Quilting

Texas weather is always fickle this time of year. I joke a lot that we have two weeks of fall and two weeks of spring and everything else is just hot or cold. We had our two weeks of fall this year, actually I think it was a little more than two weeks, and this week, winter decided to show up.

I’m lucky I’m a quilter – when it gets cold I just throw another two quilts on the bed and everybody is happy, especially the cat. In the evening after work, I’ve been sitting in my big chair working on my hand pieced quilt, and I don’t mind at all having the bulk of the quilt top piled up on my lap keeping me warm. The cat likes that too, I should note.

This is my favorite time of year. Hot cups of tea and hand knit socks keep me warm. All of the things that I enjoy doing are both useful and welcome this time of year. I put a pot of chili on yesterday morning and let it simmer all day, filling the house with a wonderful aroma. I’ll have six or seven meals in the freezer out of this for days when I don’t have time to cook.

I know it will warm up again next week. I know the temperature will rise and fall like a rollercoaster – it is Texas after all, but this week has been a wonderful time to revel in all the things I love about winter. I probably won’t be this happy about it in February, but it’s my second winter at the farm and I’m excited about that. I’ll keep cooking and sewing and knitting as this year winds down. Got to look for the joy where we can find it.

This week has seen a year long project come to an end. Well maybe that’s an incorrect statement. Something I’ve been wanting to do for over a year, but finally got the wheels in motion 3 months ago has come to an end. That’s more accurate I think.

I have completed my gravel patio in the back yard. I’ve wanted a place for chairs and a fire pit that wouldn’t get mired in mud when it rains. I’ve wanted to do this since I built the house, it was always part of the vision. There was some work on my part, digging the drain for the gutter to go under the patio, and a lot of work by the gravel company, but sometimes to achieve a goal, you need to work with somebody who can do the parts you can’t.

I’m thrilled with the patio. Sat outside at sunset, and then sat outside after dark looking for meteors (saw two very little ones, so I’m counting that as a win). That’s almost as much as I’ve sat outside the entire summer. I am excited about both finishing the project but also looking forward to the things I can do.

I’m also getting close to completing my hand pieced quilt. I am about 80% done with the piecing. The end is in sight and I am starting to think about how it will look on the bed in the guest room. Lots of parallels between the quilt and the patio. Something I’ve wanted to do for ages, had to work for a while, had some help from outside and checking something off my list. I’ve started to let myself dream about my next hand piecing project.

While the patio itself is complete, next thing up is to get the planters I want and the fire pit and other stuff so that the space is set the way I want it to be. I’d say it’s about 80% done as well. That means I can start dreaming about the next big thing I want to work on around the house. Not sure what it’s going to be yet, need to put some thought into what the big plan is. Picking out a quilt project is a bit easier I guess.

Not much else going on in these parts, I need to figure out how to get more creative with my blog posts. I will be doing some research on better topics.

I often find in tasks that I have ahead of me, that the task is so big that there’s no way I can complete it in one go. This happens in all aspects of life, including quilting and around the house. I was facing two of these last week – the 18 blocks for the Knitted Star quilt and cleaning up my garage. Oh my. That garage is in rough shape. I was bemoaning the situation and all of a sudden my brain said “you don’t have to do it all in one effort, that’s the great myth.”

Wow. That phrase has been rolling around in my head for a week now. I guess in some ways I’ve always known this. I got the house unpacked from moving last year by doing one box a day. Didn’t unpack until I was done, I unpacked a little at a time, on a regular schedule and about 3.5 months after I moved, I was unpacked.

This past weekend, I sewed a good chunk of time every day. I didn’t sew from sun up to sun down, and I got some other things around the house done as well, but I sewed every day (had Friday off of work, so it was a 3 day weekend) and over the weekend I made the last 9 blocks for the Knitted Star and just like that my 18 blocks are done. Next up is actually assembling the top with the sashing and corner stones.

I spent a little time in the garage, and while it is far from done, I did something. If I keep doing something every weekend, at some point I will step back and have a neatly organized garage where I can find things without having to climb over them. That is going to be pretty close to being a miracle. It’s still early enough in the process that I look at the mess and think that there’s no way I can do all this, then I muck in and move a couple of things. Another step done.

