So How many quilts have I made anyway?

My brother asked on our Facebook group - How many quilts have you made? He suggested several thousand quilts.

I chuckled.

No. Not that many. Five thousand? No. No way.

I started keeping track in 2012 in an organized way by making file folders on my computer with photos of the quilt and a Microsoft Word file accompanying it. Anything I did before that I did not keep in any sort of regular way so I don’t remember what I did or even have photos. That is my biggest regret when it comes to my record keeping. I suppose I was looking for the perfect system. I finally decided to skip perfection and just “do something”.

Now I have file folders on my computer. They look like this:

On the inside of each of these folders are just two things - one is another file folder and then a document.

Inside the finished quilt pics is something that looks like this. They are numbered with the number and then the year. I know. Nothing fancy.

Then the Word doc that goes with it just corresponds with what it was for and maybe what it looked like - whether it is a charity quilt, part of my Upcycled Blues series, 2” series, Upcycled series, etc.

Here is the total since 2012. However, the situation gets a little muddy - esp. the last few years. Some of the quilt tops have been made by someone else (for charity) and some of the ones that are here weren’t actually quilted by me (for Quilted Twins). However, it’s reality. I used to say that I made all of these - both the tops and then quilting. That’s not true anymore. But these are the quilts that I say I finished - even if some of them were actually finished by the long-armer in FL. :) (not many - just a few, actually)

However…it is what it is.

So there’s the answer to the question my brother asked.

1701 - that I have record of.

I did make quilts before 2012. I started in the early to mid 2000’s, I believe. However, I have very few pictures from those days due to losing a hard drive and someone who was fixing it deciding to reformat it all - even when asked not to. Needless to say I have my photos and various folders saved in multiple places these days.

I would guess that I probably made between 20 and 40 each year from the early/mid 2000s until 2012. My kids were home during that time and I had less time to spend on quilting - plus I was just learning. At that point, all my charity quilts were tied - and we did it all together - using our table, our kids sat around and tied them off rather quickly (I had already run the floss through).

All I’ve learned about quilting has been through books and by experience, various forums on the internet and of course, You Tube. (Mostly books - esp. one by Leisure Arts called The Complete Guide to Quilting)

I did, however, already know how to sew.

So there you are. I should feel like I know what I’m doing, right?

There is a lot I have learned, and of course, I am still learning!

 
 

Thanks so much for coming along with me on this journey!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

Becky Petersen5 Comments