Today’s bingo prompt is:
Tell us about your least favorite part of quilting
3 Likes
My least favorite part of quilting is sandwiching the top, batting, and bottom fabrics together. My cats love to help, and it’s a real struggle.
4 Likes
My least favorite part is the actual quilting. I struggle to push and pull the quilt through my old sewing machine throat. I don’t mind smaller projects but I feel like I have to prepare for a fight bout when it comes to the actual quilting. Summer is not the time for me to do that as I get hot and frustrated.
4 Likes
Kneeling on the floor to pin baste my layers together. After being on my hands and knees looking down at the floor for awhile, then eventually getting back up, I always get a headache. And my knees don’t like it. So I end up putting it off, and doing several at once, then taking the rest of the day off quilting to recover my will to craft.
5 Likes
All of them! Well, not really, I love quilting, but as I’m still relatively new to quilting, and still a bit out of my depth, I am still always slightly dreading every next step of the process. Especially piecing and machine quilting. My seam ripper gets a lot of use when I’m doing those two things.
5 Likes
-I MistressJennie , offer Ada’s Little Ghost Quilt for my small challenge entry (‘inspired by “quilty” media’).
-I MistressJennie , offer Otto & Max’s Little Ghost Quilts for my medium challenge entry (‘inspired by “quilty” media’).
-I MistressJennie , submit Applique face onto Ada’s ‘Ghost’ Quilt for my goal list entry .
-I MistressJennie , submit Complete baby quilt for little Otto for my goal list entry .
-I MistressJennie , submit Complete baby quilt for little Max. for my goal list entry .
-I MistressJennie , submit Ship out the baby quilts to get them out of my house! for my goal list entry . (Here’s a terrible pic of the boxes awaiting the mail carrier through the window of my studio.)
10 Likes
My poor fabric stash is a bit of a mess. I used to have it divided up by color, in bins that went in cubbies. But the cubby shelf went into Ada’s room when we moved into this house, and while my new studio is a large space, it’s also an awkward one, with no storage. There is a giant bay window on one wall, a fireplace opposite that, and the other two walls each have large double-wide doors to our foyer and dining rooms. There’s just two short sections of wall for some shelving, and my desk cuts right through the bay window. So all my folded fabric got stacked in wobbly piles, that get moved around whenever I search for something. I need to find a way to divide them into stackable bins, divided by color, more like my bead stash. Maybe in something like the plastic bins used for 12" scrapbook paper?
Smaller scraps are a bit neater, since I trim them to specific sizes, then store them in bins. But all of them are over full right now. I think I need to divide up the 2.5" squares from 1 bin into 2 or 3, so there’s room to search through them. And maybe the 2.5" strips from 1 into 2 bins. Or you know I could make a project to use a bunch of them… That might help too.
When I was in second grade my parents moved us to a village in northern New Hampshire, that was mostly vacation properties. The area was a paradise for outdoorsy folks. Which my parents were NOT. They bought a house on the cliff side of a mountain, and put in a hot tub and a bar, and expected to have a fun life there. Dad worked for FedEx, which was planning on opening a new station there. Since he had seniority, he’d be able to transfer up as soon as it opened. But in the mean time, he kept working in Manchester, which was 2 hours away. FexEx scrapped their plans and never opened a station, and it was too much of a commute, so he lived with his dad or sister during the week, and came home only on weekends. Mom was trapped at home, alone with us, and the daycare kids she watched. No adult company, literally 30 minutes to the closest place you could buy milk.
My aunt & uncle (whom they only got along with sometimes) lived a mile away. Aunt Donna took quilting classes to get out of the house (Uncle Mike also worked out of state all week), so she invited mom along. Mom dove into the hobby head first. She opened a side business making quilts, ordering fabric by the bolt, and assembly-lining a few strip patterns, or small things like potholders. Meanwhile, mom didn’t approve of the mess of toys, so we didn’t have tons of them. She gave me her old sewing machine, and scraps of fabric, and taught me to sew a straight line. I made random things with it.
As I got older I got into theatre, and used my sewing skills to make costumes for plays and Renn Faire. I didn’t want anything to do with quilting, but once I graduated college, friends started getting married. I couldn’t afford fancy gifts, so I turned to quilts. After years of curving costume pieces, the straight lines of quilt blocks were a breeze. I scavenged quilt fabrics from clearance bins, and built designs around them to give as wedding gifts. During Grad School I took a break from quilting, except for the quilt I made Jim (specifically to see if he’d break up with me, or if we were together-together). When I got my first teaching job in KY, Grad School friends were getting married, and some were having kids. I was broke, so I went back to making quilts. I had one summer where I made 8 quilts in 3 months! Deadster was such a help and inspiration to keep going, as was the internet, teaching me things like how to do free motion quilting on a domestic machine. So at the age of 44, I can say I’ve been making quilts for over 35 years.
