I told you that I’m waging war on my sewing room. Truly, I am. I’m doing all I can to tackle the projects in my sewing room.
So far:
Masks are finished. I cleaned everything up and put the supplies away. If I find there is truly a need, I will make more but for now, I have a stash that I’ll save for a couple weeks and if they don’t get used here by friends and neighbors, I’ll pass them on to the local hospital.
To date my tally stands at 569 masks made. I’m pleased with that number.
While I was endlessly sewing masks I did some math. For my pattern and the way I cut out and make masks, I can make 5 masks from 1 yard of fabric. If I made 569 masks, that’s 113 3/4 yards of fabric that went into masks from my house. A lot of the fabric was donated by many of you who have send fabric my way from time to time. I am so very thankful for you gift of fabric as making that many would have cost around $1200 in fabric just to make. Those are some big numbers.
Well my next task was to get a quilt on the frame. Rosie was very busy trying to help me-not really-she was actually trying to prevent me from getting it on the frame. Oh Rosebud.
Well the more I got looking at this quilt top…the more I got thinking about it. The more I got thinking about it, the more got to thinking it really needed custom quilting to make it shine. The more I got thinking about custom quilting, the less I wanted to tackle it. The less I got wanting to tackle it the more I thought…but it does really need custom quilting. The more I thought about custom quilting the more I thought about my friend Carla the longarmer. The more I thought about Carla longarming it the more I thought, “Hey…maybe I should submit this quilt for publication”.
So while I had the backing on the frame in place and the batting, I didn’t have the top stitched down so I grabbed the top and ran outside with it. The wind has been terrible here lately but I persevered and got a couple pictures.
I sent them off to American Patchwork and Quilting. I wrote up a nice little note with it and told them the story of the quilt. I told them that I would take it to Carla and she would jazz it up with her amazing longarming ability.
Do you remember the story? Let me tell it….Roxanna, a blog reader, sent a bunch up UFOs my way. I passed a few on but kept a few. One UFO that I kept was a stack of half square triangles made with white and Kaffe prints. There was no pattern with them…just a stack of half square triangles. Well I laid them out and played with them and came up with this. I was short blocks so went into my Kaffe prints (many prints that blog readers have sent my way) and cut out more half square triangle blocks.
The inner border came from a blog reader…the outer border, a Kaffe print, I got on a big sale from Quilted Twins….
Doesn’t this quilt have an amazing story??
Well I sent the submission off and 15 minutes later we got an email back asking how soon the quilt could be at American Patchwork and Quilting. They accepted the quilt.
AHHH!! I didn’t expect that to happen. I quickly called Carla. She said, “Well how long do have before it has to be done?” I told her fairly quickly but of course they understand custom quilting does take a bit of time. We got notice back that they want the quilt in the office by May 6th. So…I scrambled and unloaded the quilt from the frame, packaged it up and drove to Carla’s.
…and as you read this, I’m sure Carla is working on it!! I can’t wait to see it.
I do feel a little bit bad as I said the the projects that Roxanna sent would go for charity but after talking to Kelli about it, we’re going to pay our expenses with the money we make from the quilt and will then save enough money out to go out to eat and donate the rest on to charity. How does that sound?? Fair??
Anyway…I got a project close to a finish and not in a way I expected at all. Like I said, what a fun story of a quilt. I bet Roxanna never dreamed that the half square triangles she made at one point would be sewn into a quilt by me and published in a national quilting magazine. Oh my. How fun!!
I ended up getting this stack of quilts bound. I’ll be showing them off to you if it ever stops blowing here. I’ve been trying for a few days to take pictures of them but the wind just won’t let me.
I got our old family dinosaur baby quilt bound too.
This little quilt is WELL aged. in 1988 we moved into a rental property and the previous people who lived in the house left it there and the landlord told us to keep it. The little blanket has gone through my kids and numerous childcare kids. The edges were shot. I couldn’t bare to throw it away so I trimmed off the edges and bound it. The little blanket is going to live on a few more years.
Little by little I’m going to get this room tackled. I brought my pile of orange and blue shirts downstairs to start working on them ah…I’m finally going to cut out that quilt. Hallelujah!!
I’m finding some joy in amongst the cleaning. I hate doing some of these tasks but am so rewarded that they are finished. I’m keeping at it. Eventually I will get this ALL DONE!!
Your quilt of “many hands” is very beautiful. Congratulations on getting another quilt published soon. I think every quilter dreams of making a quilt to either win a show or to be seen by the world. It’s just show stopping pretty.
Beautiful quilt with a wonderful story! Can’t wait to see it published! This would be a great donation quilt to be auctioned off. You could put a copy of the magazine with it and it would bring more money!
