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Category Archives: quilting
Just Because I Can Sew Doesn’t Mean I Will
Sometimes I think knowing how to sew is a bit of a curse. People think just because I can sew that I am willing to sew anything for them. A prom dress? Sure, you can pay for the $50 worth of cheap satin, and I’ll spend 100 hours to make your little Princess’s dreams come true! Costumes for the school play where someone else bought not enough fabric? I’ll make that handkerchief sized remnant into a skirt! Or my personal favorite… “It’s just a zipper!”.
Being “able to” and being “willing to” are really two different things. My own mending pile downstairs consists of two pairs of injured long johns for my outdoorsy husband, a laundry bag that I got the bright idea that I should wash… it kind of fell apart in the washer… and a skirt from this summer that I thought I’d shorten. Given its November now, this one can move down in the queue.
None of these projects have any priority right now. It’s barely five weeks until Christmas, I have gifts to finish, and I’ll inevitably start a new quilt just because its “cozy” season. I literally have no time for your zipper. And it was wrong of you to ask. You are a doctor, and I wouldn’t ask you to just give me a quick appendectomy… it’s small, after all and not even a necessary organ! Please take your project to a tailor. I saw a sign by the local donut shop the other day that boasted they will do a zipper for $8 and hem your pants for 6! They want your business, I do not.
So, if you will excuse me, I must sweep all these mending projects off my sewing machine table so I can get started on that new quilt. Right after I finish the would-be Christmas gifts leftover from last year!
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If It’s Not Quilting, It Can Wait
It always makes me sad when I hear married people complain about the amount of time their other half spends on their hobbies. I think hobbies are an absolutely necessary respite from the daily grind. My life is certainly better off for them. I enthusiastically believe everyone should have some kind of hobby. Certainly, filling one’s days with the drudgery of work and household chores is not very satisfying. I often wonder what people who don’t have hobbies do with their non-working time. Go to the gym? Perish the thought.
My husband and I are both hobby fanatics. He has his model trains, his tractors, his “camper project” (I’m secretly hoping that one never comes to fruition….), but he knows the house rules: “Is there fire? Is there blood? No? Then don’t interrupt me when I am quilting.” Sometimes I feel a bit guilty about the time I spend with my sewing machine, but then I think of all the time this gives him for his hobbies: fixing old tractors, working on the truck(s), generally making a huge mess in the back yard. As long as he’s not setting a can of oil down on my stack of fat quarters, I really don’t mind what he’s doing. He’s happy working on his projects and I have mine. I think it makes us more compatible. Everyone needs time to do their own thing.
Over the years, he’s developed a system of not asking me to come quick and do something but rather he prefaces each request with, “When you have time…” or “When you get a minute…” Me being the consummate engineer by training, that time might not actually come until 20, 30, 75 or more minutes later. Technically, he did say “when you have time”. I can’t help it if that took 90 minutes! He knows I married him for better or for worse. But quilting, my dear, is forever.
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NEW By the Yard® 2026 Calendars for Quilters
Calendar for Quilters!
You’ll be in stitches all year long with this twelve (12) month 2026 wall calendar featuring By the Yard®, the popular comic for quilters by Jen Lopez. Now in its 6th year!
Calendar includes a full page of original color artwork per month, additional humorous illustrations, motivational quotes, plus U.S. Holidays and Special Occasions, including fun sewing themed dates like: National Sewing Machine Day, Zipper Day, Local Quilt Shop Day, Worldwide Quilting Day and more!
Twelve fun comics about quilting…
Calendars avaialable for sale on July 30! Do you want to be notified? Join our mailing list for updates and weekly comics delivered right to your inbox!
Finish that Quilt… or Not
It seems logical that one should finish one project before starting another, but the vast number of UFOs (Un-Finished Objects) that I have lying around the house would argue to the contrary. I am certain I am not alone in this predicament. It just makes sense that once you’ve spent all the money for the fabric then put in untold numbers of hours planning, cutting, piecing and sewing, you should just power through and finish the darned thing, right? Could there ever be a good reason to start a new project when there is an unfinished one (or two…) just begging for your attention? In my opinion, yes.
Aside from some obvious situations such as running out of a necessary fabric color or type and waiting to find a suitable replacement, there is a good reason to set a project aside in favor of another. You need to have a project which matches your energy and creativity levels at the time. Have a lot going on with the kids’ fall sports or holiday planning? Now would not be the time for the Double Wedding Ring quilt you have planned for your nephew and his future bride. Maybe a big block project with a “don’t-want-to-cut-it” large print might be the ticket for you right now. Is work so slow these days that you are bored out of your skull? I think now might be the time to tackle the tessellating queen size pattern that you’ve been doodling in the margins of your notebook for weeks. Whatever is going on in your life, it’s important to have multiple projects going on at any given time so that you can find the right fit for your current circumstance.
The next time you find yourself starting a new project when there is still something else under your needle, give yourself some grace. You will finish most of them eventually!
In Defense of Keeping that Fabric Forever
When I was in high school, everything was purple. And frequently paisley. Whether inspired by the Little Purple Rock Star, Prince, or just a sign of the times, you couldn’t get away from the stuff. I used it for everything, including a purple paisley velvet jacket that boasted an impressive 28 pattern pieces. It was fully lined, too! You couldn’t pay me to undertake such a complicated project today, but back then with no kids and no job it was just an easy weekend’s worth of sewing. I still do have that paisley jacket in the back of my closet. I know I’ll never fit into it again, even if I did want to wear it ironically. I’ll continue to keep it around, just in case it is ever 80’s theme day at my kid’s high school.
Although I no longer have most of the tragically hip getups I crafted in high school, I continue to hang onto the little fabric remnants from those projects. There isn’t enough fabric to really make anything with them, even if those fabrics were in fashion again. Speaking of which, have you seen those dolman sleeve knit mini dresses that are now back in style? I still have my original McCall’s pattern for those… ripped straight out of the Brooke Shields line. Unlike the old days, with the benefit of my adult sized paycheck, I can now afford a serger to theoretically sew those knit dresses up properly.
I hang onto fabric scraps from those long-ago projects as a kind of tactile scrap book, reminding me of all my Prince and Bowie-inspired threads and how cool I felt wearing them. Just for a minute, I’m a kid again with the coolest jacket in the whole school.