Preparation for next group of charity quilts

You all probably realize that I’ve been done with the 120 charity quilts for this year for a few weeks now. I want to do another 20 for area specific Christmas gifts for the poor in our area - if I can. They would go directly to the agency that deals with them, if I can get to them—I have plenty of tops ready. However, my long arm needs some attention. That’s the next thing I need to deal with.

At this point there are 86 tops and backings paired up and placed up here.

I wanted to call the repairman back, but I had piled a lot of stuff in that long arm room before my son and his family came - as I had to have “some place” for many things that hadn’t been dealt with yet (mostly charity quilt related, but not only).

So, I knew I first needed to get it cleaned up. In doing that, I wanted to go ahead and pair up 120 tops with their backings and put them up top above the bolts of fabric. This would make it easier and I’d have less stuff in the room in the lower part/on the floor.

I wanted to work it down and get rid of some of the bolts of fabrics (by using them - not actually getting rid of them), and hopefully be able to fit all my BIG bolts in the shelving units. (These are from Polish companies.) I had brought several downstairs in order to get them out of the rooms upstairs (the polka dot ones, especially, along with wide burgundy and brown). I did succeed in preparing a lot of backings in the single size AND as of a few minutes ago now, I finished matching up the next 120 tops with backings and put them all up top. Then I was able to make it a bit neater in the room AND make a bit more room for the mechanic to work.

110 tops and backings paired up and put up top

I guess, it’s been a “before I can do this, I have to do that,” type of thing.

I actually paired up 124 tops. Last year I thought I had 120 and somehow when it came down to the last few, I had to go scrounge up another top as somewhere along the line I had miscounted. I decided to go ahead and just put 124 up there. I may stick a couple more if there is room. I’m just about out of space up there - and that is fine. I’m thrilled with 120 or more up there, ready to go.

124 paried up tops and backings ready to get quilted. This is one of those “unnoticed but necessary steps” that savesa me so much time when it is time to work on the long arm. Having these things all paired with the decisions already made and everything the right size means when it is time to actually do the work, I can dive right in and focus on that part of the task. So, this unglamorous task for this group is done and that feels great.

I did have to work with a ladder and some precarious leaning in order to get it all up there, but I’m tickled.

I keep a white board in my long arm room and write myself notes.

So here’s the final picture of that area of the long arm room! I’ll leave it nice and big. You can see how many solids I have. I use them almost exclusively for adding borders to the charity tops I have when I don’t have anything else that goes. I was also able to fit the polka dots on there and you can see them on the bottom shelving part. Each of those colors/bolts started with 100 meters!!! (That’s more than 100 yards!) To get the wholesale price, I have to buy it by the bolt. Obviously I didn’t really want 100 yards - would much prefer 50 meters/yards but it wasn’t a choice.

These bolts are so big and heavy that they really are hard to move around, so I try to work in groups of things. If I think I want to use the red polka dot, I try to cut or tear off a lot at once, etc. The red has been used the most - as I’ve used it with the Spiderman panels, Mickey Mouse and the farm ones. It is a great color for both boys and girls and even ladies as well!

Anyway, I’m on to the next step now - as I want to prepare at least 120 more bindings.

My bindings box for the charity quilt tops was almost empty. It is kind of mindless sewing, and I will go through my stripes and try to use some of them up from my main fabric shelves. I used mostly scrappy strips for this past year (2026) tops, and not stripes. However, I want to have a better mix for the next group, so I’ll do both. Obviously yardage goes faster than making scrappy bindings.

Scrappy bindings are definitely slower than simply cutting yardage and making all the strips the same. I use them all!

The Polish bolts are about 63” wide. When I prepare the backings for the single size tops, I just tear off a piece that is 96” long. It usually works fine for my tops which are about 59-60”x80-85” long.


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

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!


Becky Petersen2 Comments