Just January's Quilt Musing

Do you have problems finishing what you start? Do you have zillions of UFOs (UnFinished Objects) or WIPs (Works In Progress) or PHDs (Projects Half Done)? Do you start something and then run out of steam OR decide that you don't like it partway through? Or do you get distracted by something new? (Oooo, shiny!)

I love quilting and it is a rare thing that I start something and get partway through to decide that I don't like it (although that happened with the bags I designed this year, but I think that was because I have made 44 of them... and still have 2 on order!) I do, however, frequently wish something was done so that I could start something else! So I have come up with a way to 'solve' this. It might help you, so I thought I would share...

So I feel it is helpful to set a goal. So let's say it is, Finish something!

I have read lots of organization books - you know, the kind that tell you how to solve all your housekeeping problems - and they seem to focus on two main things (after the goal setting process.) You either are overwhelmed by the entire task of doing whatever it is you need to do. Or you are so focused on doing it perfectly that you are kind of paralyzed - too afraid to start because you know you can't do it perfectly... (Or in the case of quilting, maybe you start, but you don't finish because those points in that block are not exactly right!) I've written a musing on perfection so I am going to pass on my motto, as I feel it bears repeating, and then head back to point one. "Better Finished than Perfect!"

These same self-help books suggest that breaking an overwhelming project down into separate tasks is helpful. I also find that a LIST is helpful. I find a list particularly useful when the thing that I am doing is something unpleasant, as I might be able to trick myself into getting something done, simply for the pleasure that I get by crossing something off the list. I have highlighters in different colours and I find a list that has lots of colour on it VERY satisfying... (A list also focuses me on the task so I don't get sidetracked into doing something else. It makes it apparent WHERE I am and what I need to do next!)

Back to quilting! How, you ask, is this going to help you finish something? Well! Let me make a suggestion. Get TWO things out that you would like to finish. Get TWO pieces of paper. At the top of each piece of paper write the name of the project - Blue and Brown Quilt and Batik Placemats for example. Take a few minutes and figure out what has to be done to finish each project. The Blue and Brown Quilt might just be at the pile of fabric stage; so labeling, cutting, piecing, layout, etc. etc. And perhaps the place mats need to be sandwiched and quilted; so cut the backing, cut the batting, chose the quilting pattern, pick out the thread, quilt, make the binding, etc. Make TWO lists. Post the lists some place where you can see them.

Do one thing on one of the lists. Cross it off with a highlighter. (If you find that it is taking you too long to complete something on your list, maybe you didn't write down enough steps. Break the task into smaller steps!) If you are having fun with that project, you can do the next step on that list too, but don't get too gungho about one list - do something on the other one too! Alternate the lists, use lots of pretty colours with your highlighters, and get TWO projects finished for the price of one!!

When I make bags, I use the second project as a reward for finishing the next step in the bags that I have on order!! This way, I make progress on two things and I enjoy the anticipation of the next step on a new project, whilst reveling in the pleasure of finishing a step on something that needs to be done too!! So whatever trick you have up your sleeve, enjoy the process! I hope these tricks help you, and really, really, do remember, "Better Finished than Perfect!"

Just teaching a class at the Quilt Retreat...

Back to the bags. THIS was the thing that started the whole bag saga off. (I have made, I believe, 44 bags and I have two more on order...) (Although one of those might not be a Maddin bag...)

So first. The bags that I made at the retreat! There they are.

The theme of the retreat was ReUse, Reduce, Recycle. And the committee did an amazing job of following their theme. There was a Swag Bag - made of a used t-shirt (mine is a perfect laundry bag!) It included (among other things) a mug - so that you weren't drinking out of styrofoam cups, and a reuseable shopping bag from Berwick Nova Scotia - I just love it!!

The bag pictured above is biggish and designed so that you could use it at a retreat. The front and back pockets are chop suey blocks - which are scrappy blocks, designed to use up some of your stash - you actually make so many that are the same that we shared them. Anyway, the pockets are big enough to put your notes from the class. The inside is big enough for the project that you are making. There is a pocket with a zipper so that you can find your keys and wallet at the end of the class. There are two loops to hold your water bottles upright. And on the other side there is a divided pocket with a pen holder and two divisions big enough for your phone and your iPod.  Also on the inside, there is a place for a false bottom to hold the bag flat - I got a pile of placards from our local municipal election - with permission! And they are perfect!

So. That's the bag. Here's the teaching of the bag.

I got to the hall on Friday in the afternoon. The class started on Saturday morning at 9 am. I really, really knew how to make the bag AND I had written a pattern for each of the students - but I asked them not to open the patterns until after we were done.

