Quilting

I have been quilting now for a long time. Over 30 years now, and I am finally learning some things about myself in the process. Once the top is pieced, the process of quilting the top, backing and batting together is central to the craft, but that’s where things get interesting for me.

I have a number of friends who actually describe themselves as ‘piecers’ not ‘quilters’ because they spend all their time making tops but they don’t do the quilting part of the process. There are a variety of reasons for this – if you’ve ever tried to shove the fabric and batting of a king size quilt around under the needle of your domestic sewing machine, you know that wrestling pigs in the summertime might be considered easier. Then there’s the question of what pattern to quilt on each quilt. After all the decisions about color and piecing are done, you have to decide how to quilt the project. This is where I am going to make a huge admission about myself: I don’t like custom quilting.

Don’t get me wrong, some of the quilts I see at shows are just breathtaking. (For those not familiar with the process, custom quilting is the process of sewing very specific patterns in very specific locations on the quilt as opposed to just sewing a larger, general pattern all over the surface of the quilt.). In quilt shows, there are awards for the quilting alone and custom quilting can turn a quilt into a work of art, but it is not a process that I enjoy. I need to say that again.

The quilts I make tend to be very heavily pieced. There are not large open areas where custom quilting could really shine. There’s a lot I could do within the piecing I do, but you would have to get very close to the quilt to see that level of detail. The quilts I make also tend to get used around the house. Spending the amount of time it would take to custom quilt a king size quilt (think 30 hours or more instead of 6) just doesn’t seem worth it for something that is going to get crumpled up on the bed regularly.

I have spent a lot of years beating myself up for not being a custom quilter, for not taking the time to make every quilt I produce have a custom designed quilting pattern on it, but no more. I love to piece. I quilt to finish, and I’m tired of having a bunch of tops in boxes because I feel guilty about not custom quilting them. Hello my name is Martha, and I don’t like custom quilting.

I finished my Small World quilt. I did not custom quilt it. It is bound and hanging up in my sewing room and I couldn’t be happier with it. I did not custom quilt it and I think it still looks wonderful, much better than it would look just hanging as a top I pinned to the wall. I am going to keep looking at that as a reminder that it’s ok to finish things the way I want to, so that I actually finish things. It’s ok to not custom quilt.

This cover photo is of a quilt called My Small World by Jen Kingwell. I taught this as a class at the shop several years ago. At least 4. I’d have to go look but it’s close to that. I never finished it. I got to the last part of the last section and when I encountered a problem I just stopped.

Thanks to some friends, I got it out over the weekend and finished that last section and put the top together. I know where the problem is, and if a quilter looks really closely at the pattern, then at my quilt, they will know where the problem is too, but to most observers, it’s done and complete. It occurs to me that this quilt is now the embodiment of a very valuable life lesson.

How many times in life have I stopped short because what I was doing wasn’t perfect or didn’t meet the wild expectations I had in my head? I’m afraid to try to count that, because it will be a large number. How many things did I stop because it wasn’t going my way, or I didn’t get it as fast as I thought I would. How many opportunities for success did I pass up because the success didn’t look exactly the way I expected that it would? I almost don’t want to think about it, but I should.

I’m finding a lot of things around the house and in the sewing room where I got to over 90% of the way done and then just stopped. Some of the projects I can look at and I know why I stopped but for the majority it was because I was so overwhelmed by the 90% effort that I didn’t have the 10% left. In my head somehow that last 10% was going to be as taxing as the first 90% is. Irrational, I know but there it is. I need to work on getting myself through that last 10%. There is so much opportunity in that last 10%.

I’m finishing this quilt this weekend and I’m going to hang it in the sewing room. There’s a big wall space that is perfect for it and it is good for me to have the visual reminder of how close I was to something pretty neat before I just stopped. A reminder that the last 10% is worth it. A reminder to dig in my UFOs and see how many other wonderful things are just 10% away from being amazing.

Maybe I’m also 10% away from being amazing?

I’ve been designing and writing patterns for over 15 years now, and it seems to come in fits and starts. I get ideas and they have to ruminate long enough to become fully formed as a quilt, then it takes longer to write the instructions. I don’t have very few business drivers for patterns, so it comes at its own pace these days.

One of the things I’ve noticed is that I have to have it all in my head before I can write it down, but my process is changing slightly. I now do a few block mock ups to see how it looks in fabric. I joke about the fabric speaking to me, but in a way it really does. It tells me clearly if what I have done meets the idea that is in my head and it tells me what it needs. I’ve learned to listen to that. If the fabric isn’t speaking then I need to put it away until it calls to me.

I’ve been finishing a lot of projects lately. I’ve talked about how out of the ordinary that is for me, I’m a starter, not a finisher. I have been trying to figure out what has changed about my process and the biggest thing I’ve noticed is that I let the project talk to me and tell me what to do. Several of them lately had a very clear idea in mind from the start and all I had to do was put in the work to get them done. Others have sat in boxes for years until I can figure out what they need. That’s ok. I need to be ok with the process that works for me.

