Uncategorized – Page 8 – Time to Quilt

Reset

I quilted and bound this guild unfinished top that had been in storage for quite a while. I asked if I should adjust the size, either make more blocks or remove a few, so it would be easier to donate. The answer shook me to my core.

The lady making the deliveries said these smaller quilts can always be used by a senior in a recliner or wheelchair (depending on size). She then added that one organization she gives the quilts to will take any size. The children and teens they help are by referral and they know many of the children sleep on the floor because they have no bed.

Children. Sleeping on the floor because they have no bed.

How can you not remember that when you’re making quilts? I know if I’m not careful, I’ll overdo it to the point of burnout. That won’t help me or them. The best way to avoid it is to put my quilting on some sort of weekly schedule. It’s the same thing I do for household chores, laundry, and grocery shopping. It’s a habit now so I don’t stop and think about it. I need to make a habit of rotating what I work on at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the week.

I want to have a mix of quilts that are needed, quilts that are ones I’m really inspired to make, and quilts that will use up my abundance of scraps and strings.

Last month I worked on the rescued quilt tops. Now, I’m making strings but I feel the need to quilt some tops for my guild and also projects for the weekly bee I joined. It makes my head spin but, I know it doesn’t have to so I made a plan.

Saturday – Reset my sewing room including piecing frankenbatts, trimming scraps, make sure all fabric is noted with the yardage and put away. If there’s extra time, prep for the next project.
Sunday / Monday – Sew string or scrap quilt
Tuesday / Wednesday – Sew inspiration (bucket list) quilt
Thursday / Friday – Bee project and quilt a guild top

Life happens and there are days I’ll be busy with family things and not sew at all. The point is to rotate what I’m working on so I don’t get in a rut.

I once read that procrastination is simply decisions deferred. That’s a pretty accurate description. The left photo shows how my strings are stored. The wooden crate on top are pieces I need to trim and/or sort.

The next photo shows my scraps, and the last one are white/off-white strips on that were cut for projects I later changed my mind about. Those strips rest on top of my scrap baskets because I have no storage space for them.

As you can see, I have an overflow of fabric for both string and scrap quilts, not to mention the two drawers of fat quarters. I have ideas for all these fabrics! I don’t want to just store them; I want to get a better habit established to use them regularly.

On Saturday, I started my plan and used the morning to reset my sewing room. I thought I had kept up pretty well with my batting cut-offs so I was surprised to see there was actually enough for 2 small quilts. I only have 2 little pieces of batting left over. Staging them at the end of the table on the back of my long arm works well as long as I keep up with piecing and using them.

I’ve had good success by zig zagging them as soon as I finish attaching a binding while my walking foot is still on the machine. while I have the walking root on from binding the previous quilt. Now I know if it’s late and I’m tired, or have somewhere I need to be, I can just catch up on my Saturday morning reset.

I trimmed pieces from quilts I worked on last week too. I have 60 “waste” half square triangles trimmed to 3.5″ from the Dinomite quilt.

If I put them away, it might take a while before I want to work on them again. Better to keep them out and use them up eight away, especially since I have an idea for them based on a simple 3 Yard Quilt pattern.

I’ll cut the rest of the pieces for the quilt tonight. I’m anxious to start the next quilt so I’ll sew these as leaders/enders. The fabrics are so different than the quilt I’m making next that I won’t have to worry about the pieces getting mixed up.

Dinomite & Fern Ziggle

I joined a quilting bee that meets every Thursday morning. It’s a great group, and many ladies make quilts to donate, but it’s not mandatory. The little quilts are a fun break from the other things I’m working on. I’ll dedicate Thursday for little quilt day and maybe Friday too when I have one ready to quilt.

I used the Villa Rosa pattern Dinomite. As you can see by comparing it to the pattern picture, I change the upper right and lower left corners.

This is really a quick, fun pattern! Running Doe is my favorite designer at Villa Rosa. At only $2 per pattern, they’re a fabulous bargain!

The quilting design i used is a freehand motif created by Dawn aka The Pajama Quilter. Her DVDs and workbooks are no longer available to purchase but she did put the videos on You Tube.

Make sure to check out her other fun videos while you’re on You Tube. She’s a member of the online group I’m in called Stashbusters. Yes, she really is as fun and happy as she appears to be in all the videos.

These five quilts are also from Running Doe patterns. (I made “Luv Ya” too but gave it away without taking a photo first.)

My guild is completing quilt tops that were stored before the current coordinator revived the Outreach group. They need help finishing them, so my second goal is to quilt one every weekend.

Lastly, I want to make some string and scrap quilts and work on my bucket list ideas. I’ll focus on these during the other 3 or 4 days a week. I might only post on Fridays or Saturdays, but it’s not because I’m being lazy! Life just gets too busy to spend much time online.

Robins

I took a break from my current string project to work on my “make your own round robin,” with the 4th round due Saturday. When the project began, we each picked 3 colors and a type of fabric print. Instead of passing the quilt top, our choices were sent to the next person, who picks one for their round. It ends in August, so there’s only one round left. After retiring, I promised to finish all my UFOs, mostly BOMs, mystery quilts, and sew-alongs. I struggle with putting projects aside, but I’m committed to finishing these. I’m anxious to quilt and donate them so I’m glad it will be over in August.

Yes, call me a glutton for punishment but, I opted to make two of them!

Finished is better than perfect

Are there any quilters who haven’t said “finished is better than perfect” ?

