"Finished is Better Than Perfect"

I heard the expression "finished is better than perfect" a couple times lately on a Facebook site and it inspired me to finish a couple projects. One is this crazy quit that I started in 2 or 3 BE (years before Emma, lol). Crazy quilts had a comeback in the 90's and it was fun to collect interesting textiles and to learn silk ribbon embroidery and play with different sitches on the machine and with different threads. I first made this small velvet-bordered one, and a vest (vests were big in the 90's and I am not sure where mine is)< The one I finally decided was "finished" is this shades of white wallhanging. I have pulled it out periodically over the last 30 years but this week it is officially FINISHED! Every seam has embellisment, lots of beads were added, border was sewn on and it is backed and finised. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

This is also the week that I deemed the Sunflower Quilt blocks from my last blog post to be FINISHED! (By the way, cakes are done, people are finished. Just saying) On to another UFO on the pile!

Let's Help Wrap the World

(Let me start with an apology disclaimer...I wrote this with nice paragraphs and easy to read spacing but this vintage blog site appears to be lazy now. It is also not letting me insert a link to Wrap the World With Quilts, so please just Google it ) Doing quilts for charity has been my "retirement life" and I have no intention of stopping anytime soon! I wish I had kept a tally of how many quilts I have made, but can safely say it is over a hundred. I belong to a guild called Yankee Quilters and we have a group that meets once a week to work on Comfort Quilts.Some of us make the tops, some quilt them, others tie them,others sew the labels on the back. Everyone does what they do best and we get it done!! Some of the quilts go to Dana Farber for cancer patients, some go to a shelter for mothers and babies, some to local families who have lost everthing in a fire, but lately most of them have gone to Wrap the World With Quilts. Also check out their videos on YouTube to see this wonderful group in action. We have sent 3 boxes of quilts so far and have enough for another shipment. They have shipped out over 49,000 quilts to refugees in Ukraine and other places in the world that are in crisis. You don't have to be a quilter to donate. Sending quilts, machines, tools, fabric, etc across the world is not cheap and they can really use the help!! I'm not sure why this organization touched my heart like it has. I think it is seeing the women and children getting off trains and buses in Poland with just a backpack of their belongings, seeing video of the minister who has set up shelters and is working to get the people sheltered and fed, seeing the faces of people who are so happy to have something for themself to keep them warm. It is exciting to see the piles of quilts getting packed up and sent along with volunteer relief groups. They don't just send to Ukraine refugees. They have organized drives to send supplies and quilts to hurricane victims in the US, as well as other worldwide disasters. Their current project is their Sunflower Quilt for Ukraine project. They are collecting 12 1/2 inch blocks which will be sewn together to display in Kiev in 2025, a project similar to the Aids Quilt in the 80's. The goal is to give comfort and encouragement to the Ukraine people. After the display they will be put together for quilts for people in need (Let me be honest,I'm glad I don't have that job!) The US has pledged to donate 15,000 blocks and at the moment they are at the 4500 mark so there is a long way to go! This block project has been my latest fun obsession. People donate so much fabric and unfinished quilts (UFO's) and orphan blocks to Yankee and it seems to be landing at my place! Add this to my own collection of ziploc bags, shoe boxes, and totes full of UFO's and blocks and I seem to have an endless supply of possible blocks. My rule for myself is that whatever I grab next is the next project. You would not believe the sense of joy I get from empty ziploc bags and boxes. If a block is already pretty and is 12 1/2 inch square it is exciting! If it is smaller, I dig in the pile of fabrics and give it a border. If it is plain (I inherited a pile of 12 1/2" 9-patches which should have been exciting but there is no rhyme or reason to them so they are now background blocks). The plain (boring) blocks are getting appliques put on them. The Wonder Under job is the time consuming part. I have been busy tracing, pressing, and cutting out sunflowers, hearts, words, and anything else I can think of. After they are fused down, they have to be sewn, which is kinda slow. For several Fridays I sat at the Farmer's Market cutting pieces. I had high hopes that the other women would also contribute, but I guess everyone has their thing and this is not it. One new woman brought in about a dozen pink blocks she had won in a block raffle to commemorate breast cancer awareness. She had no idea what to do with them, so there are several bright pink blocks in there. Another brought a couple blocks leftover from a Ukranaine raffle quilt, so there are some bright log cabin blocks. I did a wonky scrap log cabin workshop at our Staycation and 2 X Marks the Spot blocks got made, as well as several wonky log cabin blocks. Barbara was between projects and sewed down a couple applique blocks. It was a huge relief to finally say DONE and I couldn't resist taking photos and counting how many I did. I know this might sound like a "humble brag", but here are the pictures of the blocks I am donating. I really just wanted a record of this project.