It almost sounds like I’m getting more patient as I get older. That would be a complete shock, and I’m positive that doesn’t apply to all aspects of my life, but I am getting more patient with my quilting and I like where that is taking me on my fabric journey.

I know I struggle with focus, have my entire life. Long term focus. Short term, if it is something I really want to do, I have laser focus, to the point of blocking out the entire world. Longer focus really doesn’t exist for me. That’s why quilting is such an odd thing in my life. I’ve been quilting for over 30 years.

Lately I’ve been noticing that I have spurts of creativity, but there’s been more finishing. That’s also kinda different for me. I’ve been doing a lot of quilting (not piecing, actual quilting) lately and it’s interesting. I have fought my equipment for years, not being able to do what is in my head, and I think maybe (don’t want to jinx anything) I am getting over that hump.

I’ve had the new software on my long arm for over a year now, and I’ve quilted more stuff in the last year than I think I’ve done the entire time I’ve had the long arm, which is shocking when I think about it like that. Bessie is still kinda temperamental. She only likes King Tut thread. She’s picky about the kind of patterns she sews off, but I have finally found a Baptist Fan pattern that she likes and will do reliably. I’m getting the hang of a lot of the little pieces of the process and it’s been delightful.

This weekend I quilted 3 different quilts. The weekend before I finished two things. Yes my binding pile is stacking up, that’s a separate discussion, but that’s ok. I know how to do that. So somehow, my focus and my ability have come together and I feel like I can complete things the way I want. That’s making me want to finish piecing more quilts because I know I can quilt them. Huh. I don’t think I’ll ever be without UFOs but it sure is interesting to have that mental block feel like it’s lifting. Maybe at the end of this year I’ll count my UFOs. Maybe. We don’t want to get carried away or anything.

This weekend I made an effort to spend the weekend with friends in a number of different ways, and the effect was actually dramatic.

For a start, quilters have been getting very creative with all kinds of computer media, and honestly they have been since the mid 90s. For a traditional hobby we are really a tech savvy crowd. I had Zoom teleconferences with three different groups over the weekend. We talked, we laughed, we sewed, and we connected. Two of the groups, it felt like a retreat, the sound of sewing machines and talking as we worked. We are getting very good at holding things up to the camera for show and tell and working through design discussions as we sew.

I also worked on a swap project and got the top completed this weekend. I have one group and we average a swap a year. We decide on what to swap, sometimes it’s a block, sometimes it’s just stacks of cut fabric, sometimes it’s a mix, geared towards a particular pattern. The swaps can be a one time thing, and some have stretched out over months. One swap in particular was 288 sets of light and dark 5″ squares. That swap is becoming legendary in the group. Number of quilts have been made, and yet we are all still finding 5″ squares. There’s a joke they are like Tribbles and keep showing up.

This weekend, working on the swap quilt seemed to be even more important. Not only was I talking to friends, and sewing with friends, but they were right there in the fabrics I was touching and the blocks i was sewing. My friends were all around me as I worked to put the quilt together.

I finished the quilt top this weekend, and it’s ready for quilting. I will try to get this one done over the next couple of weeks. It’s important to remind myself that my friends are all around me and as close as my computer. We all enjoyed the time we had together this weekend. I have more sewing calls scheduled in the coming weeks., we all need the connection.

Well here it is Monday already and no post up on the blog. I took Friday off of work and had myself a 3 day weekend, and here it is Monday already. I got a lot done, I finished part 3 of the Quiltville Mystery, I did some sewing for a friend and got that done and dropped off, and puttered around the house a lot. I do find it highly ironic that the post following the post about keeping up is late. Oh well.

I also realized this weekend that my Applique circles project is down to the last 4 dozen circles. They are just large circles that already have the seam allowance pressed so they are easy to do, just rhythmic mindless sewing. When I started this last year, I figured I needed 256 circles and that seemed GINORMOUS. I thought it would take me years to finish those and yet here I am, only 4 dozen to go. Before I know it I’ll be piecing this together, and getting it quilted and bound. I don’t know what I will work on next, however, I was so convinced this would take so long, I didn’t ponder what my next hand sewing project would be.

This strikes me as a bit of a metaphor for what we are going through right now. When we started all this social distancing stuff, it seemed GINORMOUS. Completely new and alien and yet here we are. I can’t make plans and we are all uncertain about the future, but I do know that time will march on and we will come out of this hibernation and that will come at us as a bit of surprise too, sooner than we expected. I know I don’t have a huge plan in place, but I’m ruminating on some ideas so that when the time comes I’ll be ready to go.

So have another cup of coffee, and while you tackle your Monday, give a few thoughts to the future and the things you want to do next.

For me, this is the end of week 4 of social distancing and working from home. Week 4 of having my entire calendar wiped clean. No lectures, no guild meetings, no classes to teach. For the first time in a very long time, I have no demands on my time in the evening after working my day job is done. Since I’m not going to the office for that, there’s not even commute time to eat into my time at home and for the first time in a very long time I am keeping up.

