How do you choose your next project?
Edited by anniekins at 2026-1-4 21:59I have so many embroidery kits/patterns in my stash and so many in mind that I want to start right now, oh my! And I have about 10 WIPS at different stages of progress waiting for my attention. And I cannot decide on which one I should concentrate right now, and which one is for tomorrow, etc. Sometimes at night I am awake in bed thinking of them, sorting them out in my head, imagining their starts, progresses, and finishes.
Sometimes I decide on one for next month (as soon as I finish the current one), but a few days later a new one catches my attention, and I want to start that one, and then the third one pops up, and I start kitting it up like crazy.
The box of "NextOne's" is growing and growing. Which one is better, which one I want more, geez, I want them all!
It's madness, this indecisiveness!
How do you know your next project - and how do you make your priority?
I feel the same way. I have 8 18 gallon tubs of various crafting items. I started purchasing a long, long, long time ago. I called it my retirement enjoyment. I am so glad I did that. The price of items to do our crafting is getting out of hand.
I have enough now for 100's of lifetimes. Will I purge it ... Nope... My interests change constantly. One day I ask my self why am I keeping this ..the next time I look at it then it sparks my interest.
Being on various forums over the years has created an overwhelming feeling of overload of downloaded patterns. I have them all saved on flash drives and 2 backup flash drives of each . Heh, flash drives can fail...my interests of things have changed on what I have downloaded from 10-15 years ago..wow, that long..haha
As to what to do with what to start and not. Yes, I want to start everything I have. I usually have one more intense project going, one 'seasonal' project and one smaller. I do what calls to me that day. New ones come along and I want to do that right away too. It's hard to not start it.
I also do Freehand Embroidery and what I call...(Do as you wish stitch) .meaning it's not actually counting, it's freestyle done on muslin, or any cotton material. So I take a pattern idea or saying transfer it to the cloth and stitch away. It's relaxing, not tied to a pattern counting, make it up as you go. I cannot really draw so sometimes I use an image online.
Designers exploded on the market 10-15 years ago with new and fresh ideas, now it seems they are all 'copying' each other. There really is no creativity in a lot of new ones on the market. An element is changed here and there but the concept is the same.
Ok, I got long winded here. Do what you love, no rules. I used to do the same thing with my stitching. An event happened to me and I just stopped cold turkey. I just couldn’t bear to do another one. After about 10 years of not stitching I answered an ad and gave my entire collection to a home economics teacher and she has been using it her classes and church groups. No regrets. I then took up quilting. I now work one (ok, maybe up to three) projects at a time. I have an agreement with myself that if I have 3 going and want to start another one I can only do it if I give one up. There are always folks in my sewing group or at the quilt shop more than willing to take it off my hands. It’s my formula for guilt free quilting. P.S. That doesn’t mean I can’t buy a kit or more fabric! It works for me. Oops…make that 4. I always have an ongoing project that I take to my featherweight group and I work that from beginning to end only at the meetings. I think about what to work on when lying in bed too! Nice to be in good company. I always have one project that I work on in the car, and usually about two for home. I stop working on pieces if I loose interest for whatever reason. I think if I'm not that into it I might make mistakes, better to put it aside and work on where my interest is. I come back to them when I feel like. My to do list is crazy and gets longer all the time but I do remove things too as my tastes change. Life's too short to stitch what you don't love! My preference is to have multiple projects going, but I was finding that I was never completing anything, so I have tried to generally limit myself to one relatively easy and one complicated project at a time.It does always mean I’m always anticipating the next project I’m going to get to, but I definitely have more completed projects since putting some boundaries in place Thank you to all who replied! Looks like the topic strikes a chord, lol.
To those who collect digital patterns and save them on flash drives or else - do you actually stitch those patterns? Or they are saved there all forgotten... I have an infinite to knit or to sew list! But when I’m looking for a project Pinterest is always helpful:) if I’m not head over heels in love with it I won’t finish it so better be something I love I mostly make things for other people (e.g. there's a baby shower => I make a baby gift), so basically I work from deadline to deadline You stitch what you've got time for. It doesn't mean anything else is forgotten. what i have the yarn for because i am veyr poor so i crochet what i can with what i have I honestly need to fall in love with it and really think about it Something cute!!
Pages:
[1]
2