As promised in my review of Where Women Create Quilters, I’m giving away a copy of this wonderful book to a Craft Gossip reader. Published and compiled by Jo Packham, this book is not only inspirational, but comes with a link to 80 quilt patterns.
To be in the draw, leave a comment in today’s post telling me your best ever story of procrastination on a creative project. Contest ends Tuesday August 12th , 2014. Open to U.S. residents only.
Editor’s note 8/7/2014: I am enjoying your comments, keep them coming as I read each and every one. It’s a balm to my soul that I am not the only one with a stack of UFOs. Yet, I have to agree with several of you who have expressed the idea that procrastination is part of the creative process. Amen!
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Last Christmas I decided to make everybody rag quilts as gifts. I had all of them done, but one. I ended up waiting until Christmas Eve to start the last one…..and I was up all night making it! Needless to say, I was nappin’ on Christmas Day = )
I always procrastinate with crafts/decorations for my girls birthday parties, but somehow it all comes together in the end.
Every project lol! Well I started my very 1st quilt doing the BOM with Amy Gibson on Craftsy and I am still on Aug of 2012! I have finished several quilts just not the 1st one, so how does that even work lol! Would love this book! Thanks for the chance!
I procrastinate with everything ALL the time. I like to say I work best under pressure, but I’m starting to think that’s not true anymore
I have bought fabric and cute little dress patterns for my granddaughter, only to wait so long to get started that she’s already into another size!
I’m a world-class procrastinator, but the best has got to be a large needlepoint piece that I started for my parents, oh, 35 years or so ago. I even gave it to them, unfinished, for Christmas, and then took it back so that I could do the last bit, which shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours. It’s still in my stash of things to finish!
Looks like that book maybe right up my alley ! lol
I always start a quilt in January then come November I am finishing it right up to two days before Christmas ..
Thanks for the chance to win …
Any project with a hard fast deadline is a candidate for procrastination. The best one was a blouse for a college level sewing class. I stayed up all night to finish it. Needless to say my roommate was very unhappy with me and I never stayed up all night again to finish a project.
I have a quilt that I have been working on for 11 years. First I put it off because I got tired of working on it. Then because it is so big I didn’t have the room. Now I have put it off because I have other things that need finishing first. Did I mention that is for my brother? I keep saying that he will understand:)
Is there ever a project that doesn’t involve procrastination? Seems like I am most efficient and most creative under a time deadline. Would absolutely love this book as I am redoing my crafting/sewing room.
I will research a technique I’m using for a project and then organize it folders or a binder with little plastic sheets. Even if it is something I’ve done a zillion times like lining a bag. I might not go through the entire process but I stare at the computer or books for hours.
My son arrived 10 days past due date. Does that count?
Actually, it was probably the first dress I made. I was 12 and by the time it was finished, I’d outgrown it!
I have an enviable stash of coordinated fabrics and the various pattern sizes needed to sew some adorable outfits for my granddaughters. As time goes by, and I continue to procrastinate, they outgrow my pattern stash in size and in suitability for their age. Why, why, why can’t I get my projects past the thinking stage to actually creating something? I keep having hope for myself, yet continue to procrastinate.
This goes back to when I was in middle school. I put off making a creative brochure about some ancient desert city (that’s how long ago it was, I can’t even remember!) for my English/History combo class. I put it off until the last minute, like having a Monday off from school because it was Lincoln’s birthday or President’s Day. Anyway, when I received my grade back it was a perfect score AND my teacher said it was my best work! I was shocked! Still am, actually!
I love buying fabric for all the “simple” projects I could, thonking that they would be quick. My fabric stash continues to grow while the projects are still in thought process.
We moved last year to a smaller house and had to downsize the king bed for a queen. I had two quilts I had made for the king that didn’t look right on the queen so I had to “downsize” them too. I finally started working on it last week, maybe my bird quilt will be ready by next spring!
I love to make quilts. I tend to be very goal-oriented about getting the top done. I am confident with this part of the process. Then, I procrastinate like crazy about finding the right backing fabric and actually quilting the quilt. I have much less confidence with quilting the thing! Thanks for the giveaway. Jo Packham is a classy lady!
My biggest procrastination is on doing the finishing on my knitting projects! I have so many that just need the ends woven in and to be blocked and I just don’t do it.
Don’t have “Just One” Procratinating story…every project gets early start…and panic laden ending at last drop of neeeeding finished! lol lol giggle…is Normal for me…ask my Family & friends….but I always make the deadline! lol
Actually, some of my most creative moments come out of procrastination because I often find myself needing something to complete my project – after the stores have closed. I’m working feverishly right now on a 6×6 canvas for a community display that’s due. I’m using old patterns and glue along with sharpies and paint as I don’t have time now to do the embroidery I had first planned on …
Always procrastinate! Sewing while others drive have been my saving grace in the past to get last minute work done! LOL
Pick me, pick me! I love “Where Women Create.”
well, I just cleaned out our attic & found some unfinished projects started, uh, years??? ago. Does that sound like procrastination? 🙂
Oh my gosh! Way too many stories! My hubby would say it was hemming my wedding dress into the wee hours of the big day!
I have been procrastinating on make a quilt for my grandson who’s father passed 3 years ago. One reason, I am working on moving on with the idea my son is gone and second is not real sure how to go about making a quilt from his clothes. Hoping the book will give me some inspiration.
I had 2 counted cross stitch projects half finished for about 15 years. I did finished one of the project a couple of years ago. The other one is still in my craft cabinet.
I need to make myself work on it at least 15 or 30 minutes each day so I can finish the picture. I think about it every once in awhile.
