Enrolling in another PhD – 2020 planning

I already have one PhD, but this one might suit me better!

There are so many things I want to do in 2020, but one thing high on my list is to reduce the number of unfinished objects (UFOs) in my sewing room. I’d like to substantially clear the decks for a fresh start in 2021.

Many of the unfinished quilts against my name are from my early quilting days (2012-2015). I found that once I became an Island Batik Ambassador in 2018 I didn’t have time to get back to many of my pre-existing UFOs. And while that was ok for a time, 2020 is my year to fix this.

To get this done, I have chosen a support crew. You! And Gail of Quilting Gail blog, who has a PhD program…. for Projects Half Done. I probably need to do this program for both my sewing in 2020 and my pattern writing, but let’s just go with sewing for now. The rules are: Finish what you start in 2020, and nominate 12 (or more) already started projects to also finish in 2020.

You are invited to join me in tackling your unfinished sewing projects in 2020. And to take a rare peek into the Chameleon’s sewing past before the blog and Island Batik ambassadorship. There are a couple of newer projects in the mix, but many of them well and truly pre-date my blog.

Maybe Chameleons have Nine Lives

Before the blog there was quilting. And before the quilting there were babies. And before the babies there was a professional life in Science (including the first PhD). Before Science there was lots of art, craft and growing taller. So it seems the Chameleon and I are hitting mid-life(s), and thus it’s time for some mid-life maintenance. Namely, reducing the project backlog, getting more exercise and finding a break in our too-hectic lifestyle.

I have already been swimming more for the past two months, and feeling better for it. Moving to Arkaroola is supposed to be our slow-change. And then there is Gail’s PhD program to help me focus on lifting the mental drag of my UFOs.

All I have to do to enrol in this PhD is to nominate 12 projects (which need to be sorted for moving anyway) and link up to Quilting Gail. The projects can change over the year according to priority, resource availability etc, and I am already making excuses in my head that a win for January is unlikely with us moving house. But a PhD half done is better than none at all, and if it comes to it, maybe I could apply for an extension like all real PhD students do! …… 😀

So, let’s see what I have shoved in the corner…..

And hidden in cupboards. And on top of cupboards…. This bit is fun, anyway, looking at old projects. Luckily for me, most of my UFOs stalled for lack of time, or lack of skills, situations which are both now improved. Importantly, they didn’t stall because I fell out of love, and most of these I actually do want to finish.

Project 1: My very first quilt top

This was my first true patchwork quilt that I ever started, and the beginning of what you see on Clever Chameleon. This quilt top came about through the generosity and kindness of two almost-strangers, whom I now consider as amazing friends. The first year of my second child’s life was quite precarious for him and traumatic for me, and came right on the back of losing my mother to breast cancer, losing the decade-long job I’d loved and moving house, all at once and only a year earlier. The result for me was that I forgot how to access creativity and relaxation, and couldn’t find a way out of the grey grief fog in my head. At this time, a colleague of Paul’s insisted very strongly I come to her group’s Sunday stitch and bitch sessions. When I say strongly, I mean: despite having enough of her own problems to sink anyone but the strongest of people, she bundled me into her car and drove me there against my better judgement.

At the time, I had no idea how to make a quilt. I didn’t own, or know anything about, quilting fabrics. I didn’t even know batiks existed…. can you imagine!?! My friend saw that coming…. she and her friends had been through a stashing stage…. and she insisted that I have, and sew, a batik strip pack she had in stash…. and the rest is history. I slowly healed from my trauma through sewing, creating and touching colour, and I got addicted. While most of that sewing group have moved on to other obsessions, I was permanently hooked. If you ever enjoy anything on this blog, two of those Sunday sewing girls are the ones to thank.

I started quilting in late 2011. I think it’s time I finished this first quilt!

