I’ve been procrastinating for a week on blogging about this block, because, frankly, it’s a pretty boring block. There’s just not that much to say about it. It’s got a lot of triangles in it, but I have already covered how you have to be careful sewing the bias edges of triangles. The fabric chosen was not terribly interesting. The construction techniques used did not stand out in any way.

My original plan was to make this part of a series of four blocks featuring triangles, so I wouldn’t have to talk specifically about this particular non-noteworthy block … but these blocks are taking me so long to construct during the busy holiday season that I really had no choice but to blog about each individually.

So, I’ve decided to co-opt this blog post to talk about how I’ve started another quilting project. I don’t know what came over me … I’ve already got five quilting projects in progress, so what compelled me to start a sixth?

When I first started quilting, eighteen-ish years ago, I was really good about not having too many projects going. I’d make sure to have one in the piecing stage (sewing all the fabric pieces together), and one in the quilting stage (doing the decorative stitching on the top). Maybe I’d start percolating some ideas about the next project I’d do. Perhaps I’d go so far as to choose a pattern and start amassing the required fabric for it, but I wouldn’t actually start the next project until the one I was quilting was done, and the one I was piecing was ready to be quilted. Such discipline I had!

So, how did my quilting go off the rails? I’ve been trying to analyze the situation, and here’s what I’ve come up with:

• I started an appliqué pillow in 2004, only to discover that I hate doing appliqué. That project was (and is) going nowhere.
• In 2006, I chose a bed-sized quilt (my first of this magnitude) for my next piecing project, which turned out to take a lot longer than I thought.
• We got air conditioning at our house in 2004, which meant quilting was not relegated to the winter months. As a result, I started quilting faster than I was piecing.
• I started a wholecloth quilt (one where the whole quilt is one big piece of fabric, so no piecing is required) in 2008. This way, I was able to leap-frog something into the quilting stage while I finished piecing the never-ending bed-sized quilt started in 2006 (ha ha, that makes it sound like I’ve actually finished piecing the bed-sized quilt).
• At that point, I was still following my plan of two quilts in progress, as long as you don’t count the appliqué pillow (which I don’t, because it’s been 13 years and we all know I’m never going to finish it). I muddled along just fine for several years, not making a whole bunch of progress, but not breaking my two quilts at a time rule in any serious way.
• Then in early 2016 I was gifted with this Dear Paulette project. Since it was donated to me on the condition that I would actually make it, I felt like I needed to start it right away and show some visible progress. Several months into it, I realized that at the pace I was going, it was going to take me until 2024 to piece all the blocks. That doesn’t even count sewing all the blocks to each other or doing the quilting at the end. And that’s only if I keep up this pace, which doesn’t leave a lot of time for other quilting.
• So naturally I started a fifth project, because I was feeling down about how I hadn’t completed anything in close to a decade. Who knows why I thought having a fifth project in progress was going to alleviate that problem.

Which brings us to the present day, where I spent most of last weekend planning my sixth project. This one actually has a deadline, which I try never to do (for obvious reasons … I’m a super slow quilter). However, this one is for my daughter, who will be going off to college in a few years whether I like it or not. My goal is to have it done for her to take with her.

So, I was starting a sixth project for a noble cause, but it still leaves me feeling even more overwhelmed by my quilting projects than I was a few months ago. I need to figure out how to back-burner some projects so that I don’t feel so overwhelmed, but not so many of them that I feel underwhelmed about quilting. I want to be just the right amount of “whelmed”.

This means I’ve got to be the project manager of my own hobby. I must be ruthless and make the tough decisions in order to get back on track. First, I’m going to shelve the appliqué pillow. Okay, that decision wasn’t hard at all, since it’s been effectively shelved for years.

Second, I’m going to table my fifth project for now – a king-sized quilt kit that I got at an estate sale. I started it for all the wrong reasons, and I don’t even have a specific recipient in mind for it yet. Definitely not urgent.

After that, the decisions are not so easy. My tentative plan is to put that bed-sized quilt project from 2006 on hold by mid-December. Why not right now? I’ve just got a few borders left to put on, and then it’ll be done with the piecing stage. That way, I’ll have something in the hopper to quilt next. During Christmas break, my daughter and I are going to decide on the final layout of the pieces for her quilt, so I’ll be ready to start sewing that together in the new year.

Where does that leave me? One quilt in the quilting stage (the wholecloth quilt), and one quilt at a time in the piecing stage (first wrapping up the piecing on that blue bed-sized quilt from 2006, then starting on my daughter’s rainbow quilt project). Plus the bonus never-ending Dear Paulette quilt, where I’ll continue making slow but steady progress. Not too bad. I’m feeling more whelmed already.

Here’s a sneak peek at the prototype of that sixth project I started for my daughter last weekend:

With any luck, I’ll stay medium-whelmed on all my quilting projects, and have this one ready for her to snuggle up with by the time she leaves for college.