When Perimeters Change
 

Group A -
You've made your decision. The quilt will be this size. You have cut all your fabric and are ready to sew. Then you change your mind and say "Maybe I'll make it just one more row larger." That's okay. You have enough of that fabric. You just have to drag it back out again.

Group B -
Or you change your mind and decide that it would look better just a bit smaller. Now you have extra pieces. Some folks like to take extra blocks and maybe put them on the back, or keep them for a table topper, or a scrappy etc. in the future.

Which group are you in?
This afternoon I found myself in group A. (and this is not the first time). Since it is already a scrappy, there is no danger of running out of fabric for this project. But getting the fabric back out again, finding the piece I want to use more of, and lining it up, sometimes seems like a bother. Am I strange for not being able to stick to a decision?

Once I buy fabric for a quilt, I stick with my plan. Too tedious to change my mind mid-quilt. If I change my mind, I buy more fabric and make a second quilt.

You're not alone. I do it all the time. Still haven't decided if I want
to add two rows or not to my quilt.

I change my mind all the time! I have learned to buy an extra half yard whenever I select fabric for a quilt. Sometimes the original idea is so good you just have to make it bigger! Yep definitely Group A here.

i'm in both groups all of the time. i often wait for the quilt to speak to me about size.

I'm in both groups too, depending on mood and design.

I have been in both groups. When I buy fabric for a project, it ALL goes in a 2 gallon zip lock bag. And everything for the project goes back in it even the pattern, until it is quilted and binding is done. That way it isn't a big deal to find it if I make a change. Extra blocks go in a neat pile to hopefully be used later.
Mike

I'm fluid from start to finish. I never rigidly stick to a plan if the quilt seems to need something else instead.

Sometimes I start in group A and then don't pay attention as to how many additional blocks I really need. That puts me in group B with extra blocks which most often get donated to the community service group at the guild.

Usually group A.

I've always said that my projects tend to take on a life of their own part way thru.

I usually stick with the original plan and tell myself I'll make the next one bigger/smaller.

I am in group a, especially when making scrappy quilts.

You are not alone. I have done both. Sometimes I just add another border to make the quilt larger. Depends on the quilt.

I seldom start with a plan. Most of the quilts I've made take on a life of their own.

Sometimes running out of one of the fabrics is the deciding factor.

You are not alone. I have made changes to my original quilt size on several occasions. I know this is a possibility and always purchase a little extra fabric just in case I need more.

Both. I don't usually plan quilts, just start working with the fabric and go from there.

Rob

You're not alone. I'm constantly changing my mine in the process of picking out the fabrics and in which order, changing them even after I've already started cutting into them. Now I lay them out onto the cutting table and leave them there sometimes for weeks. I'll walk past them and look at them to see if I still like the order I have them in. Sometimes I'll make up one block with my fabrics to see if I like how I placed the fabrics. Think this takes me longer than making the actual quilt. Then comes the quilting layout. We won't even go into that subject...........takes me even longer.

I am usually in Group A, but the dilemma I often run into, is I want to make it bigger, but don't have enough fabric! I am trying (with some success) to use fabric from my stash, so if along the way I want to change my "perimeter" sometimes I can't since I can't get more of the "stash" fabric.

Can there be a group C? I never am quite sure what my quilt will look like till it's almost done. I make changes all along the way and use lots of different fabrics.

Letting the quilt take me where it wants to go is how my quilts get made. As blocks are coming together and they are really fun to make the quilt will surely be bigger. Sometimes a quilt will end up cut into scraps. Then I might have a few blocks on the wall and somebody needs a table runner for a gift so I will adapt those blocks into what I need at the moment.

A beautiful fabric that I would hate to cut will become a backing and the quilt will be as big as that backing will allow.

I almost never follow a pattern all the way through and change it up to my liking or need.

One thing I never do is cut the fabric for a whole quilt before I start sewing it together. I piece my quilts by cutting a few blocks at a time and build it slowly. I figure What if I cut the fabric wrong or don't like the pattern. I haven't wasted all that fabric.
peace

I belong t group A also.

Usually group A. When I finish a top, I will pick it up and wrap it around myself and think about the size of the person it is intended and usually end up adding more. I'm not very good at judging size by looking at ##'s

I don't fit in any category all the time either. Just yesterday I bought 'some' fabric and have no idea what I will make, it's like it just made me buy it. Someday I will know, but by then I'll be in category D.

I am with you sewbizgirl....i never put fabrics back in my stash until flimsy is completed, and binding strips are cut. :)

Judy in Phx, AZ

Often I tell my students and my customers that your quilt will talk to you - so listen! Sometimes it wants a certain color in the border or needs a bright snap in cornerstones or it wants to be a different size. Go with it because that is your gut coming thru and knows what it wants. Sometimes we let our head get in the way of what we know we really want.

I'm in group C also!

I think I'm group "C" too. I like to call myself a "seat of the pants" quilter. Sometimes I don't have a pattern at all, just an idea. And when I DO have a pattern, it's almost always something I've come up with myself, and I typically refine and change it as I go.

It's more fun for me, that way. :)

The hubs says I need to stick to the plan but I like to be "flexible".

I'm in C or D with every project, starting out with a picture of a quilt where I either like the color or a specific block. I never know what the end result will be.

I start with a plan, but as I go along I let the quilt and others speak to me. I found I have lousy "vision", and other people who watch it progress, make comments that make the quilt better than I had planned. So I flow as it grows. It works for me. So I think it makes me "all of the above"