Trying to Focus

I spent a good portion of Saturday trying to reorganize my sewing room to accomodate at least some of the stuff that I have been dragging home from all of the quilt shows and shopping adventures this year.  I was somewhat successful, but only because I pulled the remaining rug hooking things from the closet and baskets and hauled it to the basement (a.k.a. wool dumping ground).  I threw away a couple of things, and made mental notes to get rid of a few others at the guild's yard sale, but overall just crammed more stuff into closets and drawers that are already bursting at the seams.  The whole process served to remind me just how many projects I have started or purchased fabric for - I am totally out of control.  The worst part is that I do not have a single quilt to show for all my efforts in the past year or so - lots of blocks and partially-completed projects, but nothing even close to a whole quilt.  With the quilt show coming up in June, I figured it is high time I focus on a single project in an effort to have at least one thing to enter.  I do have the Runaway quilt to finish, but I really want to have an appliqued quilt to enter since that is the thing I love to do the most.

So I spent some time looking at some of my applique projects to assess degree of completion.  Bottom line is that most will require considerable effort (like making 250 more little baskets, etc.) to complete.  My Hearts & Flowers project is close, but I am not sure how I want to finish that one.  What I really want to do is start the Rose of Sharon pattern from McCall's Jan/Feb 2010 issue.  I fell in love with it the moment I saw it, and I purchased the fabric for it at the end of last year.  Here's a picture of the project and the antique quilt that inspired it (from Barbara Brackman's blog, Dec 2009):



I realize that trying to finish something this big in six months is quite an undertaking, but the pieces are big and there are only nine blocks, so it should be feasible, right???  I'm a little concerned about the symmetry.  I will have to be very careful not to let anything shift the least little bit or it will be obvious.  I know I am completely out of my mind, but I can't wait to get started!