A Whole Lot of TOPS from Fran - time to open those boxes!
Fran*, bless her heart, has been so faithful. Since the war started in Feb. 2022, she has been sending me boxes anyway - even though I’ve not taken the time to deal with them. I just set them aside - it was just “too much” for me to try to deal with those AND all that I was doing with Ukraine and all those quilts.
I’ve not even tried to deal with them, but I’ve decided that ignoring them isn’t going to get them handled. I need to at least SEE what delightful goodies she has sent me. And, since I now have a PLAN on how to deal with the plethora of charity quilt tops I have, I am not so discouraged by the volume I have.
Did I say I was discouraged?
No, not now.
I have been given another 3 years by the country of Poland to live here - so I will do what I can do help the people here in many ways!
This is one of those ways.
So, if I would only learn to use my time better, I’d have time to do all of this! :)
Here are the boxes she has sent that remained yet unopened.
I decided to open them all and then sort them by tops and take photos by the final tally - not each box individually.
pile of tops from the boxes before I sorted completely
This group - all together, she gave me 36 large tops (doubles)
and 40 small ones (will be singles after borders are added).
Plus some scraps
and two pieces of fabric to help with backings.
Fran has outdone herself with these and I’m in awe of all she has done for us here in Poland with these tops!
This is what they end up looking like after I’ve added borders. (These borders were actually added by Ewa’s mom. she likes to use ALL the fabric which is why she leaves the selvages on as she adds the borders. It made me laugh when I saw them. I quilted them anyway - just like I got them back from her as I had given her the cut borders all in a baggie like a quilt kit.)
I only put out a few of these at a time - here are 13 - and I had about 50 or 60 - simply because it takes people too long to decide if I were to put them ALL out at once.
The large ones, I also like to add borders to finish them out. I put an inner border and then a final 6” outer border.
Here are three of the larger ones (in the past) that I’ve added borders to. They make wonderful queen size quilts for people. Last year (2021) I had quite a few of the large ones at our give-away - and they were chosen rather quickly. :) That made me happy. I still have quite a few tops at the church that I’m actually ready to make into quilts. This year I didn’t make myself finish one a week--in fact, this year I got so far behind I just decided that finishing 120 quilts was enough. None of the 120 for this year are going to be this big. These are photos from 2021.
I actually like showing you these photos because sometimes I work through these so fast, I truly don’t take the time to appreciate them.
Of course all of these now have a back that is a single fabric so they are truly reversible - if they are wanting patchwork- they use the front - but if they want just a single design - either a floral or just a graphic design, they can use the back.
So looking back through these quilts - some of them are really quite pretty! As I work on them I mostly am thinking about just getting them done and not at all how they look. :) (To be honest, I’m looking at the individual squares of color and not the overall design.) Bad of me, I guess. I hate to even admit it. Going through and just looking at them - I think I can begin to appreciate how much work they really are. (When I’m in the zone - I actually don’t think about how much ‘work’ anything is - just want to finish it up so we can give it away.)
Here is a green tub of tops I have in here in the house - this tub was under those 5 boxes shown above. I opened it to take a photo - but there are also lots of tops in there. My goal - get these down to 0! (by the end of 2023 - Lord willing).
*Fran is a 70+ year old lady (I don’t know how old she is actually) who lives in Arizona, USA, and used to attend one of our supporting churches. Her husband has roots in this part of the world and her ministry to us (and I believe others), has been to make quilts and/or tops and other various things. She has sent me hundreds, if not thousands, of tops through the years - as she’s sent them to me for, I really don’t know how long. She’s a blessing to so many people here in this part of the world! I would wish everyone a “Fran” in his/her life!
Thanks for coming along. I appreciate your reading this far and all the support you’ve given me/us as I continue this journey. Many of your kind words have been just the little bump of encouragement that keep me going! Thanks!
Have a great day wherever you are reading!
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