A Trip to the Long Arm

You don’t need a long arm…

There has been a lot written about how long it takes to make a quilt top, but I wonder has anyone ever investigated the time it takes to get through the actual quilting stage?  A friend recently asked me to “finish” a quilt for her. I got roped into this situation because she had a vintage sewing machine that she was looking to re-home. I wanted it for my “collection” (that is a subject of a blog post for some other day…) so I innocently asked, “How much to you want for it?”. I was unprepared for her reply. She said she wanted me to finish a quilt she had started over twenty years ago. I could not believe she had a quilt lying around for over twenty years that she somehow could not get around to quilting… until I remembered my log cabin Christmas quilt top with the light mint holly leaves and cranberry poinsettias. Figuring I was in no position to judge, I agreed. This was a mistake.

I picked up the sewing machine along with a big bundle of quilt parts in multiple bags. The quilt top was hopelessly wrinkled and creased from decades of storage. Moreover, she had included the highest loft batting I’d ever seen. Firefighters could use this stuff to jump off buildings. Her original intention was to make a tied quilt. She had done a beautiful job on the quilt top and after what seemed like hours of pressing, I could not imagine finishing it as a tied quilt. I felt like it just wouldn’t do the quilt justice and it seemed like an afront to all the work she and I had already put in, not to mention what I still had to do. This decision certainly had nothing to do with the fact that there is not a flat surface in my house big enough to lay out a queen-sized quilt sandwich.

I did the only logical thing: I took it to the long arm at the local quilt shop. I paid for the quilting myself, it was more than worth the money to avoid wrestling with all that super fluffy batting. I replaced it with some low loft Warm & Natural that I purchased at the quilt shop. I just couldn’t risk the quilt coming out as looking mediocre and, gasp, “homemade”.  I’ll save the fluffy stuff for insulating my air conditioning ducts.  After waiting a fair amount of time (those long armers are busy!), I took her home and bound her myself. I find binding to be the fun part, the bellwether of being almost done! I have to say, she looks spectacular.  I’m so inspired at this point that I may even finish that log cabin in time for this year’s Christmas!

 

How to Turn Any Space into a Sewing Room

When a Quilter Becomes an Empty Nester

A sewing room of any size is a luxury that only a few can afford. Maybe all of your spare rooms have tiny humans living in them, or perhaps you live in an apartment, a dorm or even a trendy “tiny house”. You don’t need a dedicated room in order to have a space to create. You can carve out a portion of an existing room or you can make your sewing setup portable – easy to put up, take down then stow away. Here are some suggestions:

  • Carve out a portion of an existing room – Be sure to choose a space that doesn’t have carpet. You are going to be dropping lots of pins and needles, not to mention the endless rain of thread and little fabric bits. A smooth surface is going to be much easier to keep clean.
  • Not the bedroom – I speak from past experience when I say, “don’t use your bedroom for sewing”. This is a bad choice because of the likely probability of stepping on pins with bare feet. Additionally, it’s pretty much the most used room in the house: you are going to be tripping over half-finished projects all the time.
  • Invest in a sewing machine cabinet – Hide in plain sight with an inexpensive sewing machine cabinet. They all have a mechanism to fold away the machine when not in use. My mother had a fancy dining room that housed a sewing machine cabinet for over 30 years. She had a space for fancy dinners a few times a year and a place to sew nearly every day.
  • Repurpose office furniture – Computer desks are great for turning into a compact sewing space. They hold a lot of equipment in a small space, they usually have lots of cabinets and shelving and they always have cut-outs for wiring. They are inexpensive and available everywhere.
  • Smart Storage – The bulk of items that will take up your sewing space is your fabric stash! It need not live in the same space as your sewing machine. All the big box stores have under-the-bed storage bins (some even have wheels!) that will hold a tremendous amount of fabric, notions and patterns. Cute storage crates can hold fabric and patterns, and fit on any bookcase.
  • Dual Purpose – The best cutting table in the world is, believe it or not, the kitchen island, which is a very popular construct in many living spaces today. Using it for cutting will also give you good reason to clean it off now and then!