I can do this. I can keep telling myself that all at once is just the great myth. Just do something every day and one day you will look around and be stunned at the progress you’ve made. Something every day.

I signed up for a quilt along a few weeks back. Me being me, I’m making the pattern but going off in my own direction a bit. It means that I had to figure out some stuff in the pattern so that I could do the quilt the way I want to do it. That’s fine, I’m used to doing this and I knew it would take a little time.

I did some math, I did some cutting, I did some sewing, then there was more math, more cutting, more sewing, more cutting and finally with a little more math and a little more sewing I had pieced one block. Ok that’s good. It was my proof of concept and it turned out nice enough that I’ll be using it in the finished quilt. Took me 2.5 days to make that first block and I though oh my land, at this rate, making the large quilt (which needs 18 blocks) is just going to be way more than I can manage.

That’s ok though, the lap size quilt only needs 8 blocks and that will just have to do. Maybe add some borders, I mean she says that in the pattern, that if you want the lap to be bigger you could add some borders. Ok I have a plan.

Got home this past weekend and started on the second block. I hadn’t made enough notes on the first one, so there was still some math, some cutting and a lot of sewing, but the second block only took about a day to put together. Ok that’s pretty spiffy. Definite improvement and I only made 2 mistakes that I had to rip out. Ok. Love the second block so much. Started the 3rd block.

Something clicked on the third block. I could see it in my head. I understood what I was cutting pieces to do. I was also fingering out how to use next steps in the block as my leaders and enders. If the machine was sewing, I wanted it to all be productive sewing on this project if I could swing it. I always wanted to be more conservative about my ironing and cutting work so that I wasn’t spending a lot of time up and down from the machine. Ok good. Third block took about 3 hours. That’s a huge improvement over 2.5 days!!!

At this point I looked at my fabric and thought, I can do the bed sized quilt. Even at 3 hours a block, 18 blocks isn’t that bad (not like 2.5 days per block). So I dived into block 4. I now had a process where I stacked my fabric to make the sections of the block in order without having to sort through all the pieces every time. Doing good. Made one mistake but it was an easy fix. Block 4 took 2.5 hours. MORE improvement!

I made a clear list of what I was cutting from the background fat quarter and leapt on blocks 5 and 6 – this time, sewed right through the block with no mistakes! Did it in 2 hours each! The system is working!!!

I took a break for dinner and decided I’d make one more block Sunday night. I put the system right to work and what do you know? Blocks 7 and 8 are done at a pace of 1.5 hours each!! I am now 100% on board with the big quilt and the eighteen blocks. I can do this. The system is working.

I don’t think I can get much faster than 1.5 hours per block. The steps are streamlined, all my pieces are staged in the right order and it’s a 20″ block so I think that’s about the best I can do but that is soooooo much better than two and a half days per block. I’m so jazzed. I much prefer big quilts that I can put on my bed, and I liked the big quilt in this pattern from the beginning, I just wasn’t sure I could pull it off.

I always do better when I have a system. I am sure this is bleed over from my day job, being an Industrial Engineer, we are all about having a production system. I do this naturally and it really has an impact on my quilting. I’m really excited about this project, I think it’s going to be absolutely stunning when it’s done. 10 more blocks then the assembly can begin! I might get a lot of them done next weekend!!

I think we can all agree that this year has had a number of tribulations outside of what we normally expect or see. It can be very hard to see that there has also been some good this year, and ironically thanks in no small part to the pandemic. I was updating some paperwork over the weekend and was struck by just such a silver lining.

I need to back up for a minute and go back 2.5 years. New Year’s Eve 2017 (or close to it) in an online group for my long arm, the moderator asked everybody what their goals were for the coming year. Mine was to quilt a top every month. That would be 12 finished tops. She asked me if I did that, how long would it take to finish all my UFOs. I replied with “approximately 6.7 years”. It gave me a pretty good laugh at the time, I rather surprised the moderator, but it also seemed like such a lofty goal. One quilt a month seemed out of my reach. I think I ended up doing 4 or 5 that year. No where near 12, but that idea has stuck with me.

