Just do it!

All of us have UFO's, and all of the ieces are UFO''s for a reason.  Usually, it's because I can't figure out where to go next on a piece and it falls by the wayside --a victim of procrastination.   Over two years ago I wanted to make a piece for an exhibition sponsored by the Fibre Art Network (FAN).  I wanted this to be a very special piece, and devoted a fair bit of time finding the right image and taking a picture of it ( actually this process took almost two years, as I had a idea in mind before the exhibition was ever announced).  With my sister's help, and to the annoyance of  the driver of the semi in line behind us at a construction stop on Hwy #1 outside Kenora, I got the right picture.  I had it blown up ( Ka-ching!), painted fabric,  and fused a very detailed picture of a rock cut and tree growing out of the middle of it.  Then  layered it ready for quilting and realized that something was wrong.  Dead halt.  Could not figure out where to go next with it.  A year passes and I took the piece to the 2010 annual FAN retreat for a critique, trying to figure out how to proceed.  Not much help, but one lady did offer the suggestion that I needed to step back and do some thread work before I started quilting it.  Good idea, but I'm still not sure how to proceed with thread work.

It's now late August 2011, and I haven't done a thing.  I want to take the finished product to the 2011 FAN retreat in late September.  OMG!  So I just plunged in.  De-contructured the layers and started some basic thread work on the rocks.  OMG again!  It looks fairly good!  I started this over the last weekend.  The thread work on the rocks is finished, and the thread work on the trees about to start.  I have a good idea of how to proceed with the trees and expect them to be finished within the next week ( we're going away for the weekend or it would be done sooner.)  The quilting will be for structural reasons, not decorative and should be quickly finished.  The only decision wll be to face it or bind it.  I want to face it, and think it will look better that way, but with the stabilizer, and layers of fused fabric, the piece might prove too thick and binding may be the only option.

So, was this a case of procrastination, or was two years ago just not the right time to work on this piece?  I have to confess that two years ago I may not have had the skill with thead work that I do now.  There have been two or three pieces with heavy machined thread work finished and my skill level has grown significantly.  But this also proves that we don't know what we can do until we just get down to it, and  try.