Does Fabric Collecting Count?

Straight into the collection

Sometimes I wonder if I’m a quilter or a fabric collector. I now own more fabric than I’ll be able to stitch together in my lifetime, yet I still find myself buying more. In chatting with other quilters and fabric artists, I find I am not alone. We all seem to collect way more fabric than we are using, but is this necessarily a bad thing? Should we be apologetic about our fabric accumulation? Are we too distracted or too lazy to sew it all up or have we inadvertently stumbled upon another hobby in its own right?

Quilting is a textile craft that involves stitching together layers of fabric to produce a finished product such as bedding or decorative items. Quilters use various techniques including patchwork, appliqué, and paper piecing to create visually appealing designs. Quilting requires sewing skills and knowledge of different quilting techniques, as well as the use of specialized tools like rotary cutters, rulers, and sewing machines.

Fabric collecting, on the other hand, involves the accumulation of fabric pieces or yardage for personal enjoyment, aesthetic appreciation, or future use. Fabric collectors often have a passion for textiles, colors, patterns, and designs. They seek out fabrics that catch their interest, including vintage fabrics, rare prints, designer fabrics, or fabrics from different cultures. Fabric collectors may source their fabrics from various places, such as fabric stores, online shops, flea markets, estate sales, or even by repurposing old garments or linens. The collected fabrics are typically stored and displayed, often organized by type, color, or theme. Fabric collecting does not necessarily involve the act of sewing or creating quilts, but collected fabrics may eventually be used for quilting or other sewing projects, presuming of course that the collector could bare to part with them!

In summary, quilting is a specific textile craft, whereas fabric collecting is more focused on the acquisition and appreciation of textiles. It is just as valid as any other hobby such as collecting stamps, baseball cards, dolls, or any of the myriad of oddball things people have been known to collect. So don’t be shy the next time you buy that fabric for the sole purpose of just putting it in your stash!

Quilting on the Kitchen Table – Just Roll with It

There is no need to keep reminding me

When I was a kid, the kitchen table was the hub of our home. Of course, we enjoyed all of our meals there, but countless other activities took place as well. Homework, science projects, model building, and craft projects of all kinds shared this space. Sewing projects, on the other hand, were the stuff of the living room floor. It was carpeted, plenty big enough and, as my mom would have it, immaculately clean.

Now that I’m running my own home, the living room floor is neither big enough nor clean enough to host a sewing project, so kitchen table it is. But what happens when it’s dinnertime and your project is not even close to being done? In Mom’s house, the table was always to be cleaned off minutes before 6pm, whether you were done with that model volcano or not. At my house, I can be more flexible but still, that quilt is at least two more weeks (or more?) in the making. What to do?

Eating in the living room is always an option, but in the instance that more civility is required, try just rolling it up! Start by laying down a tablecloth before you begin your project. Not the good one for holidays, the simple cotton one that won’t mind getting poked with pins. When it’s time to claim your table back, fetch one of your wrapping paper tubes – one of the big 4’ ones. It’s OK if it’s still covered in wrapping paper. You can still use that later. Start at the short end of the tablecloth and just roll your quilt up around the tube, with all your project pieces laid out on the tablecloth just as they are. Be sure to take out any quilt rulers first! Now stash the roll out of sight until your next spate of quilting. When unrolled your project will be relatively unwrinkled and all the pieces will be laid out just as you had them!

 

Can’t Seem to Finish That Quilt

None of these quilts are finished.

