But if that happened Betty Ruth, you'd only do it once.!!!!!!

Not so. I put the needle through my fingers (or thumb) so many times that I learned not to yank my digit back and tear the flesh but to hold still and carefully back the needle out of my finger. The fact that my mother started me on the sewing machine at age 7 might have something to do with the number of accidents I had. Betty

I don't like the planning of how much material to buy and I either go way over or I'm running back to get a 6" piece so I can finish.I'm not too keen on the sandwiching either I find it easier to do my quilt in sections so it's easier to bast and quilt. The back has seams but who turns them over, anyway, except another quilter :lol:
I get the sore fingers too and have to let them rest at times.
But face it we love the end, and I like binding them cause I know they are about done.

Hi all,

I have been quilting for 40 years. It is funny I don't see myself as 57. I guess it hits home the most when I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and see my mother . In the last 8 years I have suffered from a chronic autoimmune disease that has made me really get my life in order. I come at everything from a new perspective. I have kind of trained my mind to take me somewhere more pleasant when I have to endure things that are unpleasant or irritating. It works for the everyday chores we all have to do like cleaning, food prep and household chores like cleaning the cat box. I kind of focus on the end result and the other less pleasant parts seem to go by quickly. As a result of my illness I have to pace anything I do or pay in pain.
What I like best about quilting is picking out the fabrics, imagining the finished results and the hand quilting. I have enough finished quilts to be able to change my bedding probably ten times a year. I also could paper my walls with smaller items. I have given away a multitude of quilts to friends and relatives and regulary make Linus and other chairty quilts for various causes. I hand quilt for other people as that is what I do best.
THis week I am making lap robes and bed covers for our wounded soldiers in hospitals. The amputees like to have something to cover their injuries when they have visitors. It makes their visitors more comfortable and lets them focus on their loved ones and less on their obvious injuries. I had fun going through my stash and pulling out blues, reds and mixtures that looked even the least bit patriotic. I tore the fabrics into various width strips and peiced them together on my serger. Then I cut theminto 12 inch blocks and sewed them together into either a lap robe or a cover that would fit a twin bed top. I don't use batting just a flannel back to keep them from sliding off and make them cozy feeling. I do some basic machine quilting with a decorative stitch just to hold the layers together. My hope is that they will survive the commercial laundries of the hosptitals.
My reward is that I am making room in my stash to enable me to purchase more fabrics. Just what I need, DUH!

I guess I could say my yucky part is finishing something I was never interested in in the first place. I belong to two guilds and am sometimes obligated to make a block or blocks for someone else that I would never dream of making otherwise.

mpspeedy

I like it all - each part is so different and it so much fun to see the strips turn into the top.
I do dislike sewing it all together cause I have to lay it all out on the floor and the up and down and up and down gets real old. And if I don't take a picture of it after I like I can have a mess on my hands when my cat rearranges it for me :)
I also dislike the cutting when you make a rag quilt. I even have the special scissors but I can still get a blister :(

I think the yucky part for me is making sure my quarter inch is exactly that. Most of the time if I say well that is close enough,but after a few blocks are sewn, you see, THAT CLOSE ENOUGH has grown to a half inch off. Ripe it out see where it is more or less on what block,ripe that out make double sure it is a quarter in seam allowance.
I dont mind the sandwiching as I have a big frame,My BIL made for me. He used the directions from a free pattern website, for a qulting frame on sawhorses. My worderful husband then made a foot for 2 corners, it stands upright. I can lay it down,stretch backing batting and top. Sit it back up to baste, put it on the sawhorses to handquilt,leave it upright to pin or use what I call my quilt gun.
I love the planning and the actual construction of quilting. I dont sweep until I am finished,it looks like a thread,material bomb has gone off. Sometimes If it gets to much I sweep in a corner.LOL

I can definitely relate to having the quilot blocks rearranged by a cat. That is a little annoying, but I don't get mad unless he decides to fight with a particular block and tears it up. When that happens, I DO get mad and usually lock him in the laundry room until I cool off. Betty

I'm sure you have seen this suggestion many times, but just in case ---- Purchase one of those cheap plastic table cloths that has a flannel backing, hang it from a wall with the flannel facing out -- I had room in a hallway--- our quilt block can be placed on the flannel and if we sort of pat them in place will stay there. This has worked very well for arranging and re arranging my quilt blocks. If I have trouble getting one to "stay put" I just slip in a straight pin.

The wall in the hall is an idea. I never would have thought of that.

You need to learn to quilt as you go.......... The book makes it sooooo hard but after taking a class WOW I will NEVER do a quilt anyway else:)

I have done a couple of quilts by the quilt as you go method, one double and one king. There are some patterns, though, that don't lend themselves to th is style of quilting, such as the apple core that is sitting on a shelf in my sewing room waiting for me to figure out how to get it quilted. I tied the one I made for my middle grandson. I make mostly lap quilts that I can quilt on the sewing machine. Between the MS and my arthritis, I'm unable to hand quilt anything anymore. The apple core quilt top is for a double bed. Since there isn't enough room between my sewing machine and the wall to quilt it in the sewing room, I'll have to set up a sewing machine in the living room. Next problem is where to find sufficient room to lay out the sandwich. If I keep putting th is off long enough, maybe it will become my daughter's problem. She can figure out h ow to get that apple core quilt quilted while she is deciding what to do with the boxes of quilt fabric I've accumulated.
SHE WHO DIES WITH THE MOST FABRIC WINS, or so I've been told.

