Swimming in charity tops

I worked on adding some borders to quite a few 'centers' of charity quilt tops that I'd been given by a friend in Arizona.

I need single size tops - or bigger- and not baby or toddler size so much as I still have quite a few of those in my collection to give away- so I've been adding borders until these Arouind the World centers are the size I need.

I've now come to a stopping place on them. 

The tops

Here are 103 tops - and these can now be sandwiched.  "Hold on," you say, "That's not possible!  No way!"

Well, it is possible.  And they are ready. 

Of course, please realize I did not make all these tops. I brought 12 finished, ready-to-sandwich tops with me in my last suitcase from the states. Another was a super nice one that was donated by one of my friends from Becky Quilts in the Old Country Facebook group and is a ready-to-quilt top - hope to finish it for a couple in the Ukraine. Pretty much the rest are panels or the equivalent that my sis and/or I added borders to to make it big enough to be the size I wanted. Oh yes, but certainly no least, a few are full/small queen sized tops by my friend in Arizona, USA. 

Whew.  Now you can quit thinking I'm some sort of wonder worker. OK?

However, I will not attempt to finish all these this year. My arms and shoulders are tired just thinking about it. I really did put the "pedal to the metal" these last few days and worked long and hard on these to get them to this point. 

This isn't particularly exciting sewing - adding borders to centers that have been given to me - it's pretty boring, actually. Thankfully I've had some baseball to watch/listen to the last few days. It also is helping me feel productive through normally nonproductive "too tired to do much jet lagged days". I wanted to get them out of my sewing room, however, and move on to the next stage of completion. That means, for me, ready to sandwich.

I won't sandwich them, however, until I am all set up back in my sewing room for quilting and can go into mass quilting mode.  That's not today.

I still have too much of a mess from my "reorganization" process I'm doing. 

So, what will I do on this project?

I'll continue working in the sewing room, trying to decide what to do with everything - sorting, organizing, etc, and then I'll start finding/making backings for the first 10 tops, not necessarily in that order.

When it comes to these charity quilts, I tend to work in groups of 10.

It is easier to tackle that way and is more do-able for me. And because I'm human, and like variety, I'll choose a nice variety of the tops I have and work on them.  I will definitely use the donated tops that were sent to my sis in the first few batches - I think I have about 12 of those -  as they are different from the others that I have there.

Then, I'll continue working on getting set up for quilting in my sewing room. In my room, I have developed "stations" - a specific area for piecing, one for quilting and another for embroidery. If one area gets messed up for any reason - machine having issues, not putting things away/ leaving things a mess, etc.- then I need to go back and "fix" that problem before I can move on.

The weather is cooperating nicely here. It is cool, which means I don't mind quilting. I prefer quilting only when it is cool outside as my sewing room is upstairs and it tends to be warmer upstairs than on the main floor of the house. So, when it's "nice" downstairs, upstairs in the summer can be rather warm. No need to torture myself - that's when I do a lot of piecing.

I don't even attempt to do much quilting then.

It's not necessary and I don't make myself feel guilty for not getting right to quilting a top right after I finish it.  Some people feel they must or it is a UFO.  I don't allow myself to think like that. I look at my shelves of finished tops as "shelves of opportunity".

I might be weird, but I find that when I put a top away for a while after I finish it and then get it back out later - it's as if I enjoy it twice as much. 

I think right after I finish a top, I'm so excited by it that I can't really see it objectively.  I'm too jaded. 

Once I put it away and then pull it back out I can see it better for what it really is - a "'ho-hum" top or a "wow, that's pretty nice - I made this thing?" top.

Oh, and if you want to help me out by donating tops, I'm all ears. Why? You say? You have plenty!

A couple of reasons...

1. Many of you love to piece but don't have an outlet for your tops. I'd gladly take them off your hands. No guilt, no burden for your kids with lots of unwanted tops on their hands after you pass on.  That's morbid - okay...so you aren't ready to give up on this life - but you get the picture. Maybe you just want to do a little "minimalizing".

2. Your tops are different from mine. Your style of piecing is different - and your fabrics are different. This gives us a nicer variety of choices when it is time for recipients to choose quilts. It's just nice to have that diversity.

This is the real reason I'm asking for your tops.   You make different things than I do. I like that.

3. You are blessed by giving.  And I'm blessed by getting your tops! and in the end, Polish and Ukrainian (possibly) people are blessed by getting your handiwork.

I made a Charity Quilts ABC page easily accessibly on the quilted twins website with all the information you need in one post if you desire to donate tops.

Thanks for reading!

And thanks for caring!

If you happen to need anything for your own projects, be sure to see what my sis has for you over in the shop section!