Like many quilters, I have an abundance of unfinished quilting projects. I feel really bad about this state of affairs. Guilt about unfinished projects even robs me of enthusiasm for starting a new project and often leaves me stuck not working on any quilt. We quilters inevitably laugh the problem off, even making jokes about how many unfinished projects we have, although I’m sure we all want to find a way to finish our quilts. Let’s take a look at some of the causes for quilt-procrastination and think about what can be done:
• Lack of motivation: Quilting is a time-consuming and often challenging hobby, so it’s important to have a strong motivation to finish each project. If you’re not feeling motivated, it can be hard to muster the energy to complete a quilt. The best way I’ve found to re-kindle motivation on a lagging project is to hang whatever you have done so far on a wall, take a step back and really appreciate what you have accomplished to date. Try to envision how beautiful it will be when it’s fully done. This simple technique always lights a spark under my sewing needle.
• Perfectionism: Quilters tend to be a very precise lot and often strive for perfection in their work, but this can be a double-edged sword. If you’re constantly trying to be perfect, you may endlessly agonize over the smallest detail and drag the production time out to eternity. Try to remind yourself that imperfections are part of the beauty and uniqueness of handmade quilts.
• Lack of time: Quilting can be time-consuming, which is especially problematic if you also have a job or kids, or both! Try breaking your quilting projects into smaller, more manageable steps that you can work on a little bit at a time. This can help you make progress even if you only have a few minutes here and there. Be sure to keep all the parts for one project together in a bag or storage container so you don’t waste valuable project time searching for your quilt parts.
• Overcommitment: If you have too many quilting projects going on at once, it can be overwhelming and make it difficult to finish any of them. It would be easy to say, “Limit yourself to one or two projects at a time”, but all quilters know that is near impossible. I find it more realistic to try to finish ONE thing from your unfinished projects pile before bringing something new into the queue.
Remember that quilting should be a fun and rewarding hobby, so try not to get too bogged down in the details. If you’re struggling to finish a quilt, take a step back and evaluate why you’re struggling, then try to make some adjustments to help you move forward.

What to Do with an Ugly Quilt

Regrets. I have a few.

When it comes to quilting, I’m more of a Process Quilter. I’m really good at the mechanics: cutting, piecing, matching points, sewing and the like. The aspect of quilting that I struggle with is color selection. Many times, I’ll “cheat” and simply chose a handful of colors all from the same line. They are pretty much guaranteed to match, but when I strike out on my own, there can be disastrous results. Aside from gifting the quilt to someone you don’t like, what should you do if you’ve inadvertently created a monster? Here are some ideas:

  • Add a Border, A Really BIG One – Presuming you haven’t quilted and bound the beast yet, you can create new interest and even distract from some negative things going on in the quilt by replacing the existing border with a different fabric or adding a new, really big border. I’m thinking 10” or more.
  • Cut It Up – I know, cutting up a quilt may be anathema to some quilting devotees, but you really haven’t had time to bond with this quilt yet and it is truly hideous. You could make piles and piles of potholders by cutting the quilt into 8” squares then binding them. Now you have emergency holiday gifts! If the quilt has some good parts, you could go a little larger and make a table runner and placemats.
  • Repurpose – I was once gifted an enormous, purple Crazy Quilt as a wedding gift. It was considerably ugly, but I did think it was nice that the maker knew I liked purple, and she definitely stuck to that theme. Color aside, it had some other problems: it was too small for our king-sized bed and, on top of that, it was unbelievably heavy. I think the batting was in fact a bunch of old blankets. Whatever was in there, if you tried to use this quilt it felt like lying under the leaded blanket at the dentist. As a result of these numerous issues, it never made it as a bed quilt. We ended up using it as a couch cover for a couple years and then we later moved, we used it as a moving blanket to protect furniture. It’s been over 30 years and I still use the quilt for moving furniture so you could say the quilt ended up having a well-loved life after all.
  • Embrace It – Maybe it will grow on you? You could always just turn it over.
  • Gift It – Someone you know has to love puce, orange and hot pink, right?
  • Use It Ironically – Tell everyone you made it and be really proud of that fact. No one will have the heart to tell you that its actually ugly.
  • Donate It – It might end up as a dog blanket, but at least you won’t have to look at it anymore.