A Productive Spell

It’s a crafter’s dilemma – should I finish each project before starting another?  Or is it okay to have multiple projects going at once?

I like to have multiple projects going, but I like to concentrate on one stage of the process at a time. For example with quilts, my starting point is one or two fabrics that I want to use up.  I have a vague plan, and as I start cutting those feature fabrics, I end up hauling out piles of other fabrics to see what else wants to go in the quilt.  Random scraps and pairings give me new ideas and I want to put those combinations together while they are fresh in my mind.

I have a folding table up in the living room to use for a cutting and pinning table.  I lay the quilts out on the bed in the guest room to choose the next fabric, and then I sew and iron in the sewing room.  I am constantly walking from room to room.  So while all the mess is already out the creativity is flowing, I go ahead and piece multiple small quilts.  These are the four I have done over the last two weeks.

Donation quilts, summer 2015.

Donation quilts, summer 2015.

This first one finishes up the rest of the fabric I used for a baby quilt back in January.   It will be a dedication quilt for the church where our quilt group meets.  (They let us meet for free, and even provide us with the materials for the dedication quilts, so I am happy to do at least one a year for them.)  I put this one together “stitch and flip” so I will add a binding.

Dedication quilt.

Dedication quilt.  The red line down the middle of the central panel is just basting; it will come out.

 

Here is the back of that quilt.

Here is the back of that quilt.

The blue lap quilt will go to the VA hospital.  They have women patients too so hopefully this will be appropriate for one of them.  I put these layers together “pillowcase style”, so I will just have to quilt lightly and then sew up the top edge.

For the VA hospital.

For the VA hospital.

The next one, very girly, will go to one of the organizations for kids in the hospital.  Most of these fabrics were donated to our quilting group, and I have been meaning to put them together for about three years!  This one went together “pillowcase style” too.

Intended for a child in a hospital.

This last one will go the VA hospital too.  I had only this small piece of fabric with the parrots, and another small piece of batik with blue and bronzy-green motifs.  Then it was a challenge to find other fabrics to put with those two.  The grass green strips nearest the parrots are pretty bright, but I have a lot of this green and it needs to go cheer up someone else besides me.  I put this one together “stitch and flip,” so it will need to be bound.

I really wish I had more of the batik fabric with the big blue octagons.

I did buy the bright pink fabric (but on sale!) but I had the other two backing fabrics on hand.

I did buy the bright pink fabric (but on sale!) but I had the other two backing fabrics on hand.

I really enjoy doing concentrated piecing for a week or two.  Now I can put away the boxes of scraps, and pick up the thread scraps on the floor, and get back to all the tasks I neglected during this quilt blitz.  The next stage will be fitting in an hour or two each evening, to sit quietly in one place and work on improving my machine quilting skills as I bring these quilts to completion.

Category : Quilting, Sewing
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