Summer's Over - Did I make any headway?

Back on July 4 I mentioned that I had a whole pile of tops to quilt. Normally when it is summer and summer means hot, and that means hotter yet in my sewing room, I don’t try to do much quilting. I don’t have a long arm and that means that quilts are draped all over my shoulders and arms when I quilt with my Janome. It’s great when it’s cool in the house. Not so great when it’s in the 80’s or 90’sF (30C+)

But I was starting to feel like I was drowning, so I decided on a course of action.

I was going to quilt in the mornings until it got too hot and then switch over to piecing or doing other things as I could to work around the heat.

How did I do?

Well…

It’s a mixed bag.

I STILL have a lot of tops. I had counted about 45 tops to finish up - on July 4 - These are not specifically charity quilts, though some may end up in that pile - I count those tops in a different category of “projects waiting to be finished”!

So, now that summer is over here in the northern hemisphere, I thought I should take stock - Did I make any headway at all?

Let me see.

This is my chart of finished quilts. The first 120 are all charity quilts and I’ve not taken the time to write in the descriptions. They were pretty simple. I have pictures to go with each number in an accompanying file.

This is where the chart starts to get interesting.

On July 5 I started with number 143. I am now at 177. That’s good.

But a lot of those were not already tops. in other words, many of those were tops I created and then finished. That meant I didn’t whittle those piles down as much as I had hoped by now. Sigh.

I counted them on my chart. I finished quilting a total of 20 tops that had been completed before July 4 when I wrote that post. These 20 were quilted by the end of summer.

That is 20 more than I usually do, so I’m happy about that. I still have a lot left to quilt!

The red arrows are pointing to the quilts that were already tops before July 4 when I wrote the original post. The others were not. They were made from start to finish after July 4.

But it’s okay. I did a whole lot more than if I hadn’t tried at all.

So you say, Well, if you have 45 to do and you quilted 20, then that means you are down to 25 tops, right?

Well………….let me see.

I have some upcycled blues tops to finish -

There is one more “top” that is actually in my sewing room being quilted. It’s in limbo. Literally. 11 tops

Some 2” strips tops to finish -

From my 2” strips series which totals about 60+quilts/tops so far. 8 tops.

Some floral ones -

These are from my floral series - featuring flowers quite prominently. 4 tops.

Misc. ones -

The top is an early scrappy I made. The middle one is a heart top that I really like, but didn’t know how to quilt it (I think I could handle it now) and the bottom is an embroidered top - still no inspiration for quilting that one). 3 tops.

the top one is a simple 9 patch scrappy with a wide border - and the bottom two are from my scrubs fabrics series. 3 tops.

Some “not blue but upcycled” ones -

Not my upcycled blues - just simply upcycled. The colors were such that I didn’t want to work on them this summer - thought I’d wait for fall. 5 tops.

Some tops a friend made - I paid her to do it back in the 2015 -ish year (she needed work and it was a way for her to earn some money). Unfortunately for me, it really did just add to my work load. I’m not doing that anymore. I haven’t finished them yet. They will probably fall into the “gift” category more than a charity quilt. I don’t “pay” people to make charity quilt tops.

My friend made these. did this back a few years ago. They are mostly Irish Chain tops and and the two smaller ones are Around the World tops. 10 tops.

Did you add them up?

No! No! No! Not possible! Just not possible!

This makes a total of 44 tops that I still have to quilt. How is that possible? I went down a total of ONE!!! One??? only one? Are you hearing me screech where you are reading this?

Not possible.

Whenever I hear this phrase, I think of the Bible verse, Jeremiah 8:20
”The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved”. I just couldn’t help myself. I had to put that in there. Totally not quilting related. Not really.

Some of you think your scraps are multiplying in the dark. I think I must have tops that are! Seriously. I had 45 back in July. I finished 20 of them and now I STILL have 44 tops? Hmm.

I think I miscounted back in July. I must have had more than 45!

That, or I do have elves working in my sewing room at night!

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Anyway, now you know!

Probably more than you wanted to know.

But I felt like I needed to take stock for myself to see if my plan actually helped reduce my overall tops to be finished.

I’m still not sure of the results.

I simply must have miscounted back in July. I must have.

Right?

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Be sure to check out what my sis has for you over in the store! She’s working extra hard to keep you in fabric for your projects!

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