Ladies, if you have extra quilt tops laying around, why not send them to Jan in Va. She is collecting quilts to send to some lonely soldiers in Afganistan. She will take the tops and have them quilted and finished. Her SIL has more than 100 men under his command and has asked for a little color to boost the men's morale. If you can help, please contact her. Support our troops.[/quote]

I do Quilt of Valor for the troops and let me tell you, it is one of the most wonderful, satisfying quilting gifts you can give, so please send those UFOs to Jan. It will help the men and women we so very much depend on.

[quote=justme2]I love making quilt tops,from K size to miniatures.The whole process from planning,cutting & piecing is fun,but not finishing them.Can't hand sew & my machine "quilting"is a joke :-)
So my worst problem is piling up quilt tops.Once it's done, I'm off to next one....& so it goes.
How do others handle that? What is your solution? Do you have a bad quilting habit.


Well, I am one of the outnumbered on here because I absolutely have to finish what I started or it drives me crazy. I love the process from designing my pattern, cutting, piecing, quilting and binding. I do think about my next project but know I have to complete the one I'm working on before I begin again. So maybe that's my bad habit.....start to finish or nothing else.

To all with unfinished quilts: Have you considered trying some of the
ladies on the Long Arm Quilters list? Personally, I have done some
"freebies" of lap/baby quilt size as an incentive for possible paying/future
orders. Perhaps others on the LAQ list have incentives to help you
realize the beauty of a finished quilt.

I am the same way. I make tops and then on to the next one. I am trying really hard right now to quilt the ones that I have done. This takes a lot discipline for me.

I'm real bad at finishing too. My mother always tells me that I need to stop buying craft materials and use what I have or finish something I started. I have some UFOs that are 10 years or more old. Just last January, I cut out the material for three quilts but I have not started actually sewing the tops yet because I got bored. Oh well...

I guess I am too good at finishing projects or too good at "switching horses midstream".

I got my longarm in June and had no completed tops with backs to put on the machine until this weekend! I had one top 90% done that just needed an outer border. But then I didn't have enough fabric for backing so went on a stash raid and made the backing out of orphan blocks, some leftovers from the top and yardage. So I finally got my first quilt on it and am just getting started with longarming it.

I have another top almost done but then nothing in que except fabric picked out for the next 4 projects.

I also must have hand work to do while watching TV. So I do have one that I am handquilting that has been a WIP for over 2 years now.

As most of you have already stated - there is no "bad quilting habit" just have to find your system.
For myself, I too love making the tops but I have also learned that once I can no longer close the top on the tub I store them in it's time to sandwich and quilt them.
I always start with the smaller ones, getting warmed up for the larger ones and to be honest I've only quilted up to a queen size quilt.
Quilting is my second love, my first is designing and handsewing stuffed animals. So needless to say, I filter lots of animals in between the quilts I make.
If I had to confess to a bad habit, it's the fact that I can leave all my stuff sprawled out in my craft room and when I need to leave it all, I just close the door. I do clean it once a month but in between - boy is my face red and it does explain why I use "Covered in Threads" when signing off on things. ;0)

It is not 'cheating' to let someone else quilt them. I once took a class from a teacher who said, "When I have finished a quilt top my relationship with that piece is over. I have already designed the next one in my head and am anxious to move on. Someone else can quilt it!"

Furthermore, she stated that by the time the quilt is ready for borders she's ready to move on and has to force herself to finish. I tend to fall into this category. I currently have 2-3 quilts that need borders and I've lost count how many need quilting! LOL
Peggy in Fla

I love making quilts and I have been known to have quite a few tops waiting to be quilted, but I know that I will never be able to do them all. My solution has been to quilt and/or tie most of my smaller projects, but I have found someone who does a wonderful job of machine quilting and I will send up to four at a time for her to do and she sends them back to me to finish up with the binding. Took me a long time to get over the guilt of not quilting myself, but I think this solution suits me very well.