The other day I started thinking about all these little tops that Fran (my friend in Arizona who sews for our ministry) has sent me that I still had. I had collected them all in one place last fall - and had been surprised with how many I had had (100+).

I had these because from the time Fran started sending me quilt tops, she was thinking we would finish them up as baby quilts. I had two problems with that - first of all, many were not baby fabrics - and it is hard to give away a lap size quilt here as people don’t know what to do with them. I don’t like to have to explain to someone how to use a lap quilt! The baby ones were okay, but I found people wanted the larger sizes much more than they wanted a baby quilt. She had just gotten ahead of me several years back and I never got caught up. I put them away and out of my mind.

But not entirely surprised. I had suspected I had a lot.

I had boxed them into types - what I thought of as kids - brights, kids - pastels and then adults of various shades/colors. They have been weighing on me to get them at least ready to sew into a single/twin size top.

I had made up a few of them last year when I was doing all that charity quilting because I realized that I had almost no children’s quilts, having given many to a local school for deaf/handicapped children. I had prepared a few for Ewa’s mom to sew up as Ewa asked me for things for her mom to sew.

I had arranged for her to come on the weekend. I talked about those in another blog post about cutting various things.

Then, on Friday I asked myself, right after breakfast, “What would it take to get these all done - all off my mind and ready to be sewn up?”

I didn’t know but I decided to make it Friday’s project!

So, I came to my kitchen table and started.

I laid out several of the tops and started cutting. I tried to work generally with similar colors and/or color schemes, so I could cut up say, one whole chunk of fabric at once.

However…I was also trying to make each one different from the other.

I do have a standard design that I use for these - one that uses up my fabric in a good way and provides variety - I don’t think any two of these tops ends up the same.

This is what I do - I need three bigger pieces and 2 smaller ones.

I try to coordinate them with what the center of the top looks like naturally!

I use solids or blenders or if I have something that I think will look good - then something else as well.

I worked all morning, ordered kebabs for lunch from Kebab King - a restaurant that delivers - and went back at it.

Twelve+ (12) hours after I started, I had them ALL done AND the leftover pieces of fabrics that I had created put away - either they were folded up and put back on shelves or the smallish scraps into the “to be dealt with pile” or the small very small ones - kindling. Some pieces are being tossed Ewa’s way for her string quilts. Most of those pieces will come later, though, as I trim down the larger scraps into my strips.

I ended up with 60 MORE tops ready to kit up and then ready to sew.

The centers are all the same size and a lot of them are the Around the World design or something similar - I have shown two of them in this blog post. I had designed that layout a while ago and found out that it worked well for us. Most importantly I was able to use up both smaller and larger pieces. If I only had a little bit, then it might work as those 2.5” strips up along the top and bottom. Larger pieces could be put around the center where I needed more fabric.

It was fast and easy and looked nice.

So why change it?

I may get tired of it, but because we are dealing with charity quilts, the people who are receiving these are different - so they aren’t tired of them!

I had felt like I needed to do this before I got really into this UP greens series which I now have going full swing. It was a more of mental AND physical clearing as I had these pieces sitting in my way as I entered my sewing room and right in my living room.

I wrote Ewa and showed her my collection!

Ewa told me she thought she could take the whole works at once. I had told her that it was okay if she couldn’t - as they are for her mom to sew up for me (Ewa likes to keep her mom busy!). She is definitely a wonderful elf! I also know that should Ewa’s mom not be able to do all of these, they are ready for me to do at any given time.

My Electric Quilt program told me that the amount I needed for each of these tops (the extra I was cutting) was 4.5 yards.

That means that I cut at least 270 yards into strips.

My hands didn’t get too tired, however - what got tired were my feet!

And my decision making abilities.

By the end of the day I was too tired to do much except kind of vegge (don’t know how to spell that).

I suppose some of you thought I’d head to my sewing room. Actually, I didn’t feel like going in there at 9 pm and starting on anything.

I ended up changing my footwear. Kudos to those of you who have to stand on your feet all day.

I kind of decimated my solids shelves. Seriously.

The shelves had been full - now they were more than half empty, I think. I used up a lot of the smaller pieces of solids I had from various donations or what I’ve brought over from the QT store. I’m getting down to having mostly what I’ve bought here in Poland.

What has happened is that I have bought (wholesale) various solids from my two favorite manufacturers here in Poland years ago.

When I buy these, they are between 60-100 meters each color. I have since run out of red, royal blue, turquoise blue, cappuccino brown (a tan) and lime-ish green.

I still have light gray, med cool gray, purple/plum, lavender, orange, a grassy green, bubble gum pink, hot pink, black, and white. So, I worked with what I had. Plus, over the last few months I had purchased some polka dots via our local auction site to use in these - figuring I could put off buying yardage from the wholesalers if the price had been hiked by COVID shortages. Even more importantly, it appeared like there was a shortage of solid colored fabrics by the manufacturers here in Poland…they were OUT. (They are just now getting restocked.)

I used almost all of those polka dots up. I had bought some polka dots with red background and blue - because I knew I didn’t have much red or royal blue.

I do have yet about 15 Spiderman panels that I want to finish up but for those I do need an infusion of red, royal blue and turquoise blue. I’m not doing those panels until I buy more of those colors. I need so much I’d like to buy it wholesale.

Remember, folks, I’m in Poland. If I were in FL, coming up with this fabric would be no big deal!!! I’d just head over to the QT shop. :) But I’m not there.

I’d like to get big 60 meter (think yards if you don’t know this measurement) bolts of these colors:

• red

• royal blue

• navy blue

• turquoise blue

• hunter green

• cream/cappuccino brown (need that for Big Fabric Haul fabrics)

• burgundy

• polka dots - yellow/white

• polka dots - red/white

• polka dots - blue/white

• and then some more backings - some prints

  This is why we’d like to take a trip - the place is about 1 hour, 30 minutes from our house. My husband said he’d go with me (he’d drive). (Sometimes it takes that long to get to the other side of Warsaw if we get stuck in traffic!)

  We could do it now - the travelling isn’t a big deal - but their office is closed to shoppers currently (COVID related) - you can only order via email. Since this is the company that sent me the wrong children’s boat fabric 2x, I decided that I really just wanted to GO and buy after seeing what I’m getting. So I’m waiting. Maybe in March we can take a road trip. We’ll see.

After that day was over, I was sore.

My legs/knees were sore from standing in a sort of stiff position.

I had kept going back to the living room floor to place my finished rolls on the floor - as once I had the coordinating fabrics all ready, I rolled it up together and took it off the table. When I had 2 or 3 finished, I removed them and walked to the living room to put them on the floor. It was to give me a sense of “accomplishing something” and also to let myself change position. I was still sore from all that standing in spite of my moving to the living room so often! I guess it is also just old age - and I kind of overdid the cutting. But I’m done now and as of this writing, I’m not sore anymore! :)

Grateful.

Now you know. Now I’m free to focus on other things! At least I don’t need to cut and cut for charity quilt tops right now! :)

Have a great day wherever you are reading this! Stay safe!

Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store here!

Here’s one of the beauties we have!