I had 5 students (I actually had 6, but the 6th one had a medical condition and couldn't attend the retreat at all. She got the pattern and hopefully one of the other students can give her a hand if she needs it.) Two students finished their bags on Sunday in the early afternoon. One student fell behind - she was ill on Saturday and had to sit quietly for awhile. And one was doing a lovely job, but elected not to exchange her chop suey blocks which set her behind. (I wish I could see her completed bag - what she got done there was gorgeous.) And one lady only attended the retreat in the day time on Saturday. We continued to work on the bag on Saturday evening AND then again on Sunday morning and early Sunday afternoon.

I desperately wanted everyone to finish, and had to work to keep from rushing everyone. I tried to keep a balance between keeping the class together AND keeping the people who were working faster from sitting with nothing to do (which didn't happen - I just kept them going). I also didn't want the people who were not able to keep up, for whatever reason, to feel panicked that they weren't keeping up. I got good reviews at the end of the class, so I must have managed to do it just about right (but I worried about it at the time.)

Prep for the class:
In order to prepare for the class I had all the cutting that I had given everyone for homework done for TWO bags. I had ONE of the bags partially done, so that I could show HOW to do it - and then say, "And this is what it'll look like when you get that part done." And I could hold up the partially completed one. (The lady who had to sit quietly on Saturday didn't have her homework cut out either, so she started off behind.)

By the end of the class, I had finished my two bags (one had had several parts already done - zipper plackets made, zippered pocket done, divided pocket done and bottle loops made.) I already had enough chop suey units made to make both of my bags - although I traded around with the other 4 ladies who were trading, otherwise I would have had a lot of repetition!)

Included in the pattern for the bag was the pattern to make the Chop Suey Quilt as well. Which is also known as Hidden Pinwheels because of the secondary block! (And yes, this picture is sideways - the quilt looks better this way - even though it means the room in the background is standing on its head!!)

I don't think this is a very entertaining blog - but it gets this off my chest. I had a terrific time at the retreat - the ladies were lovely, the food was delicious. The COFFEE WAS AMAZING!! (BLISS!)

There were draws and contests, table favours and the ladies who didn't take the class were making the most gorgeous projects - and were happy to share and talk about them.

I had a terrific weekend. I came home on Sunday evening and on Thursday I was sick with a cold that knocked me down for the count. I was sick with it for 6 weeks - but I was REALLY sick for two weeks. During those two weeks, I didn't get into the Quilt Studio AT ALL - I must have been at death's doorstep! :-)

Anyway. All is well now, and my next topic will be the Festive Craft Market in November!!! 

Just about the Retreat!! In fact, just the Trunk Show

Before I start talking about what happened at it, I want to say that it was absolutely wonderful!! I met many lovely quilters, I had a great weekend. I had a wonderful time talking about the quilts that I have made and seeing the amazing things that the other quilters were making!!

I was asked to teach a course. In case anyone has read my rants on bags (I think I have made 45 of them now, and I have one more on order, and have been approached about another, but I don't have any details about the second one...) THIS is what started off the whole 'bag' trip. To recap, I designed a bag to teach at this course. When I got it done it was HUGE! So I made a smaller one - with a chop suey pocket, so we called it the Chop Suey Bag - and sent it off to Helen to show to the ladies in the Quilt Guild.

Then, I made a smaller one still, just for fun. And I showed it to my mom who liked it, and showed it to the ladies in the office and kitchen where she lives, and the next thing you know I was up to my eyeballs in orders for bags.

Included in teaching a class (whch I had done before, both quilting and non-quilting) was a Trunk Show.

I had never done a trunk show before, so I spent some time thinking about it. My friend Scott in Nebraska told me his pet peeve with trunk shows. He said, "Don't hold up each quilt and say, 'I made this quilt.'" And then hold up the next one and say the same thing. (Or variations on it...) Made sense to me.

I have to digress briefly (or possibly not so briefly... bear with me.) I went back to school as an adult. I was working full time as a Library Technician in two Elementary Schools and I went back to College to get my Library and Information Technician diploma. I was technically very proficient with computers. I did learn things in the program, but there were courses that I could have taught instead of taking - Computer Fundamentals should be included in that list. (We learned how to copy and paste and how to rename a file. We had one poor lady in the class who had NEVER turned a computer on in her life... When the instructor told her to move her mouse up, she lifted it off of the mouse pad... oh, it was awful!)  Anyway. We had several different instructors. Some of them were wonderful. Some of them were not so good. One lady was AWFUL! She inspired me to be a better teacher than she was...

So I needed to know what I was going to show, and what I was going to say. How long did they want me to talk? (I was expecting 25 minutes or so...) 45 minutes to an hour would be about right.