So fast forward back to today, and I’m updating my long arm journal, and I realized I was writing notes for quilts 19 and 20. TWENTY!!!!!!!! It’s still September and I’ve quilted 20 quilts this year. HOLY COW! I only have to do 4 more to hit 24 for the year, TWICE THE ORIGINAL GOAL!

Not all of them were mine as I’m now quilting as a service, but I’m finding the more I do for other people, the more I do of my own. That’s some pretty good progress in my opinion. I’ll probably keep the goal next year of 12 of my own, because honestly I’d love to have 12 customer quilts on the year too which would be a nice balance. So my progress on my UFOs isn’t as fast as it could be but still. Huge change in only 2 years! Don’t know if I would have made the jump without all the stay at home so that’s my silver lining.

I’ve been quilting for a long time now. I’ve been designing my own patterns for about half of that time. I used to sell them in some local stores, but printing was expensive, and at the end of the day, I made about $0.90 profit on each pattern sold. Hardly a going concern. I found it frustrating that the small designer had to struggle so much to create and sell but that’s how things were.

Forward to 2020, and things are significantly different. For one thing, patterns are now often sold as digital downloads. The designer can create an attractive and useful pattern and not have to invest in the time to print and stuff envelopes. Updates are easier to make, without having to figure out how to update a hundred paper patterns. I also think it’s more environmentally sound – I sell a digital item, and paper is not used until the pattern is actually going to be used by the consumer, rather than me printing hundreds of copies of a paper pattern and if it doesn’t sell out, then I have to dispose of all that paper.

With all of that in mind, I have been researching e-commerce websites that can allow me to sell digital downloaded patterns, and I think I have finally found a platform that works for me. While I’m not quite ready to launch yet, it’s in the works and I’m very excited that soon I will be able to market my patterns myself and have them available for purchase. To say that I’m nervous is putting it mildly, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. I enjoy the creative process so much and I enjoy sharing what I do with people so this seems like a natural path for me. I will announce here when the site is up and running!

I also wanted to give an update from a few weeks ago – my crazy pieced table topper is together. I don’t have it quilted yet, but several folks asked to see it and not everyone is on Facebook, so here’s a photo of what the completed top looks like. It is going to get quilted and bound this weekend and I think it will be lovely on my dining room table this fall. I learned a lot about value and fabric placement in these blocks but for the trial effort, I’m happy with it.

I have gotten to where I really enjoy stitch along events, or quilt along depending on who is writing them. I get to do a project that catches my eye, I am guided by someone who has knowledge about the project (either the designer or someone who has made it and is very enthusiastic) and I get regular prompts to keep me on track and help me actually finish the project once it is started.

Lately two things have caught my eye, thanks in no small part to friends who posted about the projects and got me interested. I’ll call them the Joneses to keep their identity private. I’m referring tongue in cheek about the old phrase about keeping up with your neighbors or what I think is now referred to as FOMO (fear of missing out). Thanks to my friends, I have two shiny new projects to keep me busy as the pandemic keeps us still isolated and still spending a lot of time at home. As a quilter, I have to really admit that isn’t a terrible thing in my case.

The first project was teased a few months ago and is a wool stitch along by Kathy Schmitz LLC called Snowdrift. It is a lovely table runner of stacked wool pennies that are embroidered with different snowflake motifs. I decided to go my own path with the colors I chose, and the first three weeks are the cover photo for this post. The stitching is easy, the designs are lovely and I’m thoroughly enjoying this stitch along. I need to post some things on Instagram but I keep forgetting.

The second project is by Lo and Behold Stitchery and is the quilt along for their pattern the Knitted Star quilt. I fell in love with this pattern before there was even a hint of a stitch along. The start motifs remind me of vintage ski wear and just seem to sparkle in the completed quilt. I’m a sucker for a star motif anyway, but when I saw there was a stitch along, I was hooked. I’m doing my project in a scrappy red and white(ish) color way and I think it is going to be lovely. I am trying to convince myself to just do the lap size but I have the suspicion that once I see a few blocks together I’m really going to want the bed quilt size for this winter. I know I will: who am I kidding? Sigh. It will be manageable, with the quilt along to help push me to complete the top in 8 weeks, sure, I mean I can do that, right?