Project 2: Batik “disaster” quilt

This quilt will, one day, turn out okay. But it has had its moments. This quilt was pieced by the same friend as who whisked me away in the quilters’ rescue manoeuvre above. However, (for all her other amazingnesses), patient, accurate sewing is not her strength. By the time my friend had whacked this together it didn’t sit flat and she was out of love with it. So seriously out of love, that I was scared it would be binned. So, I voluntarily rescued this quilt because I liked the colours and I still believed in it.

However, I was a bit naive, and I eventually discovered that its structural flaws were severe. Committed and too financially strapped to consider scraping good fabric, I spent an age reconstructing this quilt – probably longer than if I’d made it from scratch. Then ….. a spot clean caused serious dye bleeding, as the batik strips had naturally not been pre-washed. Then …… I decided to quilt it too fancily in the name of practice, and it took an age to get only 8 blocks done under my hopping foot on my domestic machine. So I moved on.

I will probably unpick the small amount of quilting done on this, and re-quilt with a simpler motif on my Sweet Sixteen. And wash it with colour catchers! When it is done it can go back to my friend if she wants it, or it will be a charity quilt. Best of all done and gone.

Project 3: Almost Wedding Rings

I started this quilt when I was still a novice quilter, in a class, way back in 2012. I will update with the teacher’s name when I find my notes…..

Of course, I could not just follow the class instructions….. I had to make it bigger and better than the original design, and so it is not done at all! haha.

I cut all the appliqués by hand (during a hubby work trip to New Zealand) and sewed them down with machine blanket stitch. It was sloooooow, but it didn’t matter, as quilting was 100% a sanity-saving hobby at the time, and completion was a bonus not a goal. But this project has had NO priority status since then, for the most common quilter’s reason of all…. it is for my own bed!

While I did not dislike doing this project, and I still love the beachy colours, it did put me off doing any more appliqué for a loooooong time. So slow, it was a bit boring. I now don’t cut appliqué by hand or use blanket stitch, so this is a one-off. Time to get this project on my bed.

Project 2: Rainbow Braid

This was me trying to get a two-for-one quilt on the reverse side of the beastie listed above. Instead of a plain backing for Almost Wedding Rings, I decided I’d like a rainbow braid. And not just any old braid, but leadlight style! Only one panel done and I decided that a plain backing for Almost Wedding Rings was in order after all.

Which has left me with a whole stack of fabric and an itch. This is probably the quilt I want most to sew, but also the most terrifyingly time consuming. This is the least likely quilt on this list to get done, but any progress on it would make me happy.

Project 4: Lavender Lap Quilt

This was an impromptu project where I explored the slash and stack experience. But I wanted to dress it up a little, so I took cues from the fabric for tone and colour to add thin flanges and lace. Some of these ideas were since repeated in my Crazed Diamonds quilt this year.

This quilt stalled, however, when I couldn’t decide how to make it big enough to be useful. At the time I couldn’t source the fabric I wanted, so it got put aside. And aside it stayed. But a border and some simple quilting will see it on its way.

Project 5: Rail Fence Snuggly Quilt

When I was just starting my quilting journey and still burnt out, I arrived at one quilting Sunday with no enthusiasm to do anything. I was happy to just sit, but Susan was making a fence rail quilt with some bright flannelettes. She persuaded me to make one the same for my small daughter….. no thinking required. However, I didn’t have enough fabric in hand to finish it when I drove away that day, and we never revisited it.

Until very very recently, that is, when Susan and I were exploring old projects stored at my house. At which point she offered me enough fabric to finish so she could donate the rest. While my daughter is not that little anymore, this quilt should be sufficiently large enough to be great for the Arkaroola winter nights. And hopefully a quick uncomplicated finish.

Project 7: Beary Colourful quilt

Last year my free on-blog quilt along was Beary Colourful. I loved them so much. Too much, because now I am procrastinating about setting them into a quilt. What if I don’t like it……? You know how it goes. Better not to try than to fail….. (?!) Hmmmmm!

But I could dither like that for a decade, so I will just have to get on with it. Your job is to make sure I do!

