How much time for quilting?

[wendy w.]

So it's been going through my mind, how much of your week/day is spent quilting?

I've just been reading these tips to free up more time http://quiltedonline.com/10-tips-make-more-time-quilting/

[wendy w.]

Shouldn't have thought that you needed to free up any more time for quilting, now you are retired and can do it full time :P

[wendy w.]

I'm only at the clearing some space stage Rosemary

[ANNE E.]

Hi Wendy, Do you have your own sewing room?
I hope you are managing to keep warm.
Next weekend is the small quilt show at Ardingly West Sussex. I'm hoping to go ....weather permitting, I'm looking forward to it as the next show I can get to isn't until June.
Anne

[Rita C.]

Interesting topic Wendy, thanks for the link. I think doing a list and prioritizing what's on the list makes a big difference. I have only done this for the first time this year, but it has made me focus on what I need to do rather than what I could do. It is so hard to keep my sewing room tidy, particularly when I am in the middle of a project but one thing I have found useful is to always have a basket (about 12"x8") with all the fabrics from the current project folded into it. I have begun to fold the fabrics neatly and return them to the basket each time I use them too, The other thing I do is always have a ziplock bag on my cutting table and I put all the off-cuts into that. Then if I need a small piece I know where to find it. When I have finished making the quilt top I will then return any yardage large enough either to my FQ drawer or yardage shelves and all the smaller pieces will be trimmed into usable strips, squares or triangles. All the strips, squares and triangles are also arranged in ziplock bags with the sizes written on the outside for easy access. Just my few organizational suggestions.

[wendy w.]

Wow Rita you are OCD, but good tips. I do keep a basket for all the scraps and odds and ends of a current project. I really do like baskets, I often pick up small ones for projects and nice square ones for fat quarters. My scraps are colour coordinated in baskets ready for picture quilts when you need just an odd bit of the right colour/tone.

I'm making a list tomorrow to prioritise. I feel a bit overwhelmed, I keep joining in challenges and wanting to make other things. So far CW, BOM 2015, monthly postcard challenge and now Quiltshop Gal monthly challenge, don't let me sign up for any more got enough to do with UFO's. :woohoo:

Yes Anne I am blooming cold but we've not had snow again, I hope you get to Ardingly the shows up here start in April. I'd love to go to one now. I'm fabric deficient, most of my fabric (lots) is 1/4 yard or less and the number of 1/2 yds I can count on one hand. I gasped when there was a confession last year about how much fabric people had. :lol:

[wendy w.]

Good question and thanks for the link. That is an awesome list, Wendy. I just don't know what else to say...speechless.
Sounds like something Margo or Rita would do, not just read about, but actually do. So proud of our mentors!
I'll try.

Now, to answer your good question:
Some days none, other days lots, I like the schedule idea. I have a friend who "quilts 3 to 4 hours a day, everyday.". Retired. So there's inspiration for you, except she only has a dog, no chickens.

[wendy w.]

PS to above post: I also should schedule my TQS forum time, non?

[wendy w.]

Wendy,

I still teach full time so work up in my studio on weekends and holidays. I am usually playing with fabric both Saturday and Sundays. If there is stuff to do on property or house it gets crammed into the morning of Sat. so I can spend as much time in studio.
During warmer seasons I get to studio several evenings per week.

I also use a basket system to sort projects.

cheers from the deep freeze in Nova Scotia
Jeanine

[Nancy R.]

I don't organize my time at all and barely organize my supplies! But I do some quilting most days. How much time depends on what other things are going on. But I'm good at ignoring the housework so I can generally get an hour or two in each weekday evening and several hours on weekends and holidays.

The only projects I worry about when I finish are ones with real deadlines -- mostly gifts. Other than that, I don't worry about UFOs and work on whatever is interesting me at the moment. I generally have a list of what I want to work on next, but It's just kept in my head and can change easily. For example, right now I want to finish piecing my Grand Illusions quilt, then I want to crank out something for the SewCalGal (or now QuiltShowGal, I guess) monthly challenge, then pin baste my sister's wedding quilt, then work on the CW challenge. For me, making lists and regimenting my way through things changes quilting from a fun hobby to a job that I feel stressed about and don't enjoy. That's just the way I'm wired. Because I'm not concerned about when things get finished, I rarely if ever throw away old UFOs. I find that things that don't interest me today, often will excite me next year.

[Nancy R.]

I've been retired since 2002, but the only "scheduled time" I have is for appointments and exercise classes. Everything else, I do when I feel like it. That means that a lot of cleaning, cooking, and organizing goes by the wayside for long periods of time. Some days I don't feel like quilting. I might do some machine embroidery, or knitting, or crocheting, or reading. My back and shoulders don't like for me to spend long periods of time at the machine without a lot of moving-around-breaks in between. Occasionally, I might even do some of that cleaning, cooking, and organizing. It's just me and my old cat, and we aren't too fussy!

[Annis C.]

That was an interesting list. Thanks for sharing. I only took time to skim through it. I no longer make a list on paper, but have a pretty long list in my head. Some weeks I quilt a lot and others very little. This week I'm putting together the blocks for a queen size quilt that I started piecing 5 years ago. Today I will have it completed hopefully with backing and binding ready for quilting when I so choose sometime in the future. I tend to work on projects whenever the mood hits. I'm hoping to get some quilting time in on my longarm over the weekend then it's time to get back to bookkeeping, which is what I was supposed to be doing this week, but there's always next week, I hope, and this week was already stressful enough and I find quilting to be a stress reliever. I often keep my leftover fabrics from a quilt together just in case I should decide to use them for a miniature donation quilt as the fabrics are already chosen and there are often leftover blocks or bonus blocks that could be used in the quilt.

[wendy w.]

It's interesting how different everyone is.

I spend far more time playing with fabrics and drawing designs than getting on with sewing and I spend ages looking at a bit of sewing I've just done. I just spent the last 10 mins stroking a bit of Mctavishing :lol:

Keep warm all Spring will come.

[Nancy R.]

I'll often sit a stroke my new quilting, too. The textures are just so cool that it's hard to pull myself away sometimes. But I won't tell that to anyone but you guys.....

[Annis C.]

If I made a list and stuck with it this quilt would still be waiting to be assembled, or maybe finished a long time ago. It's my Sweet Sampler pattern and was meant to be used for a Block of the Month class and PDF Tutorials for different block piecing techniques. I did a few of the tutorials in 2010 then time marched on and the classes never happened. Last month I decided to finish piecing the blocks, then to make the assembly quicker, I replaced the multiple inner borders with 3 color hourglass blocks. I debated whether to turn the blocks into bed runners for my retreat center or finish it as a queen size quilt. The quilt won. I'm not sure how well I like it, but it's good to have a large project almost complete so early in the year. Now I have to decide whether to wait until I have time to custom quilt it or just to use a digital meander and get it done quickly.