Do you have to finish everything you start?

Do you HAVE to finish every book you begin?  I have a hard time not seeing it through, even if I am not completely enjoying it.  I keep thinking there will be a remnant before or in the end that I would miss if I did not finish.  I am finding I feel the same way about my quilting projects.  And then factor in the not being wasteful.  If I bought this fabric, I must USE it mentality.  The quilt I finished this week falls in this category.  The “modern” quilt movement has been around for almost twenty years now.  Beginning with Martha Stewart proclaiming Denyse Schmidt’s work as a “chic, modernist aesthetic”.    The Modern Quilt Guild goes on to identify the growth of the movement being facilitated by a “cultural shift of quality design being recognized by the general public, affordable digital cameras, the changing fabric industry, and the rise of social media”  In 2002 the Quilts of Geez Bend were discovered and toured the country, and in 2005 Denyse Schmidt Quilts and the Modern Quilt Workshop by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr were published followed by blogs, and flickr groups, Quilty magazine, online groups, and finally the movement had its own Quilt Show – QuiltCon.

Anyway it got here, I found myself hooked!  Lots of gray and white and bold colors and to me quite a departure from traditional quilts, which I learned to quilt making and love.  And scrap quilts, don’t forget using up all that fabric left over and collected over the years.

Zen Chic published a pattern in 2012 or 13 that I saw in Quilty magazine that I thought was interesting, a pretty simple design with a clever impact, and a chance to use some gray and yellow fabrics I found somewhere: (My mother loved gray and yellow together)  It’s a Plus.  Here is my version.

Begun in 2013 and finished,  the last day in November, this year.  There was a couple fabrics I grew to despise that had to be eliminated and the quilt got smaller and smaller.   And do you know how many shades of black and gray there are?  And they don’t all go together let me tell you.  So after doing this for 33 years I can say safely my technical skills have improved immensely.  However my color confidence is still at a remedial level.  But finished is finished, and it is washed and soft and warm and will make a great napping quilt.

January 2019 will be a month to go through what I have and honestly ask myself is this worth my time?  Do I like this fabric anymore?  Why did I download this pattern?  What was I thinking when I cut this one pattern out of my magazine.  What in heaven’s name could I do with this fabric, etc., etc., etc.  Piecing and quilting and binding a quilt does take much time and I do so want to love what I work on.  Time to let go of the rest.