cricket_iscute

As I've skimmed through this thread, I hear questions on time management, expense, and quality of those who make multiple quilts. I also hear questions about motive. Let me try to address those areas.

I am one of the people that puts out a lot of quilts, usually at least 20 a year, one year was 63. I make mostly quilts for homeless families, many of them for adults, but have decided to make some for myself now, plus homeless. I have given away 425 quilts since 1996 and have 20 done this year already. I have another 18 or so that are completed tops and need backs or have backs and need to be quilted or tied. I can usually cover every man, woman and child in at least one shelter, and some years I can cover three or more shelters.

Why do I do this? I do this because a few years back, I was seriously injured and couldn't work for 2.5 years and without my income we came within three weeks of losing the house before I gratefully took the job from hell in an awful economy. Medical expenses, after insurance, were over $100,000. I am permanently disabled. I had to give really serious thought to how we would survive, where we - two college educated professional people -- would live (in a truck?), how to get clean, how to get medical care, how to be safe, how to survive. As a result of that situation, I had compassion for people who are homeless and probably don't have the advantages I have or had. No, I'm not obsessive-compulsive, but I do feel that this is God's work and I think that is why I have stuck with it despite numerous discouragements. In the process, I've learned a great deal about homeless people. I've also learned that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and that most people who say they will help, don't. Or if they do, they want their machine to be repaired first, and soon they feel they have done enough.

From time to time, I've had help from others, but usually it takes so much time and effort to organize the help that I find it is more time efficient to do it alone or with just one or two people. I should tell you that I have mastered time management over the years, to the point that I have been asked to teach it to companies and in community colleges. People are always astonished by how much I can get done, although I've slowed down since I've been forced into retirement. One of my tricks is to always leave a machine set up and sew if I have 20 minutes. I will tell you that I put myself under a heck of a lot of pressure during November and December to get as many quilts out the door as possible, and that was normally the busy time at work also. And I normally took university classes, too, and that's when it was busy for finals.

Expense is more of an issue since I retired. Prior to that, I spent about $1,500 a year on the homeless quilt project. However, because I've been doing this since 1996 and so many people have seen the quilts and know about the project, I have had a lot of fabric donations - usually scraps - and have a good homeless stash now. My main expenses are batting and thread. Seldom does anyone give me batting. Seldom do I receive big enough pieces for backing, so when I found a going-out-of-business sale for on-the-bolt fabric for $2 a yard or less, I bought a lot, over $200 worth and have been using that for batting. These days, my expenses are up to $500 a year for homeless quilts (mostly batting), and being retired, I try to keep that down.

The quality of my quilts has improved over the years. The quilts I put out now, including binding, quilting, piecing, etc., could go stitch-by-stitch with just about anybody's quilts. The exceptions would be when I use the homeless quilts to learn new fmq or straight-line quilting designs. Even so, they are good and warm quilts, very durable. They will keep someone warm and hold up. Most of my quilts are string pieced, since that's mostly what I get for donations. It takes me about 20 minutes to make a block (the strings are already prepared) and it takes 35 blocks of 12.5 inches square to make an adult quilt. That might sound quick, but there is a lot of other work associated with it, such as the fabric preparation, the sandwiching, the quilting, and the binding. On average, with all work considered, it takes me 70 to 100 hours for most quilts. I do refine my methods as I go and try to keep that time down. I machine quilt and tie quilts, depending on what the quilt needs and my time available. I normally do a batch of tops, a batch of sandwiching, a batch of quilting, a batch of tying, a batch of binding, and I usually have about five or 6 quilts in a batch. I also receive some help from other quilters from time to time. I sometimes do patterns that take more time, and when I do, my points do match and my seams - such on checkerboard quilts - do match. It's just how I am. I seldom do much reverse sewing.

The downside to doing this is the reception I sometimes get at shelters. I covered every person in one shelter for 12 years running, until they started taking me for granted and would not even give me a receipt, never mind a thank you. Another shelter just told me to "put the quilts down and leave" when I had asked to be able to give them to individuals, and when would most people be available? But some people are very grateful. One shelter had 20 young women who were trying to break addictions. I went in there a few days before Christmas and told them Merry Christmas, my name is Cricket, and I make quilts. Would they like some? They were moved to tears and I got many hugs. I asked what it meant, and they said that many people looked down on them, and I treated them like worthwhile people. Plus, they loved the quilts. At another shelter, that sentiment was echoed, and one woman, who had been burned out of her home, said the quilt was like gold to her, the only thing she owned, and she thought it was beautiful. At some shelters, I am invited to their Christmas parties or to dinner.

Have I answered most of the questions? I welcome feedback or questions.