2010

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This last year was a tough one for me personally, but I did accomplish some of my quilting goals. I finished several tops and succeeded in getting several quilts quilted, either by a long-arm quilter or doing them myself. I have several that I need to finish the binding on, but they are quilted and out of topville which is a step in the right direction.
My rainbow quilt is ready for binding, though I had to go and re-buy the fabric to bind it, as I cannot find the piece I had saved from the inner border anywhere. I know it will turn up and since I love purple, it will get used in another quilt.

I finished and sent on its way the quilt for my son that I started about 20 years ago. My other son's guitar quilt is at the quilters waiting to be quilted. She even found a guitar motif to quilt it with. I am anxious to see it. I still have some embellishments to finish when I get it back.
I finished my Christmas place mats and a matching wall hanging and quilted a second Christmas wall hanging as a gift. I finished a few small wall hangings and got others ready to quilt. I know there are a few other projects in there that I finished this year as well.
I have several wall hangings sandwiched and ready to quilt in 2011, and am still working on finishing up other UFQs (Unfinished quilts), and have a few gifts started to finish up early in 2011, but over all even with my health issues I feel that 2010 was a productive quilting year for me. I can look back on it and say that I accomplished things with pride.

The 18 year UFQ

I started a quilt back in 1992 that I never finished until this last Thursday. It was for my oldest and by the time it was done I hated it. It was made of cotton and cotton blend fabrics, and was pieced willy nilly.
For some reason I chose to zigzag every seam on the top. It did not look decorative, and I have no idea why I did it. I also chose to use thick polyester batting, what a pain to quilt. It was one of the first actual quilted quilts for a bed that I had every made. I always tied large quilts at that time. Most of the quilts I made at that time were baby quilts. I did an awful job of machine quilting it, and am embarrassed to even claim it today. I used double fold bias tape for the binding and only sewed one edge to the quilt. In fact I actually serged the edge. I had to fold over the bias tape three times to bind the quilt. The corners were very thick due to the serged edges. It was a pain to bind.
Over the years there were several times I thought about throwing the whole thing out, but for some reason I never did. Several months ago my oldest asked about the quilt and if I was ever going to finish it. I avoided it for the last few months, but decided that if he wanted it I would finish it for him for Christmas and so I finished it.
He was very excited to get the quilt yesterday when we met for lunch. He said he slept with it last night. He also said he planned to put it on the back of his couch. Now that I do not want to see.
He has a quilt that is much more well made that he received for his 16th birthday that I would much rather he place on the back of his couch.
But at least I can say that it is done, even if it took me over 18 years to finish it.

Selling My Creations

Several people have commented on my quilted creations over the last few months. Included in their comments was the question, "How much do you charge for your bags?" or "Do you sell your quilts?" and others along the same line. It got me to thinking about a second career, since I am retiring at the end of the school year. I have been contemplating getting a long-arm and doing quilting, but now I am considering selling things on consignment, or making things to sell at craft fairs, and the Saturday Market, our weekend summer market.

I am now checking out prices on line, and in stores here in Anchorage, to see what things similar to what I make are going for. I am thinking this might be worth giving a try. I can always give things as gifts if they do not sell. I may find that I actually make some money, and that it is a wise investment. I will never know it I do not put myself out there and try.

I am thinking that place mats, baby blankets, purses, and table runners might be the place to start. I could also make aprons and bibs. I am contemplating this idea as I look at the different fabrics I have in my stash, and what they would make up into.

I can see spending time sewing up things that might bring joy to someone else, and bring a smile to my pocketbook. Though I am not a moneygrubber, it is a way to supplement my retirement and allow me to rotate out fabrics and bring in new ones with the money I could earn.

Contemplating this idea and working out details to see if it is feasible.......I have 6 months to work out the details prior to my retirement.

An appreciation of your quilting heritage

Today I met a woman who has a true love of quilts. She does not sew, but admires her grandmother who has made many quilts by hand. She says she has several and cherishes them all. Her grandmother still sews, but not by hand these days due to arthritis. The grandmother sells her quilts to bed and breakfasts in Fairbanks.

The woman I met said that her grandmother has quilts on all her beds and she loves that it is very homey there. Her favorite quilt is one her grandmother made using yoyos. She did not know what they were called but described them to me as "circles of fabric that you sew around the edges and pull the thread tight to make a smaller circle that looks like a flower and sew them all together. She said it is not the most comfortable quilt to lie on but she loves how it looks on her bed. She also told me that she has several of her grandmother’s quilts in her home, on beds and hanging on the walls.

This woman has a true appreciation for her heritage, and says that one day she would like to learn to quilt herself, but at the present does not have time with working, going to school, and raising her daughter.

I told her that taking the time to learn is some thing she will cherish later in life when she has quilts she has made to pass onto her grandchildren along with those her grandmother made. I also told her that quilting is a great stress reducer and very relaxing.

I hope that she takes my advice and signs up for a beginning quilting class, and may her daughter will go along with her and learn as well.

I have taught my boys to sew and both have taken quilting classes and I hope that they have a true appreciation of the quilts that are passed on to them by me, both those that I have made and those that were made by past generations of their family. I know that they like having quilts on their beds, ones made by me and ones made by them.

Bindings

Bindings are the things that hold us together. Families are bound together as one. Quilts, too. are held together by bindings. Did you every think, really think about the definition of the word bindings.

Dictionary .Com says
bind·ing
  1. the act of fastening, securing, uniting, or the like.
2. anything that binds.
3. the covering within which the leaves of a book are bound.
4. a strip of material that protects or decorates the edge of a tablecloth, rug, etc.
5. Skiing. a mechanical device on a ski, usually made of metal that fastens the boot securely to the ski.
–adjective
6. that binds; restrictive.
7. having power to bind or oblige; obligatory: a binding promise.

We are bound to our families by blood, culture, heritage, and history. Love of family, is like the love we put into each of our quilts not matter where they go or who we are sending them to. We are giving a bit of ourselves to the receiver of each quilt. We are forever binding ourselves to the recipient of the quilt.

Our ties to our family are strong and they are binding, even when we move many miles away or try to break away. Living far from family today allows us more communication than in the past because of the Internet, and even face-to-face interactions with Skype. Times have changed from when I was a child and letters were the main stay of communication with family far away. Phone calls were very few and far between when we were stationed overseas, if ever. The bound to family was still there and stood the test of time.

Bindings can also have a negative meaning in that they are restrictive. Our children often feel that restrictive bond when we tell them no they cannot do certain things. They feel we are over protective and mean, but it is the bond of love that makes us so. We are united with them and fastened to them for all time and it is this bond that makes us want to protect them and keep them safe, the binding together for the safety and protection of all.

Binding protects the edges of our quilts and helps keep them form wearing out. IT holds the quilt together and ties it all together. If the binding is not a frame or a complement to the quilt it detracts instead of unites the quilt. The binding in a family at times can do the same, for if we hold on too tightly our children rebel and run from us. The binding is there to protect, not to restrict. It is what holds us together as one. Our families like the binding on a quilt are what protect us from the outside. Bindings are a good thing, even if we at times feel that they are not the most fun to sew on a quilt.