I also dislike sandwiching and trying to get everything to come out flat. It's not only boring, it's frustrating as all for me.
I enjoy sewing on bindings though, as that tells me that I've finally finished something.
I love to hand quilt but it seems to take forever. I've tried numerous times to machine quilt, and other than 'stitch in the ditch' I'm not too hot at it. My stippling resembles zig zags of lightning. No foolin'. Maybe I've discovered a new style of machine quilting.!!!

Since I prefer the more puffy look, I don't do stippling. Usually, I stitch in the ditch, but sometimes I just quilt in diagonal lines across the quilt. Forthat, I have to mark the quilt top, as I've never mastered using that guide that is supposed to keep the stitchings the same distance apart. I'm not even sure where it is. I permanently lost one box of attachments. Betty

HAY that was shown to us in my quilting class :lol: So you are doing O.K. :mrgreen:

I've never had a quilting class but have read lots of books and magazines on the subject. I'm a 3rd generation quilter, but I suspect that the line goes back for many generations. My grandmother died before I had a chance to learn quilting from her. My mother made mostly utility quilts. I doubt that she ever bought a yard of fabric especially for a quilt, except for the back.

Oh my :) If you ever get a chance to take a quilting class.....DO IT !!!! You will learn so much,many things to do the easy way and many things to do the wrong way!! I always learn so much not only from the teacher but from others

This is probably telling my age, but my grandmothers and mother used feed sacks to make quilts which kept us warm on many a cold winters night. (We certainly had never heard of central heat) Many times the back was from white flour sacks. When the feed store delivered our chicken feed, we got three sacks at once and the delivery guy was very patient to match those sacks. As I remember, my mother was very happy when she could purchase heavy double blankets for our beds, and I NEVER again saw her working on a quilt.

I have learned a lot about quilting from other quilters and have watched EVERY quilting show on TV. Also, Simply quilts has most of their shows on line and the directions can be printed out.

I remember printed feed sacks. Only the scraps left over after shirts and/or dresses were cut out were delegated to the quilt scrap box. I was wearing a feed sack dress the day I left home to go to work in the city. It had a white background with pansies printed on it. I thought it the prettiest dress I owned.
Flour sacks were made of lighter weight fabric and were used for dish towels and little girl's under garments.

I have been reluctant to take a quilting class or join a quilting group because there is so much I can no longer do due to MS and arthritis. My right (dominate) hand hand shakes so bad that I can't cut a straight line with scissors. It would be annoying to the instructor and embarrassing to me to hold up class while I asked for help, especially for something I used to do so easily. So I stay home and devise ways to keep quilting. I just have had to drop back to making simple quilts of simple patterns. I love the nine patch.

Although MS has made me change my quilt making habits, I count myself blessed that it has not affected my eye sight or my ability to walk.

I'll keep reading other's quilting hints on all the different quilting sites. I appreciate being able to occasionally offer one or two of my own. Thanks to you all for "listening" to me ramble on.

Betty

Dear Betty,
What a courageous lady you are. So many in your situation would be feeling sorry for themselves and here you are still going strong.
You are a big asset to this list and we're blessed to have you as one of our quilting sisters. You go girl !!! There is always something we can learn from others and always a little something that we might also pass on. So I hope we'll be hearing from you often.

Heck take a class and learn how to use a rotery cutter.......:) You just line it up next to a ruler and push. I think that you could cut with a ruotery cutter heck I cant even cut a line with scissors.giggles

Thank you, Ty.

Rose, I've used a rotary cutter for several years. That's one of my improvisations. Since I'm right handed, I hold the cutter in that hand, and being very careful to not cut myself with the blade, guide it to the edge of the ruler or template. Those laser cut templates that are close to a quarter inch thick are one of my best friends. I'm still not able to cut around a curve, even with one of those teeny tiny rotary blades. I'd like to make another drunkard's path. I even bought a heavy template for that and managed to make one quilt by drawing around the template. I felt that I had wasted the money spent for that thick template. They certainly are not cheap.

WELL !! then I say you move on to another pattern that does not involve curves. How about one of the reversable quilts that use a solid block on one side ( I don't really mean a solid color but a bright print that is cut as a whole block) and then just strips on the other??? You just put it together with sashing. everything can be machine quilted and you are done!! :)
That is my new LOVE Giggles

On the Sewing with Nancy series I have seen a very simple Nine Patch with Rails and solid squares made from Silk Deupiony (check my spelling). There were no more than three colors used, but turning the silk in different directions gave the appearance of many colors. This had the over all appearance of a very expensive designer bed cover. This silk is rather expensive, (at least for me) but places like JoAnns send 40% off coupons in their mailers and I have found these coupons on line. There are certainly no curves to cut or sew, just straight lines.

It's interesting that you should suggest that reversable quilt at this time. This afternoon, I started cutting some 6 inch blocks out of some fabrics I want to use up because I don't like them. Sewing them together and using that for the back sounds like a good idea. Thank you.