Do you "retire" at some point during the year?
 

I hand quilt on my lap and I take a break in the summer because it's just too hot to do it. Does anyone else take a break?

i usually dont do too much in the summer because i have large yard with
lots of flowers and three different gardens that keep me busy.

I meet with a handquilting group once a week. We have large tables to spread the quilts, so they're not on our laps + it's an air conditioned building. :) To keep my hands busy during the summer, I embroidery or do small hand work. Just now learning to handpiece "Grandmother's Garden".

Less time for quilting
 

Do many of you have to put your quilting away for awhile this time of year? The grass is growing fast and the weeds are growing faster. There's a vegetable garden to be put in and a world of clean-up work from the winter. Besides, the mornings are so pretty and so enticing that it's hard to stay indoors. I take the dog out and linger, and pull a few weeds, and dawdle, and admire the cherry tree and stall about going back inside. No regrets. The quilt will be there, won't it? In a month or two when it's not quite so inviting outside. And of course, I can always tell myself that I'm looking for inspiration, right?

Oh yes! You've got to fully enjoy the spring, and I'm sure it's lovely in TN. The winter was long enough. The quilts will always be there.

I gave up on the garden when the trees grew and shaded the yard. This is when I try to get some hand work to do so I can sit on the deck and enjoy the outdoors.

The last few days have been really nice here too. I have entertained thoughts of bringing my Featherweight out to the table on my porch. It is raining here today and we are sitting on the porch. We have a covered porch and enjoy it every day. I do handwork out here. Gardening starts next week.

I find myself with less time to quilt in the winters due to DS's hockey schedule (practice 3-4 times per week plus games) so I get as much done spring and summer as I can. It is very hot even with air conditioning but the schedule works for me. I save binding for the summers when I can take it with me to baseball practices and sit on the porch with it. So I have alot of tops done waiting to be quilted and bound all set for my summer.

My quilting certainly slows down in the summer. There's a lot more to do in the garden and social stuff picks up. I think people are just generally interested in doing fun stuff when the weather is warm so there are more things competing for my time than in the winter. I never really stop, though. In the evening, when the day is done and DH is watching television, I go spend a few hours before bedtime in my room. And I keep up with my quilt group once a week. Good company and good quilting.

In the summer I go out in my caravan taking sewing machine and my latest projects. I seem to do even more . Walking, reading and sewing. I'm sure it is the glass(es) of wine I enjoy. The days seem longer and therefore more time o enjoy myself.

I never stop quilting! I slow down a little, as I golf 3 - 5 days a week, but I don't stop quilting. I NEED it for my health! :)

I quilt and sew year around. My sewing room always has several projects going at once.

Absolutely and mostly dependent on the weather. Spring is slow to come to the northeast, therefore I think I have the ambition to piece one more quilt top before I close up shop for the summer. Do enjoy hand quilting and plan to take my tops to our cottage so I can quilt on the deck overlooking the lake before it gets too hot.

Quilting slows in spring when yard work is a priority. Since losing DH it is all mine. There are days when weather or arthritis interferes and those are days to quilt. As soon as a/c comes on its just maintain the yard and stay indoors and sew in wonderful natural light that is less common in winter. Sometimes, I resent breaks caused by priorities such as taxes, business and obligatory social functions. DH, an extrovert, thought I was antisocial sometimes. But, when I have to pause my quilting, it is hard to "rev" up again.

I still squeeze some quilting in during the summer, but it does slow down a lot. My FIL plants a big garden every year. The planting is about all he can handle, we have to do the weeding and harvesting. He will take care of the tomatoe plants and pick the tomatoes, but that is about it. My DH has also noticed that our dinners are more on the frozen side or takeout during the summer months too.

I take breaks due to health issues-then go like crazy-then another break,etc.some breaks are a week some are a month-just depends

Back when I handquilted I did tend to do less in the hot months unless I was working on something I felt so compelled to finish that I couldn't bring myself to put it down. But when it is ungawdly hot... no amount of angst over finishing is going to get me to sit under a hot quilt to handquilt so I would piece a lot more in the hot months than quilt. Now that I have a LA and my studio has AC I quilt year round but still do my bindings by hand. So again on those horribly hot humid 90+ days I will probably put the binding off until things cool down a bit.

I am retired, and live alone in an Apt. I have a few potted flowers on my steps, but no yard. I quilt year round. I clean 3 houses a week, but if Im home Im in my sewing room.