Eeek! (Those of you who know me IRL will know that talking is not a problem for me. However, this Trunk Show was a fundraiser and they opened it to the public - so there could be quite a few people there - and not people with whom I would be spending the weekend quilting.)

So I made a list of the quilts that I wanted to show. And then, just in case I got up in front of everyone and drew a complete blank, I wrote what I wanted to SAY about each quilt or quilted object. As I wrote quilts down, I realized that I was going to talk about my journey in quilting from the very first item I made right through to the thing I finished the afternoon of the Trunk Show! (And one thing more that wasn't actually finished... there are only so many hours in the day!) So I had a theme. I didn't really expect to read what I had written - but I am a good reader (lots of practice!) so I figured it wouldn't be a complete disaster if I lost my marbles right there in front of everyone.

I emptied out three rubbermaid containers full of stuff being stored in the house, enlisted the Beloved Dearly's help. Beloved and I piled quilts up from all over the house - I have them on couches and chairs. On my coffee table, on our bedroom walls, on two quilt racks in the living room, hanging as the headboard in our guest room, and pinned up on the walls all over the house. I borrowed back two quilts from Mom and Dad, Christmas gifts from several years ago. I read the list and Beloved carefully folded and stashed the quilts. We started with the last bin, and the LAST quilt, and put the quilts in one on top of the other in the reverse order  that I was going to talk about them. I wrote the numbers 1, 2 and 3 down on pieces of paper and put them on top of the top quilt in each bin before we put the lids on. I had thirty quilts in the end and a couple of quilted squares for classes that I have taught. And I included the Chop Suey Bag that Helen had had for the past 5 months.

Just before the Trunk Show started I had a moment of stage fright. But while Helen was introducing me, it vanished and away I went... I talked for an hour. People smiled encouragingly, oohed and aahed in the right spots and laughed on cue... Whew! What a relief.

At the end, people told me it was the best trunk show they had ever seen. (No one told me they were the best quilts they had ever seen - and I wouldn't have believed them if they had.)

But I did get accolades for having something interesting to say about each quilt. I tried to talk about the things that made quilting FUN for me: The things that made each quilt memorable or funny. I talked briefly about techniques, classes I had taken or taught, and things I had designed.

I also got accolades for having everything in order. Have you ever been to a Trunk Show and the poor quilter is hunting through a huge pile of quilts for the one she wants to talk about next? Or the people who are holding the quilts up hold something up and she goes, "Oh!" like she has never seen that quilt before and has no idea what she is going to say about it? My thoughts were collected, I handed the quilts to the two ladies who held them up, and I had my list so that I could quickly reacquaint myself if I had one of THOSE moments. (I didn't, but I did manage to call McKenna Ryan, Ryan McKenna - fortunately someone in the audience got me straightened out.)

My S.E.X. quilt was a hit. So I thought I would talk about it and share a photo... First talking. I used to belong to the Common Thread Quilt Guild in Ottawa, Ontario. It is a wonderful guild with all kinds of things going on to spur our creativity and imagination. One of the things is a yearly quilt challenge. I participated in three or four of them. This is how it would go. The Challenge committee would get a bolt or two of fabric and cut it into smallish pieces. There would usually be four or five fabrics of varying sizes in a brown paper bag, with the rules to the challenge INSIDE the bag. You would pay a small fee to join the challenge and you would get the fabric (sight unseen, I might add) and the rules. The resulting small quilt or wallhanging would be due in at the April meeting and in May the membership of the guild would vote for their favourite challenge quilt.

The S.E.X. Challenge was the Stash Enhancing eXperience Challenge. And we were to interpret that theme in any way we wanted. (There were prizes for the most different pieces of fabric in the quilt) All five of the fabrics in the bag had to appear in the quilt top, but any amount of other fabrics could be added and there was a maximum size.

I was the only one who created a quilt with the quilter having sex on a quilt. Her clothes, and his, are strewn around, however her handiwork is hung carefully on the tree. I had some lovely quilting fabric, and I fussy cut some appropriate pieces to cover up their salient points. Anyway, it was fun!

Here's the quilt:

It hangs in my Quilt Studio over the ironing board. The Guild also had a 9 Patch thing going on - so I thought the border (which had the 5 challenge fabrics in them, as well as in the picture) was a nice touch! The little quilt on the line is actually free motion quilted, but the blocks were not pieced... the clothespins are from Scrapbooking. The corners say things like the Joy of Quilting. And on their bottoms, the sign says, Do Not Disturb, Quilter at work! Seemed apropos somehow!!

Have fun!