I’ve been busy working and unpacking a few boxes with Rick every day. If you missed it, Rick moved in with me last week. You can read about it HERE. I still had a grandkid day, a ball game, a birthday party, supper date, and a dance recital. That’s the last thing on the busy grandkid schedule for now. So I did manage to get to the sewing room.
My first order of business was to get the quilt a blog reader sent to me bound.
It was quick and easy, as the binding was already prepped. I’m so thankful for this top…I always get asked for donation quilts and sometimes I can’t keep up with the demand. This quilt gave me a spare.
I showed more finished pictures in THIS blog post.
After that, I worked some more on my Midnight Flight quilt. Although the blocks are easy to turn and mess up, this has been my comfort sewing. I have a method down now that I can simply lay the blocks out and sew. I got quite a few done. There is a lot of sewing in each block. They are all in a stack and not ironed. I forgot to take a picture of them. Sorry.
I had trouble tearing myself away from the Midnight Flight quilt. I really am enjoying working on them.
I started getting borders on my Bow Tie quilt.
But I had other project calling. This was still on the longarm. It needed to get finished.
If you haven’t guessed, working on the longarm is my least favorite thing to do related to sewing, unless you count cleaning the sewing room. That would be my truly least favorite task.
I managed to get it finished but not off the machine. YAHOO!! Sadly, I have more quilt tops waiting for attention, so I need to get this off and another put on.
The other day, Rick was saying something about how nice it would be to have a simple boat for fishing…then he said something about a trailer for it…then he said something about new golf clubs, then talked about moving the pool table up higher on the list. I laughed and said, “What about me?” He said I already have a computerized longarm on the list. HA!! You can see why I love him. HA!!
I got a decent amount of work done this week. I’m hoping to get my quilt bound this week and to start sewing the Midnight Flight blocks together.
Early in the blog post I said something about my least favorite thing to do was to work on the longarm. What do you like the least about quilting??
Well the church I go to and sew with was given free time to use the long arms at the Quilt shop in town. I just did my first quilt on it. I rather enjoyed it but would love to do other patterns besides circles. I probably would say I really enjoy all aspects of of quilt making and finishing- even the binding is becoming easier and rewarding in itself.
The thing I like least about quilting must be binding; I have several quilts waiting to be bound. I actually enjoy finishing by hand-sewing the binding to the back of the quilt, it’s actually getting the binding onto the quilt that’s the problem. There is a lack of room to wrestle around a queen or larger quilt. I suppose I should just bite the bullet and make room and bind all that need it. (sigh)
Hi Jo, my least favorite part of quilting (and sewing in general) is cutting out the pieces. I make somewhere around 15 pairs of Grammy jammies for Christmas each year and always cut multiple pairs out at a time so I can then do a production line. I love piecing, quilting and binding with a flange binding. My sewing room is deemed a no-stress zone! I agree with you that cleaning the room is right there at the bottom of the list. Have a good day and thanks for sharing you life with us.
I have to agree – the binding. Oh, I can get it sew onto the quilt on my domestic with some wrangling but once I fold it over to sew again, it turns out poorly. Either too much binding or not enough. If any of this makes sense…
I just end up hand sewing.
Love and prayers
I quilt by check when it comes to the long-arming part. It is an added expensive, but at 78, I figure life is too short to waste doing the part I don’t particularly like…But about the pool table—do you have a Buy Nothing Facebook group in your area? Ours is so big they have divided our small rural town (4000) in two sections—North and South! Every once in awhile a pool table request or giveaway gets posted on ours. Worth a try…P.S. A few weeks ago my husband preheated the oven and accidentally cooked the sourdough starter I had put in there with the oven light on. I quickly was offered two replacement starters on the Buy Nothing group and in the process met two interesting women I enjoyed talking with.
My least favorite part of quilting is deciding on fabric. Especially if I am making a quilt for a friend.
