Bigger Quilting or Sewing Projects

Bigger Quilting or Sewing Projects

Bigger Quilting or Sewing Projects : – 

It has always been your ambition to make a Wedding Ring Quilt, or a Complete McKenna Ryan Block – You have done all the ground work and you are ready!! You have used the Quiltsmart applique pattern, or a really cute Applique Wall Hanging or table runner, and now it is TIME to make that quilt you have dreamed about.  Whooo Hoooo

And it  really does not matter if it is a wedding ring quilt or any other type of quilting or applique, there are steps that works you up to what you really want to do.

What is really important, is that you don’t forget the steps you have already taken to get you to this point.

• Don’t forget the steps you have already learnt, that is what smaller and quicker versions are all about, they give you an idea of what the “Real” thing will be like.
• Don’t get hung up on the  terminology “Real Thing” because it is different for each and every quilter and sewer. A purest will have totally different views to some-one who just loves quilting without the need for “Right way to do it” and both are perfectly acceptable.  Some free motion quilters frown on people who use templates for their designs, but both are perfectly acceptable. It depends on what each of us as individuals class our “Our” Real.
• Don’t write off some of the time saving steps in those earlier versions introduced you to. i.e. Using a template is NOT wrong, it is time saving, it makes sure you get exactly the same cut for each and every piece of fabric, and they  match perfectly.  Because you haven’t “cut-it out” with a piece of paper, does not mean you are not making the “Real Thing”. Pre Printed paper piecing, is great for some, not for others.
• If you haven’t already worked on a smaller project, it’s  really well worth considering, just to make sure you are comfortable with the techniques of your style.

Quilting is one of those wonderful hobbies that will grow with us, at the pace that is right for us as individuals.

You can look at a quilters work through their lifetime and almost follow what life has held for them.

You are very likely to find the small pieces hand pieced as a child…That we thought were wonderful and so proud when we first completed them.  Then many of us had a break while we persued other interests in life, High School  (the high school days when quilting and sewing were not in the least bit cool 🙂 ) Sports and Friends.  Followed by starting our working life and boyfriends still not all that much happening on the sewing and quilting front probably not something we bragged about on our first few dates.  Newly married, still so much happening with juggling work and a partner sewing and quilting never really makes a huge focus in the important things in life.

More often than not, we then see baby blankets, cot blankets and christening robes, soft pinks, blues and whites, the little pieces that when we pick up and hold now, bring those memories flooding back, the happiness, the laughter, the worry, every thing that every parent goes through, those pieces are from a time so precious, and while from a technical point of view, they may not be brilliant, they are very much a part of the person we are today.  And is far more important than any technical sewing or quilting issue.

The next pieces in the quilting tapestry of life may consist of embroidered or appliqued towels, quilt covers and table runners, not for us,  but for our children as they move on towards their careers and married life. That wonderful feeling of being part of our off-springs life, but also watching them leave our nest with pride.  In a quilters life this is often the move to more sophisticated and time consuming quilting and sewing.  These pieces hold not only love, but they are a gift and far more than just a literal gift these are gifts not just of materials and threads but of ourselves.

We often realise at around this time, how much we really missed the creativity, satisfaction and pride we felt in our quilting and sewing, it is also the time when many of us has more time to give to our hobby.  We are not running the kids to school and sport events, for some amazing reason our homes are staying tidier and cleaner, and our hobby again is front and centre of we want to do.

New table runners, beautiful gifts for friends and family often start being standard, and the “quilters stash” has begun.  Your hobby has started to take over places around the house, extra cupboards, under the bed, new sewing machines and overlockers/sergers get eyed off when we go shopping and quilting dreams are begun.

What ever those dreams are, what ever your Bigger Quilting or Sewing Projects are, what ever level of technique you have and what ever your style of quilting and sewing are, it really does not matter, what matters is that you continue building your life by quilting and sewing.

And for me personally, a Judy Niemeyer Limited Edition Bali Wedding Star Quilt  would be my “Real Thing” although McKenna Ryan is about to release a new block of patterns “Dogs at the Park” and it does look brilliant. hmmm, being a doggy person with 2 extra large Groodles running the house, just maybe “Dogs at the Park” will have to come first.

Or in reality, getting out my quilt tops and actually turning them into quilts would be more the “Right” thing to do.  I have to admit to a “what if I ruin it” attitude to the actual quilting.