Each of these three quilts showed me once again that despite my best efforts, things don’t always go as planned. What truly matters is how you respond in those moments.

A few years ago, I had a poster printed. I framed it to hang on my sewing room door so I see it every time I walk in the room. It’s a constant reminder to enjoy being creative and accept that mistakes are going to happen. If you want to be a quilter, you’re always striving to get better but you learn pretty quickly that you have to leave perfectionism at the door.

My goal was to turn these unloved tops into useful quilts for people in my community.

When you gift a quilt, the receiver sees kindness, they’re not looking for flaws. That’s reason enough to keep going.

This was a large square quilt. I’ve never made Bento blocks but recognized the pattern. I thought if I kept only the six blocks that had the same fabrics it might look a little less busy and using a soft pink in the border and backing would make it appropriate for a little girl.

Two blocks had red and blue print in the neutral rather than pink. The black paisley in the center block was different that the paisley in the border.

I didn’t notice the piecing mistake in one of the blocks as I was working on it. It’s the second block down in the left column in the “before” photo. When I took the “after” photo I saw it right away. (The bottom left corner in the “after” photo.)

There was no going back at that point. Since I didn’t notice it right away, I’m hoping the recipient won’t either.

This top had problems both before and after. The original quilt was very puffy in the center. I knew would make it a nightmare to quilt. I took it apart, trimmed the squares to 2 1/2″, and created a triple Irish chain top with the pieces.

Everything went well until I attached the binding and started ironing it over to topstitch. My iron overheated and scorched the backing all the way through to the batting. The next morning my iron wouldn’t turn on at all so I knew it had burnt out and I’d have to replace it. . I prefer a hot iron, but not that hot!

The burnt section was too big to cover with a label, so I removed the binding, rounded the corners to cut off the burnt part, and sewed the binding back on. I’m not completely thrilled with the quilt, especially after all the work that went into making those 81 piece blocks. The disappointment was gone the next day. When I looked at it again I realized that that I was actually pretty lucky that the damage was in the corner. Instead of disappointed, I was grateful that I was able to save the quilt.

This was one of those first three tops finished before I decided to take “before” photos. The borders were sewn on but never trimmed. It actually made me laugh thinking someone must have been in a huge rush to just stop working on it and leave it like that.

The way the borders had been cut made it a challenge to trim them so they’d be symmetrical. The fabric matched the rest of the quilt top so I wanted to keep them.

I took the borders off, trimmed them to look as balanced as possible and reattached them to the top. After making the pink one above, I was glad to have this one to finish with lots of blues & browns for a boy.

Perfect? Not even close! But, they are finished and that’s a good feeling.

Here’s a recap of all 10 quilts.

Back to basics

This is the last of the original 10 quilt tops saved from the Palm Beach County Quilter’s Guild de-stash table.

I recently accepted 7 more that had been set aside to use as possible backings. One of them was used to back this quilt. I was given the go-ahead to use them however I wanted, as long as I actually use rather than discard them.

A couple of them will make nice comfort quilts as they are so I’ll simple quilt and bind those. Others are a little plain and oversized. It was a good idea use them as backing for other quilt tops. I’m guessing they didn’t come across any tops in storage that coordinated with the colors and style of fabric. I’ll keep them in the forefront to plan a future quilt top around them, rather than hang onto them and hope the right top shows up… eventually. No rush on these so I’ll work on them between making string quilts.

Here’s the before photo of that 10th rescued top. The only issue with it was the autumn fabric used for the border. It didn’t really work with the rest of the top, especially for a child size quit and was an easy fix.

It was lucky that our Outreach coordinator had remembered seeing strips of one of the fabrics using in the top. She located them quickly for me Amazing, considering the massive purge of the guild’s storage unit.
Here’s the after photo.

The quilt probably would have looked better with an inner yellow border. I chose not to add one and here’s where the title of this post comes in.

The founder of the non-profit Back to Basics is a long time member of our quilt guild. Her name is Beverly. If you click on that link, there’s an interesting bit of history about how it all began in 1984.

Beverly mentioned that she really could use more blankets for kids to nap on. She had reason to specifically request that they not be too fancy. I recently asked her what size she preferred. At 40″ x 45″ this quilt is the ideal so her organization is most likely where it will be donated. As the old saying goes “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. I added the child-friendly border but kept it simple just as requested.

The scrappiness of the front made this backing a good fit. It’s now a two-sided quilt. 😉

The backing was a little longer than I needed with an two extra rows of squares. I salvaged those so they won’t go to waste. I already know how I’d like to use them and they’ve been set aside with a notation (so I don’t forget!).

I’m thankful to have plenty of fabric that I love. Some quilters have asked why I spend time taking out seams in order to save every last piece when I have a closet full of fabrics that I prefer. It’s a fair question.

Quilters donate their fabric and quilt tops hoping they will be used, not sold or discarded. Some have passed away, while others have had to give away their supplies because they can no longer quilt. They may never know what happens to their items, but I will . I feel a responsibility to honor them and their gift by using it and not tossing any of it aside.

I’m not going to throw something away just because I may like something I own better, even if it would be easier to do so. While not every quilter may agree, it’s my reason for using every piece I can. It’s my way to pay it forward and create quilts that comfort others.

I’m sure that most of my friends are tired of hearing my favorite quote but it stays with me so, here it is once again.

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me. – Erma Bombeck