In the yard, the butterfly garden is weeded, the grass (such that it is) is mowed, and the weeds are trimmed around the foundation of the house. In the house, I vacuum every day (I have a big dog who is blowing his winter coat right now) and the laundry is done every week. I cook all my meals at home and do the dishes every night after dinner. No more waking up to a sink full of dishes because I got home too late and too tired to clean up. After I eat, I wander into my studio to sew for the evening. It has literally been years since I have sewn in the evening on a weeknight. I normally have something planned 3 out of 5 evenings and the other 2 I’m tired enough that I just want to sit in my recliner and hand sew. Now I go sew from 6-8pm or there about, then sit in my big chair for an hour before I get ready for bed.

I have finished piecing and quilting a quilt for a dear friend. I have started and kept up with the first two weeks of the Bonnie Hunter Unity Quilt Along. I have dug out and finished the piecing on a hand piecing project I started a good 10 years ago; and am now prepping for the Applique that is the next phase of that project. I have also knitted a cardigan since the beginning of February and am half way through another one.

All of this is making me really question the life I live. I enjoy getting out and seeing friends and participating in quilting activities, but I am also really enjoying being in my house, keeping it neat, and spending time in my studio. I know we are all talking about what we plan to do when things get back to some semblance of normal, and I am realizing that one of the things I want to do is have more time at home. Not sign up for so much. Not make plans to be gone from my home so much. There will still be commitments, I like to teach and lecture too much to give that up completely, but I’m finding I also really like the feeling of keeping up.

This weekend I participated in the Spring Clean Your Studio Blog hop. Actually I’ve been working on the big clean for about 2 weeks. I got about 80% of the work done that I wanted, but with my date early in April, I needed to get what I could done and post on time. I have really been enjoying what feels like a completely new studio. I can imagine my mother smiling because of how neat the room is, although I will admit to a little bit of what she called “on the top pinky, underneath stinky” – if you open a lot of those bins and drawers they are still pure chaos. At least I can move around in the room and I can easily cut and iron without having to shuffle things around. I’m going to work hard to keep it this way.

With all the stuff that has been going on lately, I have more evenings with no commitments. I’m focusing on time at home (my dog is thrilled, the cat not so much) and finding myself sewing in the studio a lot more during the week than usual. I have dived into the Bonnie Hunter Unity Quilt project with my center medallion done. I can’t wait to see what she has for us this week for the next round. If you want to join in, go to www.quiltville.com and look for the Unity Quilt tab. You can also follow the hashtag #unityquilt to see some of the lovely things that are being created.

I keep reminding myself during this time to be kind to others, be kind to myself, be supportive, and learn how to keep my mouth shut. I’ll just keep sewing, that’s the best thing I can do. I hope you all stay safe and healthy – I’m know I’m going to have a lot of things to quilt when this is all over.

If you’d like to keep up with the Spring Clean Your Studio Blog Hop – here is the schedule and links to all of them. Take a virtual tour of a lot of studios this month!

April 1 – Sam Hunter – http://www.hunterdesignstudio.com

April 2 – Marian Pena – http://www.seamstobesew.com

April 3 – Jennifer Fulton – http://www.inquiringquilter.com/questions

April 4 – Martha Wolf – http://Www.pinwheelprodns.com

April 5 – Jennifer Strauser – http://www.dizzyquilter.com

April 6 – Steph Carton – http://www.theelimonster.com/blog

April 7 – Simone Fisher – http://www.simonequilts.com/blog

April 8 – Kate Colleran – http://www.seamslikeadream.com

April 9 – Carlina Moore – http://www.alwaysexpectmoore.com

April 10 – Jen Frost – http://www.faithandfabricdesign.com/blog

April 11 – Leanne Parsons – http://www.devotedquilter.com

April 12 – Becca Fenstermaker – http://www.prettypiney.com/blog

April 13 – Sarah Myers – http://www.quilted-diary.com

April 14 – Mitzi Redd – http://www.reddhomestead.com

April 15 – Jeanette Larson – http://www.Jenonthefarm.com

April 16 – Camille Ainsworth – http://www.stitchinthenw.com

April 17 – Becky Philips Jorgenson – http://www.patchworkposse.com

April 18 – Bobbie Gentili – http://www.geekybobbin.com/category/blog

April 19 – Janellea Macbeth – http://www.janelleamacbeth.com/blog/

April 20 – Lisa Ruble – http://lovetocolormyworld.blogspot.com

April 21 – Debra Davis – http://www.tuning-my-heart.com/blog

April 22 – Rona Herman – http://www.Ronatheribbiter.com

April 23 – Sue Griffiths – http://www.duckcreekmountainquilting.com

April 24 – Sarah Ruiz- http://www.saroy.net/

April 25 – Jessica Caldwell – http://www.desertbloomquilting.com/

April 26 – Tammy Silvers – http://tamarinis.typepad.com

April 27 – Ebony Love – http://www.lovebugstudios.com/blog

April 28 – Cheryl Sleboda – http://blog.muppin.com