Have you ever lost steam on a project part way through? This happened to me recently, only I lost interest before I even got started.
After the FUN and success of Bush Berries, I was excited to try another “cut and paste” design. I started with this photo of a Flame Vine.
Pretty awesome, right? I decided to cut it into squares, as I had done before and to rearrange the sections. 9 pieces, perhaps?
Or, maybe just six.
I preferred the six-block option and traced the main lines to get a pattern.
It looked a little hodge-podge at this point, so I colored in the values, to see if it looked better.
And, indeed, it did. As a matter of fact, I thought it looked like a pretty good abstract design. But, I realized that it no longer depicted the heavy hanging blossoms of the original photo. And I missed that.
So, I’ve put it aside in lieu of the next thing.
Did I waste my time? Absolutely not!
As a matter of fact, this time spent designing will help me to be more creative the next time. And besides, it was fun. It’s quite possible that I’ll revisit this sketch one day. Or maybe start again with the same photo and go in a different direction. No worries. It’s all part of experimenting.
Have you ever stalled out mid-project? What are your thoughts on it? Did you learn something anyway? (I’ll bet you did.)
Ellen Lindner
I love seeing your thought process. I often design something and then either try some of the construction, or just go on to the next curiosity. Then, when I don’t want to think too hard, I just sew something.
Right, Nancy. Creating is definitely not a straight line/progression of projects. That’s what keeps it fun!