I seem to loose my passion for quilting come Spring - too much else to get done. My passion always returns in the fall.

Summer for us brings many visitors and trips. I sometimes take small projects along, other times browse quilt shops in different locations for ideas.

I have one of those old quilt frames like they used during quilting bees where the quilt is rolled from the outside on long poles and you quilt from the middle out.

But I am mostly doing table toppers and wallhangings at this time so I will be handquilting this summer.

I want to but I have a huge one that I've been working on for forever and our guild show is in October and that is my goal to get it done by!!

This is an interesting thread. Many years ago (in the early 1900's) it was typical for quilters to do all their piecing during the hot summer months, then spend the winter doing the quilting of those tops. Dh's grandmother did this, and within her small group of quilting neighbors, they hand quilted together daily in cool weather--every afternoon, until it was time to fix supper. They took turns on whose quilt top they were finishing, and at whose house it was set up, but they all worked together on it daily.

I'm also a hand quilter with limited space for a quilting frame. What method do you use for quilting in your lap? I would love to have your advice and input.

I use a big round wooden hoop keeping the quilt a little loose in it. I put up the foot rest on the recliner so it's spread out nice and neat. You?

Well, I attach 3 sides of the quilt to the frame and the rest flows over into my lap. I pin a lot so it is smooth on top and on the backing. A little unconventional but it works for me.

It never gets really really cold here so w/AC, makes it bearable. Have a big bag of yo yos and will probably work on a bag of little hexies for a Grandmother's Garden.

I slow down some and seem to spend more time on the computer looking for and printing out new patterns. when I do quilt it is usually a small project like doll quilts for the granddaughters or wall quilts. I also knit so that keeps me occupied inbetween.

Nope. The house has AC and I just keep on going.

Yes, yes, yes....I just told a friend that I wish my grass would quit growing for a week so I could cut fabric w/o feeling guilty. I try to take a break every day to each lunch on the patio and read a book for an hour - my self-imposed lunch "hour".....but then I find my gaze wandering over the roses and I take a few minutes to clip and dead-head....then back to my book.....oops there is a dead branch on that tree.....and on and on....love the weather this time of year. In a couple months it will be blazing hot.

Summers are very short here but daylight is l-o-n-g. All summer, DH & I are fishing to fill the freezer and put in the smoker as well. We are also busy picking berries to put up for the winter. It's a busy "working" summer but we love being outside and it's a treat to open a jar of berry preserves in December when there's 6 feet of snow outside and still coming down! If I do any crafting in the summer it is usually small projects, and usually crochet which I can put down and pick up for a few moments when I have time. Long dark winters provide plenty of quilting time!

I've only done limited hand quilting because of carpal tunnel, however, years ago when I was hand quilting my daughter's full size quilt I put the quilt and quilt frame on my old dining room table. My sewing room was in the basement then, I had lots of windows and light an A/C unit, TV and fan. The table let me quilt, it supported the rest of the quilt, while the fan blew cooler air under the table and I was a lot cooler. It worked for me anyway. I even made several quilts that summer, with my machine on the table and the fan blowing cool air. I was very comfortable.

Learned my lesson last summer, working on a blue jean quilt, Oh Ugh! Afternoons were just too hot, even with A/C, working in the basement, I have pledged to not quilt in the summer months.

I try to save my smaller projects for the summer months or switch to embroidery work. Can't be still & let my hands do nothing, waste of precious time.

I too have a garden and yard to do. Just love the outdoors. I have thought of taking my sewing machine out under a tree on nice days. but haven't yet. my neighbors will know I've lost my mind then. haha

I agree that it is great to be outside in the summer but if I need to have several quilting projects "on board" at all times to maintain my sanity. I only do machine quilting so cannot take it outside which I would dearly love to do. It is usually a toss-up --enjoy the outside or quilt?

Jan, Should we invite everyone to Knoxville to enjoy the Dogwood Arts Festival that is going on right now? It is a beautiful time of year here in east TN.

I usually do not do much quilting in the summer because it is too warm, I piece tops and when the weather cools off I start quilting again. We also have a big garden and we do lots of outdoor stuff with our daughter and her family during the summer.

Spring was my favorite time to push a machine outside to quilt. For hand quilting, I put it on a table to keep it off my lap. No table, how about a good old fashioned quilting frame? 1 x2 x8feet with 4 "c" clamps.

Oh,I shouldda added that now I have a long arm so don't push that outside.