How to Make a Visual Project Wishlist

If my blog's title hasn't tipped you off already, I'll just go ahead a say that I usually have at least three sewing projects going at any given time. Between swaps, developing my own patterns, and selfish sewing with my favorite fabrics, it's pretty common to find piles of WIPs in my sewing area. Sometimes it's hard to remember what projects I have simmering, let alone the ones I want to tackle next.

I used to make lists, but scribbled words just don't have the motivation factor that images possess. I started making collage images to keep things visually organized as well as motivate me to finish those malingering WIPs. It's been working surprisingly well!

For each collage image, I use a few different kinds of images. I may include a photo of the pattern cover or book cover, which helps remind me where to look for the instructions in my my piles of books. My Circle Lattice Quilt is a project from Carolyn Friendlander's book, Savor Each Stitch.

 For WIPs, I use pictures from my own Instagram feed or quick iPhone snaps to help remind me of what prints I'm using. My Storm at Sea quilt currently has only two completed blocks, but seeing the the pictures is a good reminder of what shades of blue I should be looking for when I work on it. It's also such a cool block to look at that it helps motivate me to work on it. I've actually gone forward to do all the cutting for this quilt and bag the pieces to take to my guild's retreat.

My Little Dots quilt (pattern by Green Bee) is going to heavily feature Heather Ross and Munki Munki scraps with each dot having a monochromatic palette on a low volume background. Fussy cutting each piece is time consuming, so seeing a photo of a finished block I made along with the pattern cover shows how promising this project will be.

Sometimes I include photos of the fabric collection I intend to use to serve as a quick visual reminder of the color palette and scale. I recently purchased a layer cake of Carolyn Friendlander's Botanics to make the Union Square quilt by Crazy Old Ladies. Seeing the pattern cover and fabric swatches side by side convinces me that this is going to be an awesome, but easy quilt that will fun to tackle at retreat.

For projects where I'm drafting my own pattern, I include one or two inspiration photos. When I was in the planning stages of my travel tote for Podrick, I made this collage to help consolidate all the ideas I had floating around. I knew I wanted to use Denyse Schmidt's Hadley collection, so I included a photo of that. Jeni Baker has a travel tote pattern for the Singer Featherweight, so that that served as one source of inspiration along with the Pack N Go tote. Lastly I included a photo of Podrick himself, just to serve as a sweet reminder who (or what) I'm making this project for.
On every collage, I add a title for clarity.

I make all my collages in Adobe Photoshop, but there are free web-based alternatives like PicMonkey and Pixlr that can accomplish the same thing for free.

How do you keep track of all your WIPs and wishlists?