Final tally: 342

Symphony in Brown

I have dubbed this collection of charity quilts "A Symphony in Brown". My friend Nancy Cohen Tomases showed up one day with a huge box, a garbage bag, and a bolt of fabric for comfort quilts. Oh boy (not). As I went through and sorted, it was obvious she was getting rid of browns, which she HATES. She tells me it was not all hers, but there sure was a lot of brown in there! I decided the best plan of attack was to cut it all into strips of various widths and make different patterns using a second color. I did brown with peach, brown with aqua, and brown with yellow, and then at the end I did brown with all 3. After 4 months of pretty much only working with browns I've called it quits for now. Gotta get them quilted!(I still have a good size box full of brown strips left over}. Enjoy!

Binding--Ugh

Oh How I Hate Binding! I am really good at making tops, pretty good at getting them quilted and EXCEPTIONAL at putting off bindings! I have had a pile of 5 quilts that just need the binding sewn down by hand. They've been there almost a year! I'm down to the last one of mine which is a bed size. I use the excuse that I don't have a comforable place to sit with good light in my house. What I do enjoy is a nice day on my porch to sit and stitch. However, a big quilt is too much! Excuses excuses. This story begins with a quilt started by my ex's mom, Cindy. She has been my Massachusetts mom, quilting buddy, and friend for a very long time. When she died suddenly last June, I inherited her quilting stuff. One of the UFO's was a quilt she started for her daughter Priscilla. I said I would finish it, thinking "no problem". Well.... the 11 finished blocks ended up needing work and pressing. I needed to make 14 more blocks. Then there was the lack of fabric to finish it. Shopping! And the hundreds of 9-patch and 4-patch blocks I had to make. I have never had to rip out and resew so much in my life! Well, it went to the longarmer and finally came home on July 3rd. On the 4th I pressed all the binding, trimmed off the edge and got the binding sewn on. (Took all day to get around to it) Didn't hand sew a stitch till today, the 6th. Instead, I managed to make 25 bookmarks, a rope bowl to display them in, new signs for the new items for Market, pressed the entire pile of stuff on the pressing table, cut borders for 3 tops, worked on a scrappy top, vacuumed, cleaned the bathroom, and probably a few other things that didn't need to be done just to avoid the binding!

Did I mention this is a King Size? That's 40 feet of binding!!! So far I've done 2! I promise to post this with pictures when I am finished. People think I am so prolific!! Yeah, when I'm doing what I like!

Charity..It brings comfort to many

Since I retired in September of 21, I have struggled with finding a way to fill my days. Of course, quilting is on top of the list every day, but let's be honest--I can only have so many quilts sitting around and my entire familly has their share. I enjoy the creative process-choosing fabrics, deciding on a pattern, using up my stash, and watching the top come to life. But let's be real-the actual quilting and binding are not my favorites. I have a tote full of tops, a pile of tops/backs/battings to layer and quilt and quite a lot of boxes of cut pieces, not to mention all the UFO's and orphan blocks! Geez! It's overwhelming! For several months I was crazy making stuff for my Farmer's Market booth. Let's just say--I'm good for the next 2 seasons!

Then there were the 5 months spent working on the Viking Quilt, so that kept me busy.

But I needed more, a purpose again. I found my way to Yankee Quilters. Every Monday they meet to work on Comfort Quilts for Dana Farber chemo patients and a shelter for women and children. It is the perfect outlet for me! I can sew all day and try out new designs, and someone else quilts most of them. After a couple weeks i started being sent home with fabrics, UFO's, and boxes full of squares and strips. :( Lots and lots of squares! I've been working through my UFO bags and having fun coming up with ideas. Every week I have at lease one top and one quilted quilt (yes I am layering and quilting one a week, if possible) My machine binding game is improving and I am trying different stipple designs and playing with my rulers. Perfection is not important and as Emma used to say "Charity doesn't care".

Since September I have made new friends and am filling my days with lots and lots of creativity. Our group was just introduced to a group called "Wrap Ukraine with Quilts". They have expanded to the whole world, have delivered over 30,000 quilts, and are just amazing!Please check them out at hellocottons.com.

We coincidentally were just gifted a LOT of tops and are spending the summer tying them to send. It's exciting! Please check out this video. (I don't seem to be able to put in a link so here's the info. On IMDB the show is called Making Good and the episode is called Wrap Ukraine With Quilts. I dare you not to cry! I forgot to take pictures of my comfort quilts but am very thankful to my friend Lorri for her picture taking and here are a few. There was first the strip stage, then the square stage, and then all the florals! Enjoy the show!