Hi Jo. To be honest, you do so much for charity already, I think you can just enjoy this quilt publication and put a little money into your postage fund, if you wish. It is a beautiful quilt, I just love the colours, they are so me :)
I think that every quilter who donates fabric to you is very happy to get it out of her space and send it off to someone who will actually use it up!! I don’t think quilters follow their fabric out the door and worry over who will finally end up with it in their house. They are just glad that it is gone and someone else will have the chance to enjoy it. So use the quilt you made with the fabric anyway you like, Jo!
It is perfect for publishing. Really beautiful colors and a clever pattern. It will sing even more with Carla’s artistry!
Congratulations on having another quilt accepted for publication!
And such terrific work on so many masks.
Love and prayers.
I so admire you and your positive energy. You are truly motivated by doing good. I hope you do enjoy a nice dinner out. The way you arranged those HSTs makes that a ver pleasing quilt, with happy colors.
Wow!! You’ve made a GREAT start on the room. Keep on quilting (and cleaning), Jo!!
I say, keep the money. You deserve it and thank you to Roxanne for donating the HST.
Great story and I look forward to seeing the finished quilt in the magazine. Congrats!
Awesome! 6 projects on to the next step with 5 of those finished! War Room is right ;-)
Congrats on the magazine submission. It’s a great backstory and so awesome you share this with everyone involved! And a VERY fair solution :-)
I am at war with you. On Tuesday, I made 4 bindings for a friend (I’ve had the fabric for a month). I made a binding and sewed onto a quilt for the same friend-I got it quilted 2 weeks ago during my marathon of 6). And I made a binding for a new top I finished last week as well as got the flannel backing washed/dried for it. I wanted my I-owe-you list done and it is!!!!!
Happy Wednesday Jo! I can’t wait to hear what you accomplish today.
I am making a few masks but no where close to your 569. Maybe some of my fabric were made into yours. I just ordered this months American Quilting magazine, and Quilts and More magazine. Love them. Can’t walk into JoAnn for them so ordered from APQ shop. Enjoy your dinner.
Lovely quilt. I can see why the magazine wanted it. As far as what you get paid for it, why don’t you put it back for postage expenses for mailing out donated items to others in your group. Postage adds up quickly and you’re without the childcare income now. Maybe use some of it for making/finishing benefit quilts for a needy cause. I’m sure the person who sent you the pieces wouldn’t have any problem with that. It’s not like you’re taking off for a vacation in Tahiti or something.
I agree with others–keep the rest of the quilt money for yourself or postage. Look how many masks you’ve made and donated. You donate constantly.
And speaking of the quilt, it is BEAUTIFUL! Can’t wait to get a copy of the magazine it is featured in. Please keep us posted!
It’s a beautiful quilt, and the story really makes it special. Definitely go out to dinner to celebrate the publication, but you should keep the funds to help cover the expenses for all the charitable work you do.
Congratulations on winning the 1st battle of the cleanup war. So glad the quilt was accepted by the magazine. What month will it be out please tell if you know?
I really enjoy these blogs
Sewing room cleanup and organization was a massive topic on a blog I read “Crazy quilter on a bike”. She has spent the last year organizing and is still in the process. It is interesting to read and see what she is finding and what she is doing. It makes me feel less guilty about all my ‘stuff’. She motivated me last year to start packaging up things to take the give and take table at guild but you are so good about passing things on that you are already doing that. I have started labeling every container and no plastic bags. Everything in plain sight on shelves but the label tells me what is in the container. And I have a list of all the projects that are in progress or wanna be quilts… like using calicos for kid’s quilts. So much fabric but I can now find and see what I am looking for though I had a big surprise this week when I quilted up 3 Christmas quilts that I had made last winter – went looking for fabric for binding. Pulled out my Christmas fabric from where I knew it was… oh gee, another container on the shelf (it was labeled) and then more fabric in the container with Christmas kits. sigh. However, I pulled it all out, took the time to sort it into colours, fold it nicely and now, all organized and best part was that I found the perfect binding fabrics for my quilts. One day at a time with organizing and you know you have to create total chaos to organize? Keep at it and every day when you walk in your sewing room and see what you have done, what corner is clear or what bags are emptied, you will smile and at the end of it all, you know what you have and where it is!! I think plastic bags are the worst!
With as much as you do for your community and the quilting community, you should keep some of the funds for your use. The quilt you made out of this donation is so fun and colorful, and has such a great story, especially for this time of Corona Virus.
Keep your spirits up and keep on quilting.
The quilt is beautiful! Congratulations on another one being published. I love the backstory, too.