I Changed My Mind

I decided to just go ahead and trim up all the charity quilts that I finished quilting in August. At first I thought I would trim 10, then bind 10, then trim 10, then bind them, etc. However, once I did 10, I decided that I liked the nice neat stack they created. So I kept on going. I did it over the period of several days.

So, they are finished being trimmed—step 1 of the binding phase. I’m thankful for that.

I did, with only one exception, use shears to cut with.

One of them was better done with my rotary blade. Well, better is the wrong word. They probably would all have been “better done” with my rotary cutter, but it takes longer. So, after it is all bound, no one knows whether it is perfectly smooth inside that binding.

I’m also using poly batting, so it is puffier than cotton or and 80/20 blend of cotton/poly. That makes it harder to cut with a rotary blade. I’ve been using shears for years now and it works pretty well. If the batting is thinner or requires more precision, then a rotary cutter helps out then.

I decided to do it all now because I know that I tend to group together quilts that are similar in color range if I am working with a certain color or style (print) of binding. So, I tend to pull out several that are similar and work with them all at the same time.

So, I talked myself right into finishing up that whole stack. I pretty much did 10 at a time, until the last day - and that day I did 20 - then took a break - went to the garden - and did another 16.

 

I asked my husband if he would help me get the last few trimmed quilts on top of the stack. He did.

I also wanted to just go ahead and finish because it does tend to just make a big mess of batting pieces, little fabric scraps, etc. on the floor. This way I could get it bagged up (the small batting pieces) and swept and the extra fabric cutoffs could be worked with.

So here is what I have.

I have two bags of batting scraps that my neighbor wants. I saw her on Friday and told her that the batting would be ready on Saturday - that day the blog post goes live. She will send her son over to get it.

The two bags of batting are the white bag on the left and the blue one on the right.

Then, I decided to take my big pile of fabric pieces and stack them neatly - sorted by at least a semblance of size. Small, small/medium and then medium/large. That actually took a while. But this way they are more or less ready to lay out on the cutting mat and cut down further.

I left my big quart size thermal cup to the left for size. My med/large pile is on the left, then small/ medium pieces and the on the far right are the small ones.

This way I can go ahead and trim down the small and small/medium pieces. The medium/large pieces - I will probably just go ahead and cut them into squares for Ewa’s mom to make more tops with or just give them to Ewa and let her trim for her mom. :) Haven’t made up my mind yet.

Anyway, my pile is pretty impressive. What I’ve shown above is 100 quilts. I had 4 that were unfinished from before, then I finished 96 in the August effort. That makes for a total of 100 quilts! My husband said he wanted to see what a pile of 120 quilts looked like! I said, “Well, not this time!”

I tend to go ahead and finish a group of 10 of them, wash and photograph them and then take them on over to the building to wait for distribution. so, from now on the pile will shrink as I work on finishing them up.

I knew this little process would take a while. But it’s done now.

And now you know.

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

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

PS. I had this blog post written on Friday - and at about 7:15 am on Saturday I came downstairs for breakfast and guess what I saw? The whole pile had fallen over in the night while I was sleeping. So, now it looks like this. And sure, enough, by the time I got my camera, the cat decided it makes a nice new place to sleep!

Becky Petersen6 Comments