I have a UFO problem

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No, not aliens! 😀 I tallied up all the quilt tops I have in progress, including ones that were partially cut or partially pieced, and a couple that are for now just a pile of selected fabric and an idea.

There’s NINE of those.

Then I counted up all the quilt tops I have finished, including ones with back slected, all the way up to ones that are quilted (see previous entry), or basted, or I really need to get batting and/or backing for. Yeesh. Sometimes backing is the hard part!

There’s 10 or 12, I started to loose count., And yes, I KNOW! That’s a terrible problem.

This also does not count two baby quilts I have to make, and the fabric is literally on the way here. Oops? I jst did not really have any baby boy fabrics and both of them are for baby boys. Thankfully not born yet, so I still have, what – a year or so? 😉

Do you have a problem like this or is it just me?

p.s. – I’m trying really hard not to count the quilts I want to make but just have not pulled fabric for yet. Or a pile of fabrics that need to decide on a pattern. Easily a half dozen or two. *sigh* I DO have a problem don’t I?

 

How long does it take?

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Sometimes people ask me how long it takes to quilt and I honestly don’t know. Do you track time, even loosely? I know it’s hours here, even on the super fast projects, but still.

Last night I was able to figure out how long I spent at it, and this afternoon I took a short break to wind more bobbins. Then I did more quilting. Then I realized I was almost done so I finished.

Whups.

So all told, on the crazy bright improv quilt I did, the special custom quilting took about 2 hours. That seems about right.

I know on some baby quilts I did previously in fast meandering, they took about a half hour, because I also like to go fast.

I’ll try and remember to track time on a larger piece.

Back in the swing of it

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Now that the room is up, I’ve been making time to spend down there. I also got some Craftsy classes, including Quilting Negative Space. I’m a HUGE fan of Angela already and this class is just great. I’m really enjoying it, even though I listen along as I’m making supper.

Tonight I had the itch to quilt so I decided to practise some patterns from Angela’s book along with encouragement from her course. I already had a baby quilt laying in a sad pile waiting for me to figure out how to do it. I took Angela’s advice to break it up into smaller sections. It’s improv pieced so there’s no real background, but since it’s so wild, I figured it was a great chance to practise different techniques all over it.

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Here I did two long pieces near the middle to start off and warm up.

 

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You can see the loops, back and forth (love this) and some swirls.

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Close up of doing the all over leaf pattern in the next “block”.

 

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In this block I marked a single line diagonally across then followed it to make the sunburst effect. I love how it feels.

 

 

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Two more long strips gave me the opportunity to try the swirl scroll and woodgrain. The scroll needs some work, but it’s good enough!

 

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And there’s all the work I did this evening. Halfway done!

It was quite fun doing a different design in each section or strip.

 

Update: I actually went through a whole bobbin last night, did a quick bit this morning and ran out of the *second* bobbin,

Sewing room again, finally

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We moved, again, but into a bigger rental. I finally have a sewing room! It’s in the basement, but still pretty light. I rearranged things a couple times to suit me.

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Here it is before I started. And this is missing a few boxes of fabrics.

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I now have a really nice sewing station. I’m left handed so I like to have everything off to my left, and give myself loads of space for quilts.

 

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This is my to-do pile. Oops. I have a tendency to start things, but I’m not so good at the finishing. I’m going to try and finish up what I can, and since I took this pic, sorted the pile into almost done, halfway there and need to start. Needless to say one of those piles got put aside.

 

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This was a first pass at organizing the room.

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I added a bookshelf but still felt a little hemmed in, especially when I realized with a bit of rearranging, I could get more empty floor space.

 

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Ah, that’s better! Move the to-do pile, switch the ironing station and the bookshelf and suddenly the room is wide open again!

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This is my somewhat sorted pile of stuff to finish already. My motivation it is a mess, and by finishing it up I can get rid of the mess too.

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Under the other side of my table you can see my sewing machine bag and another bag I have for accessories, as well as two bins of fabric and a very large bag of scraps.

I also got rid of the pile of plastic boxes of fabric by filling up the dresser. While I do like to see as much fabric as I can, it will also help me not start any new quilt tops for a while.

The list is rather long, as I have some sewing projects and garments I want to make for people so I stuffed those piles off in the corner.

I should still make a list though.

holiday sewing

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I’m horribly behind here I know. The holidays threw me off, then we thought about moving (again) and packed up everything. So not a lot of sewing was done.

Here’s what I did do, if only for my own list.

Finishes –
finished reb purse
ayla’s quilt finish
izzy’s jammies
ipad cover

Progress –
started floral quilt
worked on fibonnachi quilt

I finally have a sewing room again after 8 months and boy did I miss it. More in the next post. 🙂