I told you that I was working on cleaning and reorganizing the closet of the quilting room. Â The batting scraps were everywhere. Â I decided that enough was enough and those scraps were going to get tackled. Â Of course I forgot to take a picture (rather truth be told…my phone was buried under stuff I was moving around and I couldn’t find it and was too lazy to go downstairs and get a real camera.)
I decided I would only put charity quilts on the frame until all the batting scraps were used. Â (I do play lots of games like this with myself..weird I know) showed two quilts on Thursday that were done with only scraps. Â At the time I thought I would likely be able to do two more quilts using only scrap batting.
This one was an easy pick. Â It was a baby quilt. Â The scraps for this all came from Ila.
Next up was this beauty….
It’s lap sized and really pretty.
Believe it or not I was wrong about the scrap though. Â I had enough to do yet another quilt. Â It’s a Christmas that was recently sent to me…I forgot to get a picture of it. Â It’s likely single sized.
That left my batting scraps FINALLY under control. Â I can’t do another quilt with them and that made me happy.
Next up my plan is to use up all of the prepackaged batting. Â Now days my batting comes in by the bolt so I don’t need pre-packaged batting unless it’s a real specialty project like like black batting. Â For the most part I use Hobbs 80/20 and Warm and Natural. Â That’s enough for me at this point…. Â I wrote a blog post a bit ago explaining what batting I use. Â You can find that here.
If I can get all the batting used up, that will free up an entire shelf in the quilting closet. Â I’m killing two birds with one stone. Â I am working on my tidying project and I’m getting more charity quilt tops done. Â That makes me happy on two levels. Â So that’s the new goal….quilt enough charity tops to clean off the pre-packaged batting shelf. Â That’s do-able.
Keep posted to see if I can accomplish that goal.  Please tell me I’m not the only one who plays little games makes goals with themselves.
You’re not alone in the game, er, goal process…I thought I was…
Nope, I am trying to make quilts with only what I have on hand. Well, trying. I have done 2 lap quilts with my batting scraps and put together 2 quilt tops from Christmas block I exchanges years ago. Now trying to finish out the tops I’ve done. Well, at least I will try.
You are definitely not alone. I do it with exercise too. I have several Craftsy classes that I’m only allowed to watch on the treadmill! TED Talks are also good for the treadmill.
Sometimes, bargaining with myself is the only way I get things done. I can have “free” time to sew if I get a few chores done around the house. We are more alike than we think!
Do you join the batting scraps with a zig zag stitch or the tape. I have a pile of scraps and want to start using them up.
I’m the same way Jo. If I clean for an hour then I get to sew or organize in my sewing room for that length of time. It works for me and keeps me motivated.
Happy sewing, Jo! Anne D.
Yes, I too, bargain with myself! I really need to clean off my cutting table right now! I find that my creativeness gets bogged down when I have too much clutter around me!!
You sure aren’t the only one to play games like that! I do it all the time to get myself motivated to finish the tasks I don’t want to do. Otherwise the bathrooms would never get cleaned! LOL! You are a wonder in all you get done! Love your attitude.
You aren’t alone. Sometimes I have to trick my brain into things–thank goodness, I am apparently not the only one. :)
I have the same question as AnneP, love to hear the answer!
I like to use batting scraps on charity quilts to. I join my scraps using a zigzag.
You are definitely not the only one to bargain with yourself. Now if I could only convince my brain that vegetables tasted as good as chocolate! Good luck with the treatment this week. You can tell yourself you are taking a magic pill to make you all better. :>)
I play those mind games with myself too – the batting leftovers are next to go at my house also. Not that the local quilt shop will like this statement, I have vowed no new fabric in until some is completed. I too work with donation blankets & the stack is
growing instead of decreasing.
Good luck with treatment! You know we are all praying for it all to go well.
Well, I call them incentives instead of goals. When I’m doing an unpleasant or hard task, one thing I do is try to never check and see how close to done I am until I’m truly sure I’m more than half done. It’s too demoralizing to see, “Gee, only 30% done?”, whereas, “Hey, I’m 2/3rds done!” spurs me on. I started doing this as a kid when I was training to swim races that were 20 laps. It’s surprisingly difficult to keep track of how many you’ve swam, but to look at the counter on the poolside when I was getting close always put a little more energy in my stroke.
I use a zig zag stitch. I also play mind games with myself (is that the definition of crazy?) to get housework done or grading done or quilt blocks done. I use the kitchen timer to make myself focus on ONE task and then of course, sewing room is the REWARD! I need to play a batting scraps game myself. . .mine are OUT OF CONTROL!