I started in October a very pretty first baby Christmas stocking for my new niece, well she got it for her first birthday instead.
Did you mean the quilt I cut out three yrs. ago and still haven’t sewn a single stitch on?!!! Sigh . . . .
Procrastination is my middle name but only when I think subconsciously I really don’t want to do something or I don’t want that something to end. I’ve been working on “Sisters” scrapbooks for my mom’s family and know I can’t gift a book one at a time as I finish because then the pressure will be on. So I’m trying to finish them all first. the pressure IS on.
One Day I Thought I Would Learn how to Quilt.
So I went Out An Bought Everything That ,I Mean EVERYTHING I Would Need To Learn To Quilt. I Talked To The Ladies In The Sewing Dept. About Quilting An They Helped Me Along. An Still To This Day I Still Do Not No How to Quilt!!! Spent A Lot Of Money ! I Still Have All The Stuff. I Would Love To Learn Even Now.
LOL
the one i am on now, really don’t know how io am going to make lightening bolts on a quilt
I have material set out on my sewing table to make some of the cutest things from over a year now. The kids will probably be out of college before I get them finished and they aren’t even born yet. LOL
I have 8 quilt tops that need quilting and and terrified to start. I just keep getting them out looking at them and folding them away. Arg I need to just jump in.
I have two baby quilts for my nephews that I wanted to have done for their first Christmas. Needed less to say they will be three this Christmas and I still haven’t started. Maybe I can get on a roll and get them done this year. To many ideas not enough time…..
My oldest UFO is a bit older than I am! I have some quilt blocks embroidered in 1935 by my aunt and my father(Mama said there wasn’t much to do during the Depression). They were supposed to be a baby quilt for me. My mother never finished them; I inherited them, and haven’t finished them either. I’d better hurry, because my kids aren’t going to keep them.
I have a quilt that I made for my best friends birthday…three years ago in May. I told her I was making it for her that year in April. I got it to the point of quilting it, and just stopped. She asks me about it often, and I really need to finish it for her and stop procrastinating. Good thing she’s still my best friend.
The oldest procrastination (UFO) of the many I have is a Grandmothers Flower Garden that is my first and last English Paper Piecing project. I have been paper piecing those hexagons and hand sewing them into the flowers for over 18 years now! I am deter and to get it done before I die though!
Once I needed 50 scrap books covered. Thought I could do it in a weekend. Well I could but I had to sew 20 hrs a day.
lol well last yea I promised to paint something as a thank you for a friend and its alctually been a year and I have sadly not finished…in fact I scrapped the whole thing and started over when the canvas was knocked over and ended up with a whole in it that I could not cover, so that particular canvas turned into an exploding canvas but yes…some very large procrastination runs in my family sadly. More than I care for it to.
When I was in junior high (1967 or so), I started cross-stitching on some blocks — one of those pre-printed kits you could buy. I worked on them off and on, even losing the original embroidery floss skeins and having to go buy more that were close enough! I think it was 2005 or so when my mom took pity on me and sewed the 12 blocks together into a quilt. Now that she has passed on, I treasure the quilt and her work on it, as well as remembering all the times and places I worked on the cross-stitch (high school play practice, riding in the back of the car . . . ).
Years ago, I was on a 2 woman committee, to present a Challenge to our Quilt Guild, which was based on the Drunkards Path. Well, I set out to do a quilt called The Grapes of Wrath, buying yards & yards of grape fabric. My angst was based on my husband’s alcoholism! Well, that fizzled, when my husband sobered up … I just couldn’t make the quilt.
P.S. He’s been sober for over 19 yeas, now.
I postage stamp quilt that took me a summer to piece – and I’m still quilting after 18 years!
I’ve made quilts for all of my grandkids.
The first one got his quilt shortly after he was born.
The second grandson got his when he turned one.
The third grandchild had just turned two.
The fourth grandchild had just turned seven.
The last quilt is still is progress and the child just turned 10!
Yikes!
This book looks wonderful. Thanks for the chance to win it!
I have so many to choose from, but it was very sad selling the tinkerbell cross stitch kit at a garage sale that i never did the 6 years my daughter had a tinkerbell room.
My biggest procrastination was a blanket I was making for my daughters graduation. I ended up giving it to her for her 1st Christmas in college…
I am the worse procrastinator! I love making cards for everyone’s special occosations. I tell myself every time that I am not going to wait until the last minute…I even write them down on my calendar. Well good intentions person inside of me always get cast aside by the evil procastinator! I’m actually this way with all my projects…eek!
I am very much a procrastinator. I started a needle craft as a kid and I don’t think it got done until I was married for a few years. I had to have been 10 or 11 when I started it. At least it finally got done. I do better when I have a goal in mind.
I am what is known as a “pro-active Procrastinator” that is to say, I get GUNG-Ho going on a project and complete at least 1/2 of it- then set it aside to do something else for a moment (I will convince myself that I NEED to so something else actually) and then I forget about the first project- finding THEM when I clean my “craft (crap?) room… and wonder to myself “why didn’t I finish this”… usually I figure that I stopped because of a problem which I now cannot remember, and thus decide to put it back out of site, until I remember what the problem was! I keep finding the SAME unfinished projects and still do not recall why I stopped working on them… but I started them, so can I get SOME credit?
I procrastinate on everything. My longest though is a birth sample for my nephew when he was born. Still not finished and that nephew is in his early 30’s.
I have some things I procrastinated on for so long, that I don’t remember ever starting them or working on them. In other words, I don’t remember working on them at all, but I would know my stitching from the back from anyone else’s in counted cross stitch. I have no idea of starting them or working on them, but when I moved I found a few stitcheries that I don’t remember at all.