Taking Time To Bring Some Order out of Chaos

I have the two tops finished, and am getting ready to quilt, which means MAJOR CLEAN UP TIME; I like a clear table top when I quilt and all my extraneous stuff has to be put away. Meanwhile, I am also cutting out bags – quilts for the Pensacola Quilt Guild Show must each have their own bag – and so I had to take down my batting bin. And I had to open each piece to see if I had enough for one of the quilts (I did.)

As I was putting them back, I thought “I do this all the time, open up, measure . . . why don’t I just label them like I used to?” So I took a minute – well, maybe five minutes, but barely – and labeled quilt leftovers so I would know what I have without undoing and measuring every time.

Ah! I feel so orderly!

Quilt Show Dilemma

Every quilter is different. I know many quilters make quilts exactly as the instructions say, some even buy quilts with all the fabrics provided. I’m just not wired that way. Sometimes I will see something I like, but I don’t want THAT exact quilt, I like some of the ideas, so I let it simmer for a while, and then incorporate an idea into something I want to do.

So I get inspiration from quilts. Right now, I am simmering a cheddar quilt. I’ll know it when I see it. I want to do a Hunter’s Star. I want to do several more quilts in blue and white; they soothe my soul.

Right now, I am readying quilts for a Pensacola quilt guild show coming up in Pensacola March 16 and 17 (9 am to 5 pm); the quilts are due on March 10th.

Two are finished. One top of the two remaining is finished, just needs to be sandwiched and quilted. One top I am still working on.

The one I am working on is not the quilt I planned. I have some gorgeous fabrics I bought years ago; they have been simmering. The are from Den Haan and Wagenmaker and I thought I was going to do a traditional Tree of Life quilt, but things have worked out very differently.

My problem is that I am having a lot of fun working on the quilt, and I have a deadline. What I know about myself is that I am not a person who works well under pressure. Yes, I can do it. No, I don’t like to do that to myself, and I don’t feel I do my best work that way. When I hurry, I make mistakes. I am having a great time, and I love what is coming out of all this, but lurking in the back of my mind is that I really, really, need to get these two quilts done.

I am doing some applique. I really love applique. I love it a lot more than I love quilting. I haven’t been in Pensacola long enough to know anyone I want to quilt my quilts for me, and I guess it is a little anal but there is a part of me that really won’t like what someone else does. I don’t always like what I do, and I can read my own mind! So part of what worries me is that while I am having fun with the applique part, I have the stinky quilting part in front of me, and it isn’t a quilt until it’s quilted.

I need to take a few days from the quilt I am having so much fun with and quilt the other top; that way I will have three quilts of the four I have promised. I keep meaning to do that. . . but I see a space I could work on, you know, the light is perfect, I’ll just take a few minutes . . . and another day and the good light for quilting is gone.

I still have a month. A month and a couple days. That’s a lot of time, if I use it wisely . . .