Project 8: Regatta Quilt

I don’t normally settle into Sew Alongs, but when Roseanne of Home Sewn By Us suggested the Regatta Quilt, I couldn’t resist because I had the perfect jelly roll to do this in a tween-compatible theme for my daughter.

I got the top sewn and a backing made but – no quilt! Why? Because 1. My daughter and I couldn’t agree on the quilting. And 2. I got news I was to be an Island Batik Ambassador, so it was all panic stations trying to get my head around that, as I’d already just launched my first BOM as well.

So, justifiably put aside, but time to get it off the list. While dear daughter is still a tween!

Project 9:

This quilt also comes to you courtesy of my quilter in shining armour mentioned in Projects 1 and 2. She bought this kit and then realised that it was beyond both her patience and skills. I was more than happy to provide the anally-retentive fussy cutting and piecing required to make this work, but it stalled once I’d made all the blocks. I bought matching fabrics for the backing, but it was nearing the end of the collection’s run and the colour pallette I could get is a bit boring. Not being inspired, it never happened. Now that I am not really into trying to make stunning double sided quilts anymore, this should be easier to finish. Perhaps just a black and white backing for this.

Project 10: Pinwheels

This quilt has been the focus of two annual quilt retreats…. I want it done before I go again! You saw my progress on this quilt back in August, and I believe I have all the resources needed to get this to quilt top stage. Once that is done I can think about a backing.

Project 11: Tumbling Blocks Quilt

This quilt was designed in Adelaide, cut in Arkaroola, and pieced in Adelaide. I consider it to be one of my first truly original designs in the layout. It was made specifically in response to a Colour & Inspiration Tuesday at the very beginning of my blogging days in 2017. I think it’s fitting that it could be finished in Arkaroola…. so maybe that will get it done. This one stalled because of a lack of ideas on how to quilt it, a problem that persists.

Project 12: Love with a Twist Throw size version

You are probably bored of this one by now! The good old balloon animals quilt along from this past year, Love with a Twist. I am well on the way to finishing the full size quilt, but my throw size quilt is still missing two appliqués. I am determined that this QAL will not wrap around a second year like the bears have!

Cheer me on!

If I get all of these done, I would only have a few UFOs left! The last two years I finished almost everything I started, except our quilt alongs. That is an upside to the monthly Ambassador challenges – they have to be finished on time! So I can only think of five projects I have outside this list of 12. If you don’t count fabric that was purchased for a specific reason, but was never started…. that is a totally different list!

Realistically, I am not convinced that I will get this list completed. But maybe I can have a Masters degree for nine? Or an Honours degree for six?! haha, maybe not. I’ll do my best, but my priority for 2020, over and above the UFOs, is less stress. So, while I feel this list is pie in the sky, I am sure I will get more done with it than without.

I’d love to you to join me in taming some of your sewing room this year if you need. A problem shared is…. a bigger pile of quilt ideas! 😀 You can link up with Gail through Instagram, Facebook or a blog if you have one. Or for a more intimate experience, my adorable and gentle friend Joy of Days Filled with Joy has a membership site that includes a UFO management plan. This might suit you, especially if you like both quilting and stitcheries. For a more commit-as-you-go experience, Pat of ElmStreetQuilts has her One Monthly Goal link up, with sponsored prizes. I will be combining this with Gail’s long-sighted plan to try to keep me on task. I am sure there are other parties you can use to keep yourself accountable…. feel free to nominate them in the comments. Only one link per comment though, otherwise my spam filter will spank you.

Wish me luck!

---

The Chameleon turns rainbow with pleasure when he hears from you. I am more reserved, so I will respond in gratitude by email instead. Now that it’s your turn…. Scroll right to the end, leave me a comment and tell me, what do you think? Thanks for connecting!

Would you like to keep in touch with Clever Chameleon and the fun quilty ideas I design as well as find all over the internet? You can follow directly for email updates, or through Bloglovin’, Pinterest, IG or FB. All your follow options can be found here. Don’t forget to link up all your current quilting projects on Tuesdays at our Colour & Inspiration Linky parties!