Quiltathon Prep

Tomorrow is the big day for starting the Quiltathon. If you would like to join us, click on the "Judy's Quiltathon" button on my sidebar, and it will take you directly to Judy's blog. She has some wonderful tips for you to do ahead of time so that you can have the freedom of sewing without feeling guilty if you aren't doing laundry, cleaning, running errands, or whatever else it is that you do that keeps you from sewing.



Today I did laundry and did some picking up. I'm still recovering from my surgery I had 3 weeks ago, so I can't really do much...DARN!!! lol



In order for me to get ready for sewing I have to have a plan of action. If I don't then I will go through every UFO box trying to figure out what it is that I am going to work on. So here's my plan...



This block belongs to a quilt I am making that I call "Road to Paducah". I posted an entry about it here. There are 169 of these 8 inch blocks to make a queen. So far all I have made is enough for a lap size. I thought if I sewed a few blocks every day then eventually I will have all 169 of them completed. Most of the blocks are already in little sections. I have 4 patches, nine patches, and side pieces.

I have to psyche myself out when I am sewing, especially a quilt with this many individual blocks. Most quilts I make tons of blocks at a time. However, for this quilt I have made the blocks individually because some blocks have dark centers, dark 4 patches, medium sides, and some have medium centers, medium 4 patches with dark sides. It would be too confusing for the dyslexic mind of mine to make 676 4 patches with all different fabrics at one time. Besides that, I wanted to enjoy making this quilt and not get into a big rush. I have accomplished that goal since it has been a year and half since I got it to the lap size. As with all of my UFO's I got busy doing something else, put it away, wrote a weird note to myself, and here I am trying to pick up where I left off.

Okay. Back to how I psyche myself out. Like I said, I decided that I would work on a few blocks at a time. I chose 6 blocks to work on during the quiltathon.


What's this? Well, I'll tell you. It's my miniature quilt batting square cut from left over batting. It's like having a little flannel board for my blocks. I cut mine 9" so that all of my block pieces will fit on there.


Here are the parts to the center 9 patch.


Here I have added my 4 patches that will need to be squared up. I can square them up, and place them back on their little quilt batting square. I will then decide which fabrics to use for my side's, sew those on, and go to the next block.



As you can see, I put 6 of these little quilt batting boards together. If I am busy working on one of the blocks and the phone rings, I can put the pieces on their quilt batting board, and it will be happily sitting there all in one spot when I get back from answering the phone!



Here they are, stacked beside my sewing machine ready to be sewn!



I even have my little side table with the cutting board, rotary cutter, and square ruler ready to trim those little 4 patches to perfection!


I also plan to get my 2 youngest grandson's Easter quilts appliqued and bound. Here you see the bunny, one of the carrots, and the threads I am going to use for applique.


This quilt started out as being strip sets. For some reason (I didn't write myself a confusing note) I had part of a strip set left over, so I cut it into 2" binding to bind the edges of the quilt. If you think that I painstakenly sewed all of those little pieces together...well, bless your heart. You must think I'm much more patient than I really am.

Now I'm off to straightening my sewing room and maybe cleaning my machine. I'll see you all tomorrow!

Happy "Quiltathon" Sewing!

Amanda