An Idea I've Got Floating in My Head
06-25-2022, 03:02 AM
#11
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Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Delaware
Posts: 946
Originally Posted by SueZQ from MN
Maybe you'll feel that the heat has gotten to me here in MN, but my suggestion would be to leave that large a quilt at home. If you feel that you must take some project along, take small items that would fit in a tote bag that you could work on in your lap. Since you will only be visiting your friend for a few days of the 2-3 weeks you will be there, the idea of taking over her dining room to sandwich a quilt seems, in my opinion, to be overstepping your bounds as a guest, especially since it sounds like your friend isn't a quilter. She is expecting to visit with an old friend, not host a quilt retreat. Have you considered that she may have already made her own plans to entertain you? Secondly, after you go back home, what are they supposed to do with the two 4x8' sheets of plywood that would have cost at least $50? haha By your own admission, you say that you are going to visit family, so I say relax and just enjoy being with them and finish your big quilt project when you get back home. Sorry if I have overstepped my bounds.
06-25-2022, 04:31 AM
#14
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2019
Location: Gainesville, Missouri
Posts: 520
SueZQ - I do see your points, however, whenever there is something family related going on in my family, my friend is always the first to say that she'll host it. When my younger sister was married, she hosted the wedding and reception there, plus oversaw the ceremony because she's an ordained minister. If I were to mention that I was bringing up a quilt to thread baste, trust me, she would be all over it and would expect me to bring it to her place. I've known the woman for over twenty years.
As for the plywood - I would bring it home with me, this is something that my fiancé and I have been trying to do but can't because we live in an extremely rural area and our building supply store in town recently closed. Getting plywood right now is one of the most difficult things to do, we don't own a truck and no one around us does, either. My younger sister would be bringing me home and she has a truck. Although, bearisgray - the idea of a cardboard refrigerator box would be much easier to handle and we can recycle it after we're done. I didn't think of that, that's a great one.
She does not use her dining room table but for the holidays or she's hosting a get together, the table she uses regularly for her and her husband is upstairs in the kitchen. The quilt wouldn't stay there until I left to come home, once we basted it, I'd either put it in a bag or I'd snap my lap frame on it and fold it in on itself, either way, the quilt goes with me.
As for the plywood - I would bring it home with me, this is something that my fiancé and I have been trying to do but can't because we live in an extremely rural area and our building supply store in town recently closed. Getting plywood right now is one of the most difficult things to do, we don't own a truck and no one around us does, either. My younger sister would be bringing me home and she has a truck. Although, bearisgray - the idea of a cardboard refrigerator box would be much easier to handle and we can recycle it after we're done. I didn't think of that, that's a great one.
She does not use her dining room table but for the holidays or she's hosting a get together, the table she uses regularly for her and her husband is upstairs in the kitchen. The quilt wouldn't stay there until I left to come home, once we basted it, I'd either put it in a bag or I'd snap my lap frame on it and fold it in on itself, either way, the quilt goes with me.
06-25-2022, 05:15 AM
#15
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: MN
Posts: 24,407
Sometimes stores will let one take empty cardboard boxes - for free.
One could cut them apart with a box cutter and tape them together with packing tape. Using a metal straightedge for a guide helps with getting straight cuts.
I would try to get approximately the same thickness of cardboard - it does vary from box to box.
I still would put a flannel sheet over table top and then whatever on top of that. Sometimes cardboard is "scratchy".
One could cut them apart with a box cutter and tape them together with packing tape. Using a metal straightedge for a guide helps with getting straight cuts.
I would try to get approximately the same thickness of cardboard - it does vary from box to box.
I still would put a flannel sheet over table top and then whatever on top of that. Sometimes cardboard is "scratchy".
06-25-2022, 04:36 PM
#16
Member
Join Date: Oct 2021
Location: Alabama
Posts: 42
You must be kidding!
Originally Posted by SueZQ from MN
Maybe you'll feel that the heat has gotten to me here in MN, but my suggestion would be to leave that large a quilt at home. If you feel that you must take some project along, take small items that would fit in a tote bag that you could work on in your lap. Since you will only be visiting your friend for a few days of the 2-3 weeks you will be there, the idea of taking over her dining room to sandwich a quilt seems, in my opinion, to be overstepping your bounds as a guest, especially since it sounds like your friend isn't a quilter. She is expecting to visit with an old friend, not host a quilt retreat. Have you considered that she may have already made her own plans to entertain you? Secondly, after you go back home, what are they supposed to do with the two 4x8' sheets of plywood that would have cost at least $50? haha By your own admission, you say that you are going to visit family, so I say relax and just enjoy being with them and finish your big quilt project when you get back home. Sorry if I have overstepped my bounds.