8 Likes
Sounds like quilting not only was a necessity for you mentally, but also financially. Now, it seems to be your happy place! You are still quite the quilting machine! I have fond memories of many of your quilts on Deadster, but to be honest, what I remember you the most over there was that awesome ottoman you made! I am still so impressed with that project!
Your stash looks pretty manageable…just needs corralled into bins or baskets to match your other organized supplies!
4 Likes
What i like least about quilting is IRONING! (Hence I made Tuesdays my ironing day. I have a convoluted reason. I still usually don’t)
5 Likes
That is one of my favorite parts of quilting! I hate regular ironing, but to see the little pieces nice and tidy and crisp makes me happy. I keep my ironing board out all the time. I have a little tabletop board next to my sewing machine for quilting.
Working on my goal list and organizing my WIP projects. I have to do some mental clean up in order to get back to my projects. I have not been able to focus much and have started many random yarn and fabric projects…now I need to focus and finish them!
5 Likes
Today’s bingo prompt is:
Complete a project started prior to this quarter
4 Likes
Hey, I did that!!! 
4 Likes
@MistressJennie Yaaaaaay for a load of goals ticked off! Go you 
They are really lovely, the faces are so cute.
@gozer cat interference is very relatable. Bubbin loves getting involved and he is so cute that I have to cuddle him.
I think my least favourite part currently is free motion quilting. It feels like driving at top speed with no GPS in a car where the accelerator is either on or off.
But I got a bonus at work and I just got myself a set of Westalee rulers at the Festival of Quilts. I had a little go at the weekend, and it felt more civilised!
6 Likes
That is incredible! I love the variegated thread!!
I got some cheaper templates for Christmas, but I have no idea how to use them or what to even look up on YouTube. Can anyone share a link on how to use them? Or what to look up?
5 Likes
If you look up ‘template quilting’ on YouTube, it should bring up quite a bit of content.
Did you get a ruler foot to go with the templates?
4 Likes
I got a set like this QUILT TEMPLATES. I can’t figure out what the frame really does. I think I just need to play with it more.
Actually, there is a video with the link! I will watch that. Thanks!
3 Likes
That looks amazing! I’ve seen it in action at a quilting festival too, but I’ve been too intimidated to get a set for myself.
3 Likes
Update! Posting pics of my mess the other day guilted inspired me to do something about it. I ordered some scrapbooking boxes from Michael’s where they were on sale for half price. I got 8 of the thinner ones and when divided up, all my folded quilting cottons fit in them, back in the same shelf. I ordered 2 of the deeper ones (bottom shelf), but they only had one in stock when I went to the store for pickup. I filled that one with bundles that need to be kept together. Either fabrics that are going to be a quilt, or scraps that were already made into a quilt, and I’m hoping to make something to coordinate. I have another deep container’s worth of flannel, and one of canvas & linen. I’ll have to order those to be delivered, or see if there’s another Michael’s in driving distance.
I also ordered some smaller clear stacking bins, to hold my fat quarters, and to rearrange my processed scraps into. I should be able to fit in the 5" squares and strips and the 2.5" strips. Maybe the 2.5" squares. Ada napped today so I was able to get all of this organized into bins, and labels put on, just as she woke up. Not a bad nap’s work!
8 Likes
BINGO prompt: Share some pics of your fabric stash.
I use plastic bins of all sorts to store my fabrics. I buy cheap poster board at the Dollar Tree to insert in front, not only to see my printed labels easier, but to also block out some light that might damage the fabrics.
This is most of my fat quarters arranged by color or some by theme. I have a few duplicates that I store in other areas of my shelving or closet.
Didn’t want to bore you all with all the fabrics, but I did want to show that I actually do store my fat quarters and larger scraps in these bins. Here are the greens, pinks, turquoise and purple bins.
I also sort some fabrics by designer or speciality, like Tula Pink and Spoonflower fabrics. Black and white (I have three of these):
Yardage and other fabrics are stored on the shelves as well. My windows are coated with a UV film to allow in light but not harmful rays and I do have sheer curtains as well. Here are some more bins on the shelves and in baskets as well as fabrics I have out because I use them a lot or need for a project.
And then, there is the stuff in the closet. I keep solid fabrics, holiday fabrics, patriotic fabrics, kimono fabrics, linen, flannel, interfacing, etc. in there.Not even going to show the bins in the basement or clothing fabric…I have a lot of stash.
9 Likes
You’re so organized. Mine is just in huge bins all mixed up!
3 Likes