to date at any given moment . . . )

Quiltdivajulie

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"Flow is simply the result of shifting from left brain to right brain work."
Steve Hovland