Right now we are all doing what ever we can to help keep our sanity, and I’m sure as the year winds to a close, I will be very happy to have these two wonderful projects in my rotation of things to work on in my sewing room. Look for photos in the weeks ahead, I’m looking forward to sharing my fun with all of you.

We quilters know how this is. You are going along just fine and then you see something and you just HAVE to try it. HAVE TO. Set aside everything else and work on the new thing. Yea. I think it’s a little different than just following the shiny object or being distracted by a squirrel. Well mine recently was the crazy pieced block die by Accuquilt and here we are.

I like small things so of course I got the die for the 6″ block. I will note that it would work splendidly with a layer cake – you can get away with a 9.5″ square but 10″ is more than fine. I used the shuffle method from Buggy Barn Crazies, to mix up the stacks so that I would get the necessary variation in my blocks. (After things are cut, leave stack A as is. Move one piece from stack B to the bottom. Move two pieces from stack C to the bottom. Move three pieces from stack D to the bottom. Proceed in that manner till all the stacks are shuffled). Because it’s an Accuquilt, I had the pieces for 20 blocks cut faster than you can say “look she’s quilting!”.

I wish they had a few more instructions with the die, I’ve done a few stacked crazy quilts before so I understand the general principle but a brand new person would be a bit confused. I do not know if there’s a YouTube tutorial or anything. I might end up making my own as an experiment. I sewed all 20 blocks and assembled them in half a Saturday, and now I have an adorable fall table runner. I have a set of layer cakes that were bought for something that fell through and I know EXACTLY what I am going to do with those now. Cause you know, I need another project.

So a group of friends is working on a quilt pattern (shall remain nameless) and the intro mentions “before commencing, cut 527 1 1/2″ squares”. That gave us a good laugh. Most of us consider that 527 1 1/2″ squares is way past commencing and pretty darned committed to making the pattern, and this got me to thinking about when do you actually ‘start’ a quilt?

I have heard the position that once you buy the pattern, that is considered a UFO. I laughed hysterically when I heard that. A long long time ago, I learned that patterns can go out of print fast, and if I like it, I should buy the pattern now, because in 10 or 15 years when I want to make it, I will have the pattern available. This approach has served me well over the years, but I would be mortified to think about having THOUSANDS of UFOs.

Buying fabric, that’s another step towards making a quilt, but I often buy fabric because I like it, and in the quilting world, a fabric line is rarely available more than 6 months or so, and again, in a couple of years when I actually want it, I won’t be able to get it anymore. We will not delve into a discussion of how big my stash is, but I have been sewing from it extensively since moving out to the farm and have been very pleased to fully piece 3 quilts from my stash exclusively with more in work. If I had to count every fat quarter and every yard of fabric as a UFO, again, we are talking a seriously large number

For me, it comes down to actually cutting into the fabric. Once I start cutting fabric, that signals that I am committed to that design and have made a start on making that quilt. I admit that I have a bin full of strips that are cut because I “started” a quilt and then changed my mind, but someday those strips will come in handy. So cutting is the line of demarcation for me between having a dream and starting a quilt.

I finished up my last hand piecing project a few months ago (it was supposed to be a project on the cruise this year that didn’t happen) and I miss having a hand piecing project going. I have a bin of fabric in the closet that is all 30’s reproductions, some of which I know I got back in 1999, so I’ve had it a while. Some of it was handed off scraps from a friend but since they were 30’s fabrics, they went into the bin. Over the last two weeks, I used up that bin to stamp out 2″ hexagons to piece a fairly large quilt. 588 Hexagons to be exact. Plus 24 half hexagons, plus 46 diamonds to help square up the sides (oh and borders and binding too.). I always wonder to myself if I want to write up my latest design idea as a pattern, and I had a good laugh when I realized I know JUST how to start the pattern: “before commencing, stamp and cut out 588 2″ hexagons”. Yea. I’d say I commenced by the time I had the first 25 cut. I’m looking forward to this quilt, I like 30’s fabrics, but the sight of that empty bin in the studio is pretty gratifying too.