I’m making this post for anyone who keeps reading about MIOMIO in my posts and is like “what the heck is she talking about?”. Now I have a link I can point to, you get me? There are no pretty pictures, and I can’t say it’s very interesting otherwise, but if you care to learn more, here you go!

Alright, so as I mentioned, this year I am practicing what I call MIOMIO, as in “Move It On or Move It Out”. I’ve already tackled several projects fairly easily, once I thought of them this way. For instance, rather than being focused on completion, it helps to just sit down for progression (“move it on”). As an example, I wanted to just assure myself that the (now titled) Just A Cat Bag project will find its end goal at some point sooner than never. Adding some reinforcement stitching to my Hexie Dreams quilt could take me the rest of my life – or, I could follow Pintangle along each week to move it ahead little by little. I had a project lingering for no particular reason and apparently only needed the prompt to sit down with it again to finish the Domestic Scene. These projects were chosen first because they were pretty straightfoward, both in project scope and in my awareness that I still felt inspired to work on them.

The next group was chosen as “Move It Out” projects. These had been taking up physical space, but also mental space – a quiet nagging to complete them, that I should finish them before adding another to my queue, that I had already spent X amount of time on them, etc. The choices here were also easy – I didn’t enjoy the projects and realized I had only been keeping the Picnic Bug and Butterfly around hoping that I would find enjoyment in the projects again. Note to self: Once inspiration fades, I’ve yet to meet a project that re-inspires me. The wristlet had lingered out of frustration, not a lack of desire. It could still be completed, so it was elevated for that purpose but will not become a gift as I had originally intended. The lesson overall here is to avoid the Sunk Cost Fallacy.

I’m happy to say that I didn’t actually have as many outstanding Works In Progress (WIP) afterall. A large amount of the piles were actually misclassified and haven’t been started at all, other than pulling supplies into piles. I’ll unpile these and return to those projects at a later date in time (and move the full kits somewhere I don’t have to see them). Less physical space, less mental space, win, and win. This isn’t as easy as you’d think because I still very much want to do these projects. However, I am returning to my former ways of using that drive to start a new project as propulsion to finish to move on what I’ve already started.

So the actual WIPs left are almost entirely the hefty type. The ones that will not have a quick ending, and there are five of these beasts, such as the oldest and perhaps most time consuming of them all: the crazy quilt last mentioned in 2020 (lulled because I got distracted by other things). Another is the real version of this mansion I drafted up in 2023 (lulled because I’ve placed a lot of pressure on myself, and I don’t yet have a clear direction to the end). A third is something I have never posted about but I’ve been working on for so many years now (I’d guess started in the early 2010s). That’s not to say it’s very complex or very large or any such thing. It lulled because I got frustrated about the backing, but I know I can sort that out somehow. It’s just something a wee bizarre, and it might be my next finish this year just for the pure whimsy of it. Plus, this project has the least amount of pressure to come out well. The fourth is the Just a Cat Bag, lulled here and now so I could feel like other projects are being cared for (and also because it’s sewing machine related and with the remodel, this is less easy than ever to pull out and set up.) And there’s a last fifth hefty project, akin to the landscape I made about a year ago that I began last fall, lulled again for the high hopes I have for it (I’ll want to start over, for instance). This one actually has a date goal in mind for me since it is a gift, so perhaps I should start it first since I’m not sure a nearly full year will be enough…

Eh, let’s let the Muses point me to the next project in queue, shall me? 😉