Especially when I realize that my concerns were not valid and that I should have just DONE IT!!
In this case, it was quilting this simple charity quilt……
So….why the delay????
It started when I received the top…..
I walked into our Charity Bee meeting to take a couple of quilt tops home to use for practicing Free-Motion Quilting. Most of our (hundreds) of donated quilts are quickly finished on a volunteer’s longarm machine, but they are always elated when someone else wants to tackle one or two.
The first one I was handed was smaller, and I knew that I could complete it in a heartbeat, but this one was larger, and I didn’t immediately see a quilting design!!
So, it was relegated to the “do later” pile…..ie….pitched in the corner between my two fabric shelves…. AND FORGOTTEN!!
Well, not completely forgotten…..it was still on my To-Do List!!
So, a few weeks ago I decided that IT WAS TIME…..the deed MUST be done!!
And, as with most of my procrastinated projects, this one was fun, easy, and I was able to finish it using my 20-minute per morning creative sessions.
And look how great the quilting is……
I will now deliver this back to the group and grab one or two MORE tops.
Maybe I won’t procrastinate…..but I wouldn’t bet on it!!
Do you struggle with procrastination???
How do you avoid it?
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When I was quilting on the baby quilt that I made a few weeks ago….
…. I quilted flowers using the “Petunia” FMQ ruler from Angela Walters and Creative Grids…..
All of Angela’s rulers have grippy areas on the back of the ruler, but I was having lots of trouble with the ruler slipping around while I was quilting.
I remembered a product that I had bought some time back….
I peeled off two circles and applied them to the back of the ruler…
And, OH MY GOODNESS, it made so much difference!!
The ruler stayed put and my quilting was SO much easier!!
When I am at Houston, I am always looking for something new, and this year it was in the Robin Ruth Designs booth.
She has tools for strip piecing a Mariner’s Compass block….no paper-piecing required!!! And, THAT is a big deal for me!!
Linda and I were both impressed with the videos and other visuals that she had available to teach how to use the rulers.
I watched several of the videos and then bit the bullet and bought one…..
Yes, it looks a bit weird!!
She had a special going, so I purchased her angle ruler as well…..
Now……fast forward to a quiet day in my studio. It was time to give it a try!!
I picked four strips from my scrap bin
….and started following the detailed instructions!!
She even suggests things like how far to offset the strips so that you don’t waste fabric…..
The process is something like this…..
Sew two strips together and make a series of cuts…..
It took me a while to determine which lines and points to use, but once I did, it went together pretty easily.
After you get the new unit sewn together (the “pie” as she calls it), you sew the pies onto the next strip…..
….perform more cuts and sew onto the next strip…..
Are you getting the picture here?
Before long, I had a Mariner’s Compass block pieced…..
The design leaves a hole in the center that is covered with an appliqued circle….
For my sample practice, I chose to cut the design into a circle…..
….and inset it into a square…..
The entire process took about 2 hours, and that included a fair amount of time reading, and re-reading, and re-reading, and re-reading the instructions!!
I am excited about this ruler and have a project in mind.
STAY TUNED!!
If you are interested in piecing Mariner’s Compass blocks, I highly recommend any of Robin’s patterns. This is the one that I purchased…..
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