Rusty
06-26-2022, 01:47 AM
#17
Super Member
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: Davenport, Iowa
Posts: 3,785
Instead of having your friends husband get plywood which can be expensive, and can he reuse it (?), how about using cardboard boxes that are broken down. Tape them together if necessary and when finished they can go in a recycle bin.
06-26-2022, 03:02 AM
#18
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2022
Location: Northeast
Posts: 682
Originally Posted by Railroadersbrat
I have been thinking about her table top, so I was going to ask her husband to help get some plywood that'll end with 85 x 85 measurements, then sand down the edges and corners so there's no snagging of the quilt. I'd use a moving blanket that I have here to put on her table first, then the plywood, then we could work safely and comfortably.
I was also thinking that since they would want to help, I would make them some small quilted items as thank you gifts, pouches or maybe a small organizer that they can use and I would cover any cost for food.
I know these ladies well enough to know that once I showed them how to do it, it'll be a piece of cake for them and they get to experience a small portion of a quilter's life by going through the sandwich motions. Their usual attention to detail with anything they do would help.
I was also thinking that since they would want to help, I would make them some small quilted items as thank you gifts, pouches or maybe a small organizer that they can use and I would cover any cost for food.
I know these ladies well enough to know that once I showed them how to do it, it'll be a piece of cake for them and they get to experience a small portion of a quilter's life by going through the sandwich motions. Their usual attention to detail with anything they do would help.
Just go and enjoy your visit. Don't expect people to experience your hobby and really like doing it. Sorry, but this sounds more and more like an unfun day of being commandeered into doing something, even if not really wanting to do it, but just trying to be nice for the sake of the visit. I'm sorry but I think you are being very unrealistic. Apparently these 'friends' are not quilters. I certainly wouldn't want to have someone take over my house and push their hobby on me.
Imagine this. I going to go to someone's house to visit, but I'm going to take all of my canning supplies and I want them to supply the fruit (plywood) and prepare it, then I'm going to show them how to do it, and make sure they are doing it right, and etc. etc. ----- and I know they are going to enjoy it.
------ um, please just go and visit. If they want to experience your hobby, they'll ask. I for one wouldn't like this and I am a quilter. In a way you are basically going to force people to work on your project or look bad if they don't.
I think it would be much better that if you want to do something like this, save it for when you get visitors to your house and really ask if this is something they want to do while they are visiting you.
Last edited by quiltsfor; 06-26-2022 at 03:18 AM.
06-26-2022, 03:27 AM
#19
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2019
Location: Gainesville, Missouri
Posts: 520
For the record, I wouldn't ask anyone to pay for anything for my hobby, we would go together, pick it up, I'd pay for it and I would help work on it.
I don't have room in my house in the slightest to spread an entire 75 x 75 quilt on my floor and I don't have a table big enough. I don't have a car, do not have a license because I'm disabled, so I cannot ask anyone to just pick me up, take me to wherever I could go and then spend an entire day waiting for me to sandwich the quilt and then thread baste it on top of that.
I don't have friends where I live, my only friend is where I was going to go. I'm by myself with my fiancé and two dogs and that's it.
I'm sorry if I don't have the resources that's available to everyone else to be able to just finish a quilt, I have to do what I have to do.
I'll take it out in my front yard, get on my hands and knees and work on it there. That's the only option I have left and one that I really shouldn't be doing because of my health. But, as everyone here says - better to do it on my own then to ask the only friend I have and my sisters for help.
I don't have room in my house in the slightest to spread an entire 75 x 75 quilt on my floor and I don't have a table big enough. I don't have a car, do not have a license because I'm disabled, so I cannot ask anyone to just pick me up, take me to wherever I could go and then spend an entire day waiting for me to sandwich the quilt and then thread baste it on top of that.
I don't have friends where I live, my only friend is where I was going to go. I'm by myself with my fiancé and two dogs and that's it.
I'm sorry if I don't have the resources that's available to everyone else to be able to just finish a quilt, I have to do what I have to do.
I'll take it out in my front yard, get on my hands and knees and work on it there. That's the only option I have left and one that I really shouldn't be doing because of my health. But, as everyone here says - better to do it on my own then to ask the only friend I have and my sisters for help.
06-26-2022, 03:54 AM
#20
Member
Join Date: Oct 2021
Location: Alabama
Posts: 42
Originally Posted by Railroadersbrat
But, as everyone here says - better to do it on my own then to ask the only friend I have and my sisters for help.
FWIW when friends ask in advance for my help I'll go out of my way to be helpful, but if they "volunteer" me I dig in my heels. I'll bet lots feel as I do.
Rusty