I no longer have a least favorite. It used to be machining the binding on in order to have hand stitching for evenings. In April, I decided it is time to machine finish so again, a least favorite. I’ve done 20 now and am getting fairly good at it (I still get a wrinkle/fold on occasion-still to be figured out if you have a suggestion of what I am doing wrong. I do keep it snug when applying.
Happy listmaking ;-) Sounds like a lot of fun in the forecast!
Since I quilt by check longarming it’s an issue for me. I’d have to agree with you, cleaning my sewing room is the least favorite. Good idea to watch for someone who wants to get rid of a pool table. Thanks for all you share .
For years, figuring out how to quilt my flimsy was a dread. I bought a midarm machine…not for me…sold it during the pandemic. I went back to top quilting on my domestic machine…too clumsy and inaccurate. So at this ripe age of 68 I’ve decided that I like to straight line quilt or quilt in the ditch by machine. I totally love hand quilting and use these techniques to finish off my quilts. I’ve also decided that wall hanging size or minis are my go to. I’ve never shown my quilts in competition and I’ve always loved seeing the hand of the quilter in vintage quilts. Took over 20 years to decide for me to do me! Quilting police are now banished from my brain!
I’m the odd one – I love binding ! I used to sew the back by hand then machine stitch over it to make it secure. (Kinda like wearing a belt & suspenders – haha). Now I just skip the hand binding and do it all by machine.
Our city has Summer Music in the park on Monday nights and when I did hand binding I’d take a quilt to work on. It was the best ice breaker because people would approach and see what I was doing.
My least favorite job is trimming blocks but it’s totally worth it.
I love the cleaning, cutting AND binding!! It’s the sewing the rows together and adding the borders that gets me! Have a great day, Jo!
My least favorite is cutting fabric. Measure twice, cut once keeps running thru my brain, but sometimes I still mess up. I have so much respect people who do the long arm part. This is something I’d love to learn to do but it scares me a bit. I just retired a month ago and now that I have time. I may take a class so I can try this on my own.
My least favorite part is doing the borders. The measuring the quilt then measuring the borders then wrangling the quilt to sew them on… It’s my least favorite part. My second least favorite part is sewing the binding onto the quilt but I love hand sewing it down on the back.
Ginger, I found a way to add borders that is less troublesome than what you seem to be doing. I cut enough border fabric to go around the quilt. Lay out the quilt top and smooth it flat. Lay the border fabric across the middle of the quilt top going from top to bottom and cut two pieces to fit. Sew these on the sides and press. Lay out quilt top again and smooth it. Lay the border fabric across the middle of the quilt top going from side to side. Cut two pieces of border fabric to fit and sew onto the quilt top and bottom. You are basically using the border fabric as a measuring tape. Be sure to cut the ends at 90 degree angles.
Bindings, but it’s gotten better since I started sewing both sides on by machine!
My least favorite part of quilting is just that, sewing the layers together. Moving the quilt around in all different directions kills my shoulder, neck and back. I have to take lots of breaks. All I really do is straight line quilting unless I’m inspired to do hearts, stars or waves.
Oh, my least fun is sandwiching and basting! I pin baste and my 83 yo knees just no longer love being on the floor. I’ve tried table pin basting, but I don’t think it keeps things as tight as taped to the floor. And since I NEVER clean my quilt room, I guess that would be the worst because I’ve not had the nerve to even start that project! I just move things from place to place. lol. I hope your computerized long arm makes it to the top of the list soon. I know you used to love long arming, but human backs certainly play an issue with that. The computer would be a big help for you. Do thoses things that you enjoy.
Oh, Patricia … I agree so much about the pin basting! My knees and everything else just hate it! Not to mention, if it’s a really big quilt, I don’t have a big enough floor space to accommodate it, so I have to pin half, with the other half pushed to the side, then smooth out the second half and pin it. I’ve only had to do that a couple of times, but it’s a whole other experience!
I do my quilting on my domestic my least favorite thing is pin basting.
