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Tuesday, July 3, 2012

The evolution of unfinished projects

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I have a lot of projects in assorted states of progress. Projects that I've neglected for weeks, months and, in some cases, years.  My yellow and black pinwheel project is one of them. The quilt top got to this stage and then I fumbled with it for a very long time. I made about a dozen more pinwheels. Then I made a stack of pinwheels in assorted sizes, but I just didn't like how it all played together. The bigger it got, the less I liked it. I was feeling a little despondent about the whole thing.

It wasn't working, it was still tiny, and I realized that I had about a dozen unfinished quilts and blankets tormenting me. I made a plan this morning to start tackling my UFOs. The plan is quite involved. It involves paper, multi-color pens, stickers and Steven Bradbury. This is serious business. The plan requires a blog post of it's own. It's so big that it may need its own blog. In the meantime, I made it today's goal to do something with this quilt top.

Step one was to reconfigure it.

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How many of you thought that I was starting on that quilted dragon robe?  I imagine the layout for a kimono robe would be quite similar, but sadly no. I'm not making a quilted robe. Once again, Craig's needs have been cast aside. 


Instead, I decided to make myself a gigantic quilted tote bag. I'm often carrying around large items to meet up with crafty gals. It's not unusual for me to carry a half-finished quilt that needs handquilting, two unfinished crochet blankets and my entire collection of perle thread when I hit the road. I need something to carry it all in. So I've  forged ahead on a quilted tote. I'm just making up the pattern as I go along.

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Really, I just want a giant quilted tote bag to carry around to craft markets and quilt shows. I think it will get me street cred with the more earnest crafters. I want to be quilty cool.

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Today, I've finished the outer shell. I think it's going to need some template plastic for the base and some interfacing on the lining to help with the shape. I'm rather stoked. My unfinished quilt top is now an unfinished tote bag. That's what they call progress, people. Put another notch in the win column.

13 comments:

  1. Love the pinwheels. This is going to be a great bag! I have a LARGE quilted tote on my to do list. Love the WIP agenda. You go girl.

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  3. I think that's the perfect project for those blocks - looks just grand!

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  4. Turning this into a bag was such a great idea!! Now add this to your plan. You'll probably have to re-make it to squeeze this in toward the top. ;)

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  5. i am digging this tote so far. can't wait to see the finished one. :)

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  6. Oooh, liking the look of this, I think it's all the texty fabric...

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  7. That's one bagful of street cred! Love it.

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  8. I can appreciate this post. I have a semi-finished quilt top that I had the same problem with - the bigger it got, the less I liked it. But all that work on the piecing! All those lost hours! What to do? I started to make a very complicated zippered tote bag with it - but then didn't like it either! So back to the drawing board. I think you were wise to stick with a basic tote :) Great work!

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  9. Amy, you are all kinds of awesome. this is a brilliant idea. and, you already have tons of quilty street cred in my book :)

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  10. Oh, definitely progress. What a great idea. That bag would win anyone street cred!

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  11. Cute! I so love this as a bag :-) Stroke of genius!

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You are a rockstar! Thanks so much for your comments!