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!

Harmony

That’s the name of the Fabric Cafe pattern I used for this string quilt. It’s from the book Easy Does It. The pattern requires three one-yard pieces of fabric but I chose to substitute string blocks for the 6″ x 9″ rectangles in the design.

I love browsing patterns and thinking, “I can add a string block here!”

These strings came from several jungle animal quilts I’ve made in the last year or two and you can see those quilts here.

There’s also a separate page for string quilts now so they’ll all be in one place for my string-loving friends.

The print used for the snowballs (octagon shapes) is one I picked up on the de-stash table at the guild’s June meeting . It was just what I needed to use with this strings.

I had a couple of coordinating 2 1/2″ strips so I used those to make an offset insert for the back.

When I need to increase the width or length of the backing fabric, my goal is to start being a little more creative rather than just stitching an extra piece of fabric on.

The goal will be to use a design element that coordinates with the front whenever possible. For this quilt, I used the same narrow black strips that were also placed between the animal print strings on the front.

I originally used this fabric for the border. The design matched the jungle print, but it did absolutely nothing for the quilt. I decided to replace it with the green border and I’m happy now that I did.

The brown pieces will get tossed in the binding drawer for a future quilt.

These are the beginnings of the next string project. A year or so ago someone gave me the teal fabric on the right. If you look closely, you’ll see she had cut it diagonally to make a bias binding. She was going to toss the leftovers away when I spoke up and said, “if you’re going to throw it out, can I have it?”.

Bias cut fabric is tricky to work with but, it won’t be a problem here. I’ll be able to cut around it for the pieces I need.

Teal, aqua, and turquoise are my favorite colors. I used to prefer green but somewhere along the way that changed and I was drawn to the cooler coastal colors. I’ll be using shades of green and teal together in this quilt..

We’re had rainy weather here this afternoon. A perfect day for either napping or sewing. (Yep! As tempting as a nap sounds… I think I’ll go sew a while. 😁)

Wild strings

I’m working on my latest string quilt today. I plan to hand-stitch the binding, so it might be a day or two before I can take a photo of the finished quilt, along with five other string quilts needing photos.

It’s made with animal skin prints leftover from quilts I made in 2023 and 2024.

I wanted to try making these first 3 quilts after seeing photos from a blog where the quilter had made similar ones in a class. (I’m sorry but I don’t remember the blog.) The method was to use the same strip strata in 3 different layouts. I never saw the last quilt, so I had to guess. It’s the first quilt below. While the class made smaller baby sized quilts, I decided to make adult lap-sized quilts instead. She had chosen animal skin prints for the class. I fell in love with her quilts the minute I saw the photos and remembered I had a yard each of these prints still on my fabric shelves. I gave them to my 3 step-grandsons: Robert, Matthew, and Joseph.

I had extra fabric, so I tried the pattern Simply Serene from Pleasant Valley Creations based on a photo of the pattern. The pattern description suggests using a charm pack or 5″ squares, but I used 3 1/2″ squares, making my quilt a bit smaller. I like this one so much I’ve kept it – for now. 😉

I obviously like working with jungle animals prints because I came across photos of these quilts I also made in 2023 & 2024.

The pattern I used for the panel is called Call of the Wild Leopards by eQuilter.com. It was free when I downloaded it, but I searched and it seems that it no longer exists.

Someone gave me a yard of this animal print. It took a while to decide how to use it. I decided to go with one of my favorite 3 Yard Quilt patterns called Town Square by Fabric Cafe. It’s a great one for showcasing large prints that you don’t want to chop up too small.

I followed this block tutorial to create my lone star wall hanging, but I used 2 1/2″ strips instead of 1 1/2″ it shows in the tutorial. I wanted mine to be a bit larger in order to qualify for a little quilt swap..

I had a lot of short pieces in the little drawer of animal skin prints. I usually save the shortest ones to use last, but not this time. I had an idea I wanted to try and two pieces of leftover backing that would work to get the woven effect I wanted.

After sketching it on graph paper, I used 3 1/2″ wide adding machine tape to create the needed string lengths. The tape was from our local Resource Depot, a non-profit that sells donated office and craft supplies. I used partial seams to avoid cutting and matching sections. Despite being a simple quilt, it took longer than I thought.

My first animal print quilt was the one above. I made it several years ago when feeling angry after seeing the disturbing barbaric photo on the right that was all over the news. Creating quilts have always helped me find calm amid anger or sadness. Although to this day, that photo still stirs a revulsion that I’ll probably never shake completely.

This is what I’ve been working on this week. I hope to have the finished quilt photo ready to share by Friday or Saturday.

Most of my animal skin prints came from Marshalls Dry Goods. You don’t need a wholesale account to shop that section of their website so I often buy wide backing by the bolt there too. I’m a fan of their great prices, big selection and good customer service.