My least favorite is sewing on the last side of the binding (after machine application on the front). When we lived in Salem, Oregon, I used to take the quilt with me for hand binding to a local coffee shop that has a big area of sofas, chairs and tables for people to enjoy their drink (for me, its tea!). My friend & I would meet there and work on our quilts together (she hand-pieces and hand quilts everything = gorgeous quilts). I miss those days so much. Deb
My least favorite would be a toss up between cutting out and binding. I do binding on my machine with a walking foot. I can’t do hand sewing. My hands are too stiff. I have always hated cutting. When I was making my own clothing at home, my mother would cut out the pieces if she had time. I send my quilting to a very good long armer.
My least favorite thing is finishing! Or fiddly little pieces where lots of seams come together. Favorite part? Playing with fabric and thinking of all the possibilities that are hidden in my stash!
My least favorite is a toss up between borders and binding. I really don’t have the space to wrangle a quilt around to add them. Jo, if you get a computer for your longarm you will love it. I went computerized several years ago and never looked back. I have thousands of beautiful patterns to choose from. No more shoulder, neck, or back problems.
Hi Jo- I enjoy your blog to the fullest! Thanks for all you share! My two least enjoyed parts of quilting are binding, and paying to have large quilts quilted!
My least favorite part of quilting is choosing the fabric. I think that is why I haven’t ever made one of Bonnie Hunter’s quilts. Once I have the fabric I enjoy the rest of the process. I have been doing my own quilting on my domestic and I’m not the best, but that’s satisfactory for me and my quilts.
My least favorite part of making a quilt is borders!! I hate all the measuring and measuring. Of course, if I would clear everything off my table, it would be easier!
Whenever I clean up my sewing room, I can’t find fabric or patterns….
Quilting is my least favorite part too. I finally got a longarm, but it has a mind of its own. And since my health dictates when I feel up to tackling the quilting part, it never fails that the machine will act up and I’m up and down, in the floor, under the machine, looking at the back of the quilt…then my body is messed up for days before I can try it again. Most of the time, I just avoid the room with the longarm. The hubs keeps threatening to automate it, but I keep telling him that I still have to watch it, and if it messes up and a computer is running it, by the time I get it stopped, I’ll have more to pick out! I don’t mind it when the machine is working like it’s supposed to.
My favorite parts are planning and binding! I love doing the binding! It’s like spending meditative time with it before it goes to its new home, enjoying looking at all the Fabio’s I chose to use, since most of my quilts are scrappy.
Least favorite..getting quilt top ready for quilting…deciding how to quilt it and marking it and basting
Favorite part…besides piecing, I love doing binding..machine stitching to front; hand stitching to back
I don’t mind the quilting or the binding ( I have a computerized longarm! It’s great!) The task that slows me down is sewing on borders. They really frame the quilt, and the right ones make so much difference, but at that point I just want to be done. I have to give myself a lecture and sometimes just set a timer for 15 minutes and see how much I can get done.
My least favorite is choosing fabric – I will agonize over it in a quilt shop. I think that is why I like scrap quilts so much – I have much less trouble choosing fabric for a scrappy quilt! Next least favorite – borders. It’s a good thing I like many of my quilts without borders. Conversely – I enjoy binding because when I’m done with that – the quilt is done. As far as quilting the quilts – I’ve done all kinds of processes – at first when I started 45 years ago I only hand quilted, then I quilted on domestic – even king sized. Then I bought a sit down mid arm because I didn’t like having my domestic tied up for the time it took to quilt. Also okay but a lot of stress on my shoulders I thought. So 4 years ago I moved furniture, got out a tape measure and figured out how to set up a 10′ long arm frame in an 11′ bedroom and purchased the robotics as well. Jo – you would love it, I haven’t had any back, neck or shoulder issues since. There are lots of really cool patterns for the robotics. I only quilt my own as I don’t have a need or desire to do others. This year, I’ve decided that I needed to get the backlog of tops finished and I have 4 left. Yay! Sherry W.
My least favorite part of quilting is sandwiching and basting. I spray/pin baste and quilt on my Juki TL-18.