Author: Jenny

How to Quilt… for Free!

A new sewing project for me typically starts at the local quilt shop, but with the cost of high-quality quilting cottons reaching $12-13 per yard, lately I’ve been shifting my focus to more of a “make do” approach.

The concept of “making do” is not a new one. During the Great Depression, from 1930-1940, quilt making became a popular and affordable way to keep warm. Sewing enthusiasts made quilts from scraps of old clothing, grain sacks and other materials. During this time, a popular flour company, the Kansas Wheat Company, even started printing floral designs on their flour sacks so that the fabric could be reused for quilts and even clothing.

During World War II, from 1939-1945, wartime shortages and rationing made obtaining new fabric difficult. “Make do and mend” became a popular mantra. Once again, the citizenry was called upon to repair and reuse textiles, including for the making of quilts.

I am fortunate to not have lived during such difficult times, and I am blessed with a fairly impressive stash at this point in my quilting career. I have found that I can find just about anything I need in those sacred bins. If I can’t find what I was originally thinking of, I can always find something else that would still be a great fit. Many times, it’s more fun to work with the challenge of finding something that fits. Technically, the fabric is not “Free” as I paid for it at some point, but the price I paid was likely far cheaper than the going rates. As I now like to say, “It’s free to me!”.

Ten Years is Not a Long Time for a Quilt

If you think that passing ten years without starting that quilt sounds like a lot, let me assure you it is not. That time will go by quicker than you think. Some twenty-seven years ago, I bought some coordinating Daisy Kingdom fabrics from a big box store. I was going to make a dress with a matching apron and bloomers for my then toddler. The fabric was adorable – it was tan with navy plaids and little zoo animals sprinkled about. I already had the pattern, and I’d already made the same outfit with watermelon themed fabrics, so how hard could it be to make a second with different fabrics? Harder than you would think. I never started the second dress with the cute plaid zoo fabrics.

My daughter quickly outgrew that dress pattern and the fabric seemed to “baby-ish” for her once she was 3 or 4. So, I just put it into my stash for later. Years passed. Then, fortune shined on the cute fabric as a work friend was having a baby, hooray! The fabric had lots of neutrals so it would have been cute for any baby. I set to work making a log cabin baby quilt using my favorite Eleanor Burns book from her wonderful Quilt in a Day series. I got all the strips cut and made all the blocks in a matter of a few days, then I lost momentum. The friend moved away, and we lost touch. I never finished the quilt. The couple even had another baby, and I still didn’t finish the quilt.

Additional years passed (it had been over ten years since I bought the original fabric) and now it was I who was pregnant again. I could just finish the quilt for my own baby! Alas, as every quilter knows, when there is an exciting new quilting occasion, we can’t help but go buy something new. I had my eye on this adorable print of babies sleeping on cows with the words Moon Beams and Sweet Dreams on little banners. I’d used the same fabric for a quilt for my best friend’s baby just a couple years ago and it was still in print. So, the poor little plaid zoo quilt still didn’t get finished.

It’s been twenty-seven years now and I still have the blocks and already cut borders in my stash. They just need to be sewn together, backed, quilted and bound… not too much work, but where am I going to find the motivation with so many other quilting distractions all around me? My son is now 16 and he always talks about “when [he’s] a Dad”, so maybe the little plaid zoon quilt will have a future as a grand-baby quilt. What’s another ten years or more anyway?

That’s Not Really a Lot of Fabric

My comic strip By the Yard® is about a quilt-loving girl and her model-train-building hubby. Other than the fact we are not actually married, much of my comic is based on real life. Back when we first met some nine years ago, I was designing sewing patterns. Although I did have a previous long-running comic strip, it was at that time on hiatus. I took Train Guy with me to the fabric shop to get some fabric for the backs of some holiday pillows I was working on. At that time, good quality quilting fabric was $10 or more dollars per yard. I was trying to figure out the smallest amount of fabric I could buy in order to do the job. I was going to buy 2 yards. He was standing there with me in the cutting line, goading me to “buy at least 4 yards”. When I declined, he upped the ante and suggested I buy the rest of the bolt. This exchange was the basis for the very first By the Yard® comic.

The very first By the Yard® comic!

I’m not sure if he understood how expensive fabric was at the time, but now that he does, he still encourages me to buy way more fabric than I need. Apparently, as a hobbyist himself (he builds model trains), he says it really frustrates him when he runs out of a needed supply. Thus, the encouragement to always buy more. I now have far too much fabric and a very small number of finished quilts to show for it. My endless quests for new fabric have resulted in more fabric that I don’t really need, but the happy side effect is inspiration for many more fun By the Yard® comics.