Managing Multiple Projects & Maximizing Your Time
If you’re anything like me you probably have multiple EPP or other projects going at once. I mean how can I just choose 1 quilt to make?!
Between sewing for samples and wanting to sew for myself it can be hard to make sure I’m staying on track with everything. For my samples that are needed for patterns I usually have a week by week break down I make myself to stay on track to finish by a certain time. For Pop Rocks BOM I wrote out a week by week guide for myself. The goal was to do at least what was on the list, but if time allowed I could do more. I ended up finishing on time, a few days early actually, even though I had gotten very sick with the flu at one point. I build in catch up weeks or slower weeks when I know that I have a lot of family or school obligations.
My weekly planner for Pop Rocks
It doesn’t need to be pretty! Just a quick draw up to help keep you on track is all you need to do a week by week!
What about the quilter who is just sewing for fun? You might not be sewing with a strict deadline, but what about maximizing time and juggling multiple quilts?
I personally don’t know any quilter, or artist or crafter for that matter, that just has one project going at a time. The problem that I see most of us struggle with is we completely set one project down when a new project is started. Yup, I have a WIP pile, and I find it growing as my life gets crazy or I need to focus on a sample. So how do we manage this? First, you don’t have to. If you don’t mind being solely focused on one project at a time keep doing what you’re doing. Do you want to work through a few quilt tops this year? Let’s break some solutions down.
The Breakdown:
You need a game plan. I will use my current sewing and WIP projects that I need to complete. I will list them in order of importance.
Flores (Sample pattern- need it by the end of summer)
Pop Rocks (I need to figure out if I want to quilt it or send it to the longarmer)
Starburst (my brother-in-law is having a baby! Needs to be done done by August?)
Picture Perfect Traditional (It is over halfway hand quilted)
Picture Perfect Oversized (I’m about 35-40% done sewing the top)
Ice Cream Soda OG size (I think I need 20 more blocks)
Ooh Lucky Lucky Quilt (I can’t remember the name of the Tales of Cloth pattern but it’s one of her square quilts)
Passion Project (My own design and pattern)
Once you have your projects that you need to plan for it’s time to bust out a calendar. I prefer an analog calendar, but use what you like! I have a week by week calendar and a yearly calendar for the family.
Be realistic with your time. You don’t want to set your standards so high that you can’t keep up with the pace.
Start with your top/most important project, conversely start with the quickest to finish. Maybe pick the quilt that just need the binding attached. For me it will be Flores.
I like to work backwards if there is a “due date” so for me I have about 15 weeks before I need/would like to have the quilt top finished. From there I see where I am at with the project. Maybe you are already about halfway done, or maybe you are just starting the project. If you are just starting out or working to complete something the strategy is basically the same. Every EPP and quilting project is different, so find the best way to break it down (blocks, subunits, rows, rounds, etc.).
Flores will be broken down by rows and round colors. I only have my first row of 9 sewn together and a few random blocks here and there I made to check color and design elements with. I also like to have an idea about how long it takes for me to sew a block or unit to guide my process which is why I typically start this after I have sewn at least some of the blocks or at least 1 or 2 rows.
Weekly Planning:
You can add as little or as much info in your weekly planning as you would like. For me I have a tracker for the different blocks and rows that I made for this pattern, so I will use that in tandem to the weekly breakdown.
Each of the blocks takes about 2 days for me to sew, the half blocks take me 1 day. For me a “day” is my evening sewing time. I have a “carline” sewing time period that I will be using for a different project.
Part of planning and being able to handle multiple projects at once is knowing when I can sew and generally for how long.
Looking at how much I need to do also helped me make the decision to just get my Pop Rocks quilt longarmed locally. Which means now all I need to do is figure out a dang pantograph I want to use, and set up a drop-off time.
Starburst will be my “carline”/afternoon quilt. The Starburst sewalong is running for the whole year, so I will have to adjust my sewing timeline. I am not doing an edge on mine so this should cut things down significantly. I have been sewing at the same pace of the sewalong lately, but now I’ll need to revisit my plan and make sure I plan that well enough.
Because the Flores ends a little before I need to have Starburst done I should be able to focus on the Starburst quilt for a solid 2 weeks before I need it completed.
I will be quilting that on my domestic and fortunately it isn’t too big and the binding shouldn’t take me more than two “days.”
Picture Perfect Traditional
My Picture perfect quilt from Jessica Bree’s free sewalong last year is nearly finished! I had originally taken a break from hand quilting this because my carpal tunnel had flared up from the extra pressure of hand quilting. I have about 60-70% of this hand quilted so far and I’m definitely itching to get this finished.
With Flores and Starburst taking center stage my goal will be to quilt one element of the quilt daily. So if you look at the picture to the right an “element” would be a 6-point star or one of the 3 or 4 inch diamonds, or the main block with the dino.
If this starts to flare my carpal tunnel up I’ll try every other day and work from there.
Blocking Time:
The key to multiple projects is to keep the momentum and using different “times” to work on them. For me it is split into afternoon “carline” and evening. For you it might look like Monday and Tuesday you work on project A and Friday and Saturday project B.
Everyone’s time and schedules are different. I have a non-negotiable time right before bed when I sew. Sometimes it’s only 15 minutes, and sometimes it’s almost 2 hours. My carline time is generally about 15 minutes.
Don’t forget to plan basting! For me I try to take time after dinner when the kids are playing in the backyard or just hanging out to baste a few shapes. This is one of the reasons why I only glue baste. I need to do it quickly and be able to stop to break up fights, I’m only half kidding.
I tend to strip cut my fabric so that it is easier to just grab it and cut quickly. Not every project is set up for this of course but having a system or plan in place is helpful. Maybe one day a week you focus on basting or if you baste all the shapes at once plan this into your weekly schedule.
I baste as I go. Generally I will have one row basted at a time, or by colors if the quilt has a specific color order. Flores fits into both categories for me as I have background fabric I tend to do by row and then a color layout that is based on rounds. Sometimes I will just pre-cut all the fabric for a round and store them ready to baste when I have time.
All other projects:
Because I need to be realistic in my time and energy all other projects will have to wait until Flores and Starburst are completed.
My approach to managing my sewing projects evolves as needed and I accept that some of my projects will just have to be on the back burner for now. The current plan is to work on Picture Perfect Oversized after Flores. I’m sure I will need to work on more samples at some point later this year as well.
The Ice Cream Soda and Ooh Lucky Lucky quilts will just wait, and they will be put back into my “carline”/afternoon pile after Starburst.
I would like to come up with a template to use but part of my method is it is so tailored to the individual, but I’m working on a basic outline to help people.
TLDR:
List your projects in order of importance/need to finish
Figure out your timeline
Don’t be too ambitious and set yourself up for failure
Write out week by week what you need to complete to stay on track
Don’t forget to take into account illness, family events, vacations etc.
Break things down into different sewing and basting times
Adjust as needed
