I should know better, but sometimes I can’t resist a challenge. Remember last year when I took on the repair quilt project for a friend? It was a Dresden Plate quilt that needed a total overhaul, and I underestimated the time and effort it was going to take. It became a personal challenge, I finished it and the friend really liked it. Fast forward to last week at the sewing machine repair place. I have posted about this store before, how it used to be a great fabric resource and had many classes. When covid began, the shop was already in a downsizing trend, it stayed open during that time, but came back smaller and more machine sales oriented. Anyway, I had to bring my longarm machine in for re-timing. After I got it there and told the tech what was going on with it, he took me on a tour of his quilt collection. His mother was a prolific quilter and quilt designer, and her collection and own works are on display in the shop. It’s an on-going project, getting them hung and displayed, so many, I was really in awe. There were quilts from the 1800’s and the 1900’s, many styles and colors, techniques and just wow. Hand sewn quilt tops of tiny one inch squares, finished quilts with thousands of pieces, appliqué quilts and embroidered quilts. Did I mention six or seven beautifully embroidered crazy quilts?

When I was driving home, I was so inspired and my mind was full of the images and the admiration of the crafts women who made these treasures. About half way there, I started to think about my collection of my quilts. The ones that live in my house, some I use, some are hanging and some are retired. When I was going through my closets last month, I came across a some of the retired ones. Most of these are ones I made for my children, they were well used and loved on. I can’t give them away as they are, and I can’t part with them either. I think that maybe they’ll be for grandchildren, that’d be fun. So they stay folded and stacked on a shelf. There are probably close to forty quilts in my house, my personal quilts not including my Etsy store quilts. So let’s just say there are a hundred quilts in my house at any given time. What would someone think to do with them if I wasn’t here anymore? Would they go to Goodwill or other charity? End up in a garage sale? It’s not that I am adverse to either idea, but I am more concerned that they would be used and appreciated. Recently, Jo at Jo’s Country Junction, posted about a beautiful unused quilt she found at a local thrift store. It was unused and had not even been washed, just folded away and finally ended up on sale for $5.00. She bought it because she couldn’t bear to leave there. There were many comments and speculations about how it ended up there. An ungrateful gift recipient seemed to be at the top of the list, someone got it as a gift and it didn’t match their style or decor and they gave it away. My thoughts went another way, what about a family whose job it is to clean out the house their quilt making relative left them? I can’t imagine my kids dividing up my quilts and keeping them all. It reminds me of my grandmothers china, which I have, I have a sentimental attachment to it, but I don’t use it and it sits in my cabinets. So much stuff, a life times worth of it, what to do with it all? I am thinking that I need to slow down production on my personal quilts. Finish the unfinished ones and enjoy the process more.
Back to the longarm. It was out of time, the hook needed to be reset, the tech said something about using a metric gauge to get it to 2.4mm clearance. Sounds like something you can’t just eyeball and say that’ll do. When I went to pick it up, he had a deal for me, finish one of the vintage quilt tops for him in exchange for the parts and labor he applied to fixing my machine. Sounded good to me, then he showed me the quilt. It is a 1970’s calico log cabin quilt. bright colors and machine pieced. It is foundation pieced on muslin, a bit wonky, but charming in its own way. He sent me home with the top, backing binding fabric and batting. This is my challenge, to get it quilted and finished with out too much stress (I should know better). To make something useful out of someone else’s half done craft project. I just hope when I’m done it doesn’t end up in the $5.00 bin.

This past week I have been working on the stars for the two Cresent quilt tops. I also got two more quilts bound last night. I did the first one with an extra wide binding, it shows 1 inch on either side. I had to figure out how wide to cut it, normally I cut my binding strips at 2.25″ wide. This strip is 6.5″ wide, I really like how it frames this quilt, the 7 inch outer borders were just fading out, now this quilt has a definite outline. The second quilt was a breeze to bind, although my shoulders were aching by the time I finished to two. Mental note to self, binding two queen size quilts at one sitting is hard work.


This week coming up is a busy one for me. I have a few activities and next weekend we are having a barbecue for my Dh’s friends at work. I am also participating in an outdoor sale with a booth selling some extra things, no quilts will be there.
Be Kind.