Cactus
Kilter Quilter’s Pop Quiz:
You have two minutes to rate the following, from least
favorite to the most awesome, over-the-top favorite thing to do. Oh, and absolutely no cheating from your
classmates. Go.
Making of a Quilt Quiz
___ Design/Pattern
___ Choosing/Shopping Fabrics
___ Prepping the Fabrics
___ Cutting
___ Pressing
___ Applique
___ Piecing the quilt top
___ Borders
___ Squaring up the edges
___ Backing
___ Batting
___ Sandwiching the layers
___ Quilting
___ Creating a label
___ Binding
___Journaling/Photographing/Documenting your work
___ Using/Gifting the finished quilt
___ Other: ___________________
STOP! Time’s up. Put
down your pencils.
How’d you do? See steps you love? See steps you’d rather
clean the bathroom than do?
Brenda Breadon from the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum
presented Quilts of the 30’s at the
September meeting. A lot of quilt tops were shown and she commented, Someone might have been a topper, not a
quilter. and CKQ wondered what type of quilter are you?
But first, a word
from our sponsors …
Block of the Month: Crazy Quilt Block
Use a 14” x 14” muslin/fabric base and go crazy stitching
fabric scraps onto the piece. Sew, trim, and flip! Leave the 14 inch size as is
so the BOM winner can trim the blocks herself. Don’t forget to embellish … like CKQ does in the blog postings. Seriously,
remember Patsy Morris’ program about threads and using your fancy stitches on
your sewing machine? What better time to test them?
Back to CKQ’s
scheduled program …
What kind of Quilter are You?
Did you find yourself loving several steps? Lots of 1s?
2s? Or did you sequence your loves to dislikes? It doesn’t matter how you rated
the steps, just find the top three loves and know that these are your
strengths. They come easy for you so keep up the great work!
Now the top three dislikes … let someone else do them. C h a r g e !
Okay, you want to do them yourself. Fine. Suffer through,
CKQ won’t stop you. And your UFQ pile will have another bundle heaped on top of
it.
What steps do you love to do?
What steps do you dislike?
Quilting is a community event. Not everyone enjoys the
same parts of making a quilt and this is good. Some love to design quilts,
others love to quilt the quilts. Some have an eye for knowing what fabrics work
great for a certain pattern while others fail miserably.
If there’s an area you dislike, find a quilter who excels
in that area and barter. Or, try different methods/techniques until the
particular area is easier and quicker to achieve. CKQ recommends changing you
ways on the not-so-dislike steps before tackling the dislike-with-a-passion
steps.
Ease into loving the entire quilting process.
For instance, quilts weren’t finished because making a
label seems like a hardship. What about moving up label-making before the top’s
completed? Cut out the pieces when you’re cutting out the block pieces.
Assemble the label while assembling the blocks.
The dreaded binding.
Dunt. Dunt. Duh…..
Who says binding has to be made after the quilting? Get
your binding ready whenever you want. Take the yardage to a bartering quilter
and say you need x yardage with a y width, folded in half lengthwise.
Or make it yourself as early as possible. Do it first or
as soon as you’re able. Then it’s ready to attach to the squared up quilt that
you know will only take you a fraction of the time you think it’s going to
take. Don’t forget to check out the latest binding attachment gadgets.
Maybe the joy of quilt-making ends once the top’s
completed. The excitement has waned. Or some step along the way the quilt’s not
turning out the way you’ve envisioned. Can you rearrange the blocks into a
different, more eye-catching pattern?
Could the removal of one fabric for another work?
Being flexible (changing your mind) is okay. Why
spend hours on something you dislike to do?
Another word
from our sponsors …
Sew Day: September 27th
At the Pueblo West Baptist Church
9 am – 2 pm
Lunch provided so contact an officer for a head count.
Back to CKQ’s
scheduled program …
Quilting groups/guilds/clubs have replaced the quilting
bees, but not the need for quilters to gather and learn. Yes, sometimes the
learning is about what’s happening in So-&-So’s life and her latest drama.
Many times it’s about sharing what new techniques and tools have eased a
quilter’s life.
It’s not so long ago when quilting was hard work. The
invention of the rotary cutter saved many left-handers’ thumbs. And before
that, the washing machine! Can you imagine having to wash the fabric in a tub
and wring it out by hand? And then iron, I mean, press it with homemade
starch?!!! Oh wait! CKQ got a recipe or two about making her own starch using
vodka from a tip last month. Even making homemade starch is happy time now…
A person had to really love quilting or needed to keep the
families warm at night. Try piecing in the dark. Electricity was a handy
invention so quilters could quilt in the evenings. Not to mention the fabulous
sewing machines. Inventions, techniques, tools, and storage will continue to
making quilting an exciting passion for many.
Less than 50 days until the holidays begin. Okay, less than 70, but
CKQ’s birthday is the start of my
holiday season… Are you ready?
Most quilters cannot be Last-Minute-I’ll-Whip-Up-A-Quilt-For-You
quilters.
Make a list. Check it twice.
Do you have your pattern, fabrics (don’t forget the
binding, backing and batting), threads, needles, working machines, sharp
blades, etc…? Use the Pop Quiz as a handy checklist.
Pull out your calendar and schedule blocks of time to
create. Yes, this time of the year your talents need to be on a schedule. The
rest of your life (work, family, community service) works around this schedule.
It’s amazing what you can achieve in 10, 15, 30 minute
blocks of time when you have your Honeydew Quilting List.
Have you heard this before … I need to start earlier next year.
Let’s face it. It’s not going to happen so make the quilt
for the VIP of 2014 and if time, another quilt for VIP2, VIP3,
… Oh, and if you haven’t made yourself a quilt, don’t you think it’s about time
you’re VIP of 2014?
But remember, no matter where you’re on the like/dislike
parts of making the quilt, come enjoy the fellowship of other quilters. You
never know who’s insane enough to enjoy the step you dislike passionately. CKQ
smells a bartering of services in the air …
Keeping the home fires burning …
Cactus Kilter Quilter
