Tag Archives: cleaning

This is No Time for Cleaning

If you have time to clean, you have time to quilt

I hate cleaning. There are no two ways about it. If given the choice between cleaning and literally any other task, I would choose anything else. Cleaning takes hours and hours and hours every week, and for what? For the privilege of doing it all over again? Let’s do some simple math. Let’s say you do the absolute minimum of cleaning – barely doing a load of laundry per week, making dinner every night for seven nights (wait, didn’t I just make dinner last night?), the lamest job possible in keeping the bathroom tidy… just slightly above grime-inducing levels, and let’s just forget about ever putting anything away or keeping your office space from attracting mice. Even with the very minimal of Cinderella duties, we are talking at least two hours of cleaning per day literally flushed down the drain. What could you have done with those fourteen hours instead? You could have made an entire quilt top! Why, YES, Eleanor Burns, you really can make a quilt in a day! A pretty long day, but still technically a day.

You could have made seven of the very cute Baby Puzzle Ball, a pattern from Sew Fun®. You could have made at least a half dozen quilted placements. You could have made enough themed potholders for your entire neighborhood potluck club! I think you are getting the message. Time spent quilting is time better spent than cleaning, or even cooking for that matter – don’t get me started! When you make a quilt, it stays made. When you make your bed, well you are just going to have to do that again tomorrow. Your path is clear! Just sweep everything on your kitchen table into a box and set it on the floor. Now you have a whole clean space to start your next quilting project!

Clutter vs. Creativity

That’s not CLUTTER, that’s CREATIVITY!
I have heard some creative types say that they “need” clutter around them so that they can be creative. They assert that having lots of different things around them helps them to get inspiration. I think this is true to some degree, for example if you have a specific project in mind and you are trying to choose a fabric or color scheme. But having so much stuff in your workspace that you can’t actually work may be inspiring but it is ultimately going to be a detriment to productivity. So where is the happy medium? Here are a few tips on how you can be inspired with out being overwhelmed.

  • Design Wall – Quilters use design walls to lay out quilt blocks during the design process. But when you are not using it for that, you can use a design wall as an “inspiration” board. Pin fabrics you like to it to see how well they go with others. Pin up printouts of inspirational objects and projects you find online. Many times, it’s more motivating to see a photograph of something where you can sit back and take it in from a distance rather than staring at it closely on the computer screen.
  • Organized Supplies – I find it very helpful to have my supplies nearby where I can see them but not have them right under my nose. I keep my fabric on bookcases across from my desk so I can “browse” through it, just like a library! I keep my supplies such as buttons, buckles and a myriad of other notions in clear plastic bins on a nearby shelving unit. This way its easy to see what I have and easy to come up with ideas.
  • Clean Up Fridays – When I worked in Corporate America as an Engineering Manager for a software company, I had a little rule for myself. Friday afternoons I always cleanup up my desk. This was for two reasons:
    1. By 3pm on Friday I was usually so fried I wasn’t good for doing any real work, so cleaning up was at least something productive I could do
    2. More importantly, this ensured my desk would be ready to function first thing on Monday when there was usually some crisis happening first thing in the morning

    Try cleaning up your creative space on Friday afternoon. Put away patterns, hang up rulers and rotary cutters, sweep up cookie crumbs, toss fabric scraps into a bin and fold up the bigger pieces. Even if you are in the middle of a project, this once weekly re-set will keep your workspace from getting out of control and keep the creativity flowing.

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Three Ways to Save Time Binding Your Quilt

Anything but binding!

You’ve spent weeks making the perfect quilt but now it’s time for the worst part – binding. Many quilters consider it a tedious but necessary evil. Here are some suggestions for making the binding process a little easier:

  • Continuous Strip Binding – Continuous strip binding is the most common method of binding and has the advantage of providing two layers of fabric to protect the edge of your quilt. The binding is usually machine sewn to the front of the quilt and hand stitched to the back. You can save tons of time by machine sewing the binding on the back, but this can sometimes have the unwanted side effect of showing a machine stitching line on the front that is not so straight. This problem is easily solved by machine sewing the binding the back first, then finish by folding the binding to the front and machine stitching on the front. This way, you can see what you are doing on the front and neatly machine stitch the perfect distance from the edge of the binding.
  • Self-Binding – Self-binding is significantly less time consuming than the traditional continuous strip binding and it’s a great way to show off a really pretty backing fabric. With self-binding, the backing fabric also doubles as the quilt’s binding. Simply cut the backing fabric a couple of inches larger than the quilt. Press the fabric once towards the quilt, matching the cut edge of the binding to the edge of the quilt, then press again over the front of the quilt and top stitch. The disadvantage is your binding will only be one layer thick. If your quilt is going to receive a lot of wear and tear, you might want to endure the continuous strip binding.
  • Pillowcase Method – You can avoid binding all together with this method! Simply cut your backing the same size as the quilt, sew together with right sides facing, leaving an opening large enough for turning right side out. Blind stitch the opening closed and finish by tying. You won’t be able to quilt the layers by traditional means because the quilt could get really scrunched up and distorted but think of the time you’ll save!

Whichever method you chose, the sooner your binding is done, the sooner you can start your next quilt!

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