Thanks Shari for Sharing Your Rotational System With Me!

This post addresses organization, AGAIN! It's just one of those things for me - I love hearing about new ways to stay organized and on task in the studio.

So I was dealing with the challenge of having tooooo many quilts to work on and not having the focus to work on anything. Every time I went down to my studio, all my WIP were calling my name . . . "Denise, choose me!, No, you want to work on me! Over here, I'm over here!" As a result of all the cacophony, I wasn't working on anything at all.

My friend Shari told me about her system of rotation through 8 quilts a month. Some of her quilts were BOM, others were quilts she had started and wanted to finish. She decided to work on each quilt for 3 days and then put it away and work on the next one.

This automatically resonated with me because I love working on multiple quilts at once. My trouble is that I had too many. So I started with 5 quilts to work on, then added 3 more, took out 1 and added 2 others. So now I have 9 projects that I am cycling though.

I have been working on each one for anywhere from a few hours to a few days. I work until I have a sense of completion or burnout. Its been working great so far. I have working on all 9 quilts and after I reach completion on #9 I'll start all over again.

I am loving this! I haven't been this productive in a long time.  Here is my list:
        
        Asian Garden Path
        Fiesta Mexico
        Feathered Star
        CURIOUS
        Technicolor Galaxy
        Tula Pink 100 Modern Blocks
        Enchanted Forest
        Home Tweet Home
        Sedona Star













As I finish projects, I will rotate new ones in. I have lots of projects waiting in the wings!




Here's to productivity!
I'm curious, what helps you keep your productivity up?

What Do You Do When You Get Stuck?

I'm feeling stuck - paralyzed. I go down to my sewing room and scores of projects call to me, but I just don't feel like working on any of them. I don't really even feel like starting a new one. Maybe I'm sick or depressed. Or maybe I need a break. Or maybe I need a nudge.

I've always been a bit of a procrastinator, but not usually in quilting. Quilting is fun, it's interesting, it's challenging. There is usually no pressure - except from myself. So why am I feeling stuck now?

I usually have a few little tricks to get me going. Tricks like prepping the night before, prioritizing about 10 or so projects to work on first, looking at Pinterest to get inspired. I also sometimes use an accountability buddy - decide what to do and tell my AB what I'm going to do and then let her know when I'm done.

Maybe I should try a new trick - put the names of all my projects in a jar and work on the one I pull out of the jar. That actually sounds kind of fun.

I could also tidy up some. I've been working on a very detailed applique pattern and I have scraps of fabric and bits of fusible all over everywhere. That doesn't sound very fun but it's probably needed.

OK, so what do you, my quilting friends do when you are stuck? Do you ride it out, or do you have a trick to get going again?
Help!
Curious about procrastination in the quilt studio.