I’m in the sewing room yesterday trying to finish 2 tote bags and start on 3 others. I realized that while I was cutting for the two smaller totes I failed to cut handles for either one of them. Yikes, I must have used the wrong shampoo that morning. Hmmn, that begs the question did I even take a shower. Ok you’re right, let’s not go there! I know for one of the pieces I have enough fabric for the handles but what about the other one, nope, gotta think that one through. (Now that I’m sitting here writing, I figured it out. Cool!) So I decide to move onto the other totes and realized that for two of them I need zippers. Bugger. Now I need to make another trip to the fabric shop. (maybe that’s not such a bad thing after all!)

Now what do I do, the sewing I’d planned (I’m seeing a life theme developing here) gets set aside and I’m looking around the space thinking, thinking. The room is getting full with the billowing smoke pouring out from my ears. Thinking. I could make pattern pieces for the futon covers and finally do them. Uh, no, not today, too much work. This would mean dragging the vacuum cleaner down stairs, chasing the cats and clearing off the living room floor. No, not today, tomorrow maybe, but not today.

So now what?! More billowy smoke pouring out from the ears and then AHA! yes that’s it. I located the fabric for dmil’s purse, ironed pinned and quilted that. I enjoyed that and played with the quilting. The fabric is a cream/tan micro check and I used King Tut cream colored thread to quilt it. There’s a lot of quilting however, it blends in nicely with the colors of the fabric. More time on my hands, the smoke is starting to build up again.

Hmmn, I need backings for two quilts. I spend time looking at the fabric stash. I pull one piece that I really wanted to use for one of the quilts. Way too small, way too much work piecing it to make it the size I need. Toss it back onto the stash. Then I’m looking at two other pieces. I take one, measure it quickly, yep that will do, now how do I add to the sides. (Room starts filling with the billowy smoke again, I have to be careful here I need a few brain cells left for a meeting I’m having on Friday with my co-chair.) So as I’m thinking I think wow, that will work. Spend time ironing the fabric, grateful for my Rowenta Advancer that gets really really hot. Then I place the two pieces together, having left the selvage edges on, go over to the machine, stitch at 3/4″ down each. I know you’re thinking hey silly you’re making a tube not a quilt back. I then trim the seams to 1/4 inch, decide which piece will be left in tact, cut the other one down the middle (using that middle line that never quite irons out) and press. Shazam we have backing! First one done. Whew.

That sends me back to the fabric stash looking and thinking some more. (You can fill in the billowy smoke/thinking details in here). Choose two more fabrics and proceed the same way. This is one happy quilter here. Backings for two quilts and in less than 20 minutes they’re stitched and cut and I didn’t have to do too much work to achieve the size I needed.

I do like a variety of quilt backings. There are tons of options out there including the really wide fabrics. I like those but sometimes they are just a bit, well, plain. I don’t mean in the sense that they’re not beautiful, oh, they’re amazing! And I like the fact that I don’t have a seam anywhere that I need to be mindful it’s there. But sometimes it’s just not right.

A while back my friend MaryAnne showed us what she likes to call “fun backings” at guild. She takes all the left over bits from the quilt she’s working on, stitches them all together until she gets the size she needs. These backings are a lot of fun, take work, relate well to the front and add so much to the overall look of the quilt.

So, yesterday was a productive day after all. I’m going to wait until Monday night to baste the quilts at guild. We have a huge floor space to do this so it will be a great time. Then I can quilt them both and tick them off my never ending list of things to quilt.

Happy Quilting!

Teri