In my house, quilts are the most likely projects to never get finished. They are the life-long WIPs.

When Gregory was a baby and we still lived in Las Vegas, I took a quilting class. We were taught to hand piece. At this time I started a log cabin quilt. I cut out about a million pieces and started to stitch together blocks. This was probably 1997. I pulled out that quilt project yesterday to assess my status. I had completed 3 full squares and part of the fourth.




This was going to be a quilt for my baby's bed. Now my baby is almost 8 years old. Unfortunately, these pieces were cut for hand piecing with the sewing lines drawn in pencil. Seam allowances are not precise so converting it to machine piecing does not avoid the painstaking job of pinning pieces together. I don't know if this WIP will ever get finished.

After moving to Gulf Breeze, Florida, I took another quilting class where we learned to machine piece. We were supposed to completely finish a lap size quilt. Unfortunately, we ran out of time.




Here is the quilt top I assembled in class. We were supposed to learn how to sandwich it with a back and with batting. We never got there so all I have is a top. . . and no knowledge of how to complete the quilt. I sewed this quilt top in probably 2001 or 2002.

While the class was ongoing (we met once a month over two months), I started two others for my two children made from children's prints.




All these tops need are the border to be completed quilt tops. And then they too will be ready for sandwiching and quilting, which I have never learned to do. Pretty soon my children will be too old for these and then I will be able to wait for grandchildren to come along.

I presently have many WIPs (works in progress) that are not stalled. However, I have recently started a newly stalled project.




I started a tri-loom shawl for my sister, Mary. I warped the loom per Margrett's instructions (Running Moon Farm) and now need only to weave it. Mary decided she wanted black merino weft and a bold pattern. I've never made such a shawl and so fear has the project stalled. In the lower left corner of the picture is a spool of the black merino I spun for the project. It is only the weaving that has me avoiding my sister's shawl.

Is there any hope for recovering and completing long term WIPs?