Thursday, August 30, 2012

Breaking the Log Jam of Quilt Tops

I have a "Log Jam" of quilt tops awaiting FMQ!


I made progress on the little witch girl quilt and have all borders added.  I have no pix but will show some after I back and quilt it.  I realize that I now have three quilt tops ready for my expected granddaughter and all of them are in the phase of needing to be backed and quilted.  There is a bottle neck in that phase of my quilt making process.

Number one quilt is Duck, Duck, Goose.

Number two is the brown bordered pink Moda charm pack one, which I have just decided to name Strawberry and Chocolate.


Number three is the quilt with the little witch girl which has a working name of Autumn Baby Quilt.


I am looking forward to this Labor Day weekend to break the log jam of quilt tops and work on them with my FMQ.  I will start with Strawberry and Chocolate with its simple squares. Next will be Duck, Duck, Goose with its strip design. Finally, when, if I am not yet good, at least I will be better, I will start Autumn Baby Quilt.

I tend to feel a bit guilty about having so many projects going at once.  But then, about halfway through this month, I saw a list from another quilter.  I captured it here because it was so striking. Not only was I amazed by her precise capture of the phases of creating and completing a quilt but also by the sheer quantity she has going at the same time.  I would like to start a similar chart for myself.  I can tell you right now that most of my check marks will be in the backing and quilting columns.  I am going to add some columns on the far right that address ideas for and dreams of quilts to be. Notice she even has a final column for the tag or label.


I apologize in advance that I do not remember the name of this quilter.  I thought I remembered seeing her beautiful work as a whole collection of oriental flavor brown-toned quilts in a Smilebox Slideshow from The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson & Ricky Tims, a website where I am a member.  I searched in vain to find the picture collection again and report her name but to no avail.  Maybe I saw it elsewhere.  If any of you WIP folks out there know her identity from this collection of clues I have supplied, please help me give credit where it is due.

Completed projects:  
  1. Knitted one poppy and orchid baby sock
  2. Gave one quilt a name "Strawberry and Chocolate" 
Ongoing projects:  
  1. Finished adding borders on Autumn Baby Quilt (also called little witch girl)
  2. Strawberry and Chocolate-  FMQ this weekend 
  3. Duck, Duck, Goose - start FMQ this weekend?
  4. Doll quilt - attach binding and call it good
This week's stats:
     Completed  projects - 1/2 pair of socks
     New projects - none- how about that! 
     Currently in progress - 4
     Those in closet - many enumerated in earlier posts and not repeated here

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

10 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. ood luck with the FMQ! (Look at me - I know what that means! Reading your and Robin's blogs has taught me a thing or two about quilting!)

    Side note: I deleted my previous comment because of a spelling error. Woops!

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    1. And now I see I have another error in this post - arg! I meant "Good luck," not "ood luck"!

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    2. Carrie, I have the same problem with Facebook. I delete a comment because I see a spelling error, then create a different error in a subsequent post. Or worse yet, I post the same entry multiple times because I thought with the time delay that it did not "take".

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  3. I love the chart idea! I may have to implement something like that for my own crafting.

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    1. Yes, Mary, I too thought the chart was quite clever. I only hope whoever is the originator of it will not become upset with me for repeating it without her permission. So sorry I do not know who to credit. I started a chart of my own yesterday in Excel. Later that day I went upstairs in my closet and saw two more I had completely forgotten about! Yikes!

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  4. Strawberry and Chocolate - I love that name, and the quilt! And I am very excited for how Autumn baby quilt will turn out. If it makes you feel any better, I went through a major stage of stashing tops I meant to quilt before I actually started free-motion quilting them just like you, so that when I actually got up the courage I was ALSO able to do three in a row: Spookyville, Sunset Surprise, and Charity Quilt for a Princess were "those three" for me. I wish you live in OK so you could take Mary Ann's Free Motion Expanded, where you actually bring in a quilt you want to quilt and she helps you work out a design for it. This is one of my favorite designs she did for charm-pack quilts:

    http://matate10quilter.blogspot.com/2011/04/cute-little-quilt.html

    but in looking for it, I also saw:
    http://matate10quilter.blogspot.com/2011/10/i-feel-fantastic.html
    http://matate10quilter.blogspot.com/2010/09/finished-another.html

    Just remember, you can always grab a doodle cloths and practice before committing.

    Also, that list does map out the process well. And I loves me a good check mark/the ability to cross something off the list...

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  5. That is one lucky little Grand-daughter! Those are beautiful quilts! I am sure you will get them done in due time. I have quite the stack of quilts that need to be quilted my self!

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    1. Ginette, thanks for your compliment and comment. I broke my FMQ fear barrier this weekend. No pix yet but I plan to post Strawberries and Chocolate on WIP this coming week.

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  6. Oh the basting and binding is the least fun part of quilting I think! So I totally understand getting stuck at that point!

    I love the list idea to tick things off! That'd give a great sense of accomplishment to mark it all done!

    Best of luck with these sweet little quilts. You know we'll all be checking to see if you got them done (Does that help the motivation?! hehehe)

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