Auditioning quilting designs

Short post as I continue to clear up some ME quilts.

Many quilters use different ways to audition quilting designs before marking or stitching on the quilt. Some use clear erasable acetate or white boards. I prefer to use wax paper. I buy it in large quantities like this.....


It's clear enough I can see the fabric below it..... but opaque enough I don't accidentally run off the edge of the paper onto the quilt top. I use dry erase markers for the drawing and....


I can fold up the paper..... with the design I actually use.... and file it with my copy of the intake sheet. If in the future the customer says they want the same design I used before..... I can look it up in the files.

I'm back

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I was without internet for three or four days. It was an att problem of some kind. It took some phone calls to tech support to get it back.

All the customer Christmas quilts are finished. All my quilts as gifts are finished.... time for reorganizing. Yea!! But wait.... I still want to enjoy the holidays. I'll not push myself too much on the cleaning and just enjoy the season for a few days. Maybe I will think about items to buy at the after Christmas sales and start making a list.

On another subject....

I've decided to NEVER buy anything from Hancock fabric ever again.! I won't go into details but over the weekend I had an experience at one of the stores that I do not want to repeat in the future! It looks like a company.... struggling to keep from closing all its stores..... would care more about how the clerks treat the paying customers.

Geeze..... that place clearly needs secret shoppers to report to the headquarters! It felt as if the clerks really didn't want to sell anything. Like they were deliberately trying to get customers upset enough not to buy. I couldn't help but wonder if the clerks realized their attitude would eventually get their store closed and put themselves out of a job?

They don't have to worry about me buying from there again. It won't matter to me if ALL the Hancock stores close. Hmmm.... I wish I knew the email address of the main headquarters.... I'm curious if they have a different attitude there.... if a customer complained?

Explaining the quilt kit logic

I thought I would elaborate a little more about my thinking process when creating my quilt kit idea......

I would love the luxury of having my stash look like this all the time.... (all double folded and ready to be cut)


Unfortunately, it often looks like this....


What happens? Well, the donated fabrics come to me in things like this.... (neckties)



Or this.... (a box is under there somewhere)


Or like this.... (great fabric for backs and some upholstery fabric samples)


Or this.... (left over t-shirt backs I want to use for rugs)


Professional quilting is a deadline driven business. I work on the deadlines given me by the customers. Having many deadlines to meet.... I don't always have time to stop and sort fabrics at the moment they are given to me. I have to set it aside..... in the container it arrives in.... until I can sort through it later to put into a more logical order. Over the course of a year, the containers continue to arrive..... pile up.... to eventually take over my stash room.

The quilt kits are:

(1) donated UFOs somebody couldn't finish
(2) quilts a family member asks me to make
(3) charity quilts I plan to make from my own stash
(4) contest quilts I hope to finish in time
(5) art quilts for various charity organizations
(6) a pattern I see somewhere that intrigued me

I use the time between the end of the Christmas rush and the start of the new year as me time to sort and decide what fabric will eventually be made into what quilt in the coming year. I'm taking what is piled and bunched up clutter.... to create an organized clutter. My logic is.... if it must stay in my stash room as clutter..... then at least all the pieces for each quilt are in one bag instead of scattered in different places throughout the room. What is not put into a kit gets put into my stash for easy access.... until it piles up again.

Granted... some of the kits won't become quilts this year or maybe even the next. I already have 75 kits in there. Its not possible for me to do them all in one year plus all the commission work I will get. BUT... when I do pull out a kit I don't have to ask myself.... what was I thinking when I put these fabric together in the bag. The pattern or idea sheet will be there too.

Creating kits doesn't stifle my creativity. I do start new quilts through the year. I can shop my stash or the LQS for just the right fabrics. I don't always find all the right fabrics in one store during one trip. I will have an idea, draw out the design... then start gathering the fabrics.... over a few weeks or months... each time I shop.

When I start gathering fabrics for my next quilt idea.... it will become a kit. Why? Well it goes back to an art quilt I began creating in September 2006. A quilt I've been working on for the past year. In October of 2007 I finished the center of the quilt..... went to get the border fabric..... eee gad..... I realized I had cut up and used the border fabric in a different quilt. I started a search for a replacement couple of yards to finish my quilt. The fabric is no where to be found.... anywhere. I've had customers check quilt shops all around the country on their vacations...... no luck. I searched dozens of on line sites for quilt shops, lost fabric, etc...... no luck.

I don't want this to happen again. From now on... when I buy fabric for a quilt... it goes into a quilt kit until the whole thing is finished... then it will go into my stash.

A new year about to begin....

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Today's finished quilt. A small one that I said I would do IF I could. Well I found I could.



Its hard to see in the flowered part but it has a leaf design.



I've been getting ready for my daughter's baby shower this weekend. There is snow and rain and sleet in the forecast. I hope everyone shows up in spite of the weather.

I've been working but it feels like I'm moving at a snails pace the last couple of days. It's just the.... after the rush... the body catches up..... thing going on. Today there are some custom made quilt orders coming in for the new year. It will probably be 6 or more from clothing. The Christmas rush is barely over and it starts all over. (smile) I like knowing my income is steady.

Ok, short post today..... I want to finish up a custom quilt to get it out of the way before next week. Next week is a time for family and fun.

Mother Nature is confused

Today's finished quilt. It didn't have to be finished until after Christmas. I had some time while waiting on a new customer so I thought I would work on it. I didn't want to be organizing in the back part of the house and not hear her knock. The customer didn't show up.


I put a kind of flower on the outside border.


Cross hatching on the inside border.


And a form of line dancing and flower petals in the blocks. This is a view from the back which shows the stitching better.


While the people out west were shivering and trying to stay safe.....Mother nature has become confused here. The weather was so warm that the wild chives (not onions) decided to shoot up. These are actually from some chives I had growing in a pot on the porch. I let them go to seed and the wind blew some seeds into the yard.


Even the dandelions and bees got fooled.


I hope all those in the grip of the ice storms are staying home and staying safe.