The state of crafts

This post is really about the state of my works in progress, the state of my place and a bit about my frustration at not proceeding in quite the way I would like to.

So I like to start a great many projects. There are advantages: starting a piece of knitting shows up very clearly whether the yarn and pattern go together. You don't find that out until you start. If it's not a successful combination you can use a different pattern, or go with a different yarn.

Things are slightly different with a sewing project: I made a muslin for an A-line skirt which turned out pretty well, except way too big so I had to go with an inverted pleat at the front. Lesson: measure your cut out pieces against the pattern, or yourself, before you start. I cut out the actual fabric from the altered pieces when I should have just cut them properly. Whoops.

Then I cut out some commercial dressmaking patterns, a task I dislike: it seems to take ages, you have to be precise and it's not actually sewing yet. In fact it just takes too damn long until you can get to the sewing part. Is it just me or do other people lose interest as they go along?

Quilting is slightly different: in order to put the patchwork for the quilt top together you don't have to prepare much. In fact I just love the feeling of organic growth about starting somewhere and seeing where it takes me. No traditional quilts with exact measurements of fabrics and exact advance planning for me. It feels too regimented and kills the joy of creating.

You get to make up bits and pieces of the quilt top in pieces. It's not supposed to be one continuous slog until you're done. You are allowed to put your work in progress aside and pick it back up another time.


Which brings me to the thought that launched me into this blog post: I finally got some pretty large clear bags with resealable tops (this white line that you can press together. Just like the freezer bags) - and now I am busy bagging up one WIP after another: some of my quilt projects already inhabit shoe boxes (too much fabric), but others as well as some of my sewing projects have found their way into a bag each.

I also added some of the cut-out commercial patterns and even thought to include a post-it note with all the pattern numbers on it. Nice to be able to see what's inside each bag.

Which is all working pretty well: I'll be able to go straight to whichever project I want to work on, pull it out and have the whole kaboodle right there without having to hunt for the bits and pieces that go with it.

Just one problem: you can't stack plastic bags, they keep sliding off one another. I can't even line them up like books, too much slippage there too.

So I'm thinking that I'll need to hang all those bags. Question is how. I'll come up with something.