A Quilting Marathon

As Stephie wrote in her recent interview, I'm still working towards starting and finishing one quilt at a time. It's a goal. I doubt I'll get there soon - in part because program chairs take more workshops than most. A couple of years ago I focused on sorting old tops and blocks into keep (and finish) or donate piles. Since then I try to quilt one of the older ones whenever I work on a new quilt.

And then... I set the improv sawtooth top aside to mull over the quilting design. In the meanwhile, I started my current kaleidoscope. That meant pin basting four tops.  Two are log cabins from my last leader/ender project.

Six pin-basted tops ready to quilt

However, you can see six quilts in this photo. The green and coral one is from a workshop with Cristy Fincher. I've been saving that to use with Amy's Craftsy class, "Quilting with Rulers on a Home Machine." What's holding me up? Bernina doesn't yet have the correct feet for my machine. So I may simply mark it and move on. There will be another chance to quilt with rulers in future and it will be helpful to have this one done. The sixth top is another propeller quilt. I found more to say with that block.

The quilts are laid on 24"x48" folding tables. These are my basting tables; I can't pin on the floor anymore. I clip the back to the tables with Sears spring clamps then drape the batting and top over that. I can pin about 20" before the quilt needs to be moved. When it's moved I clamp through all three layers on one side but only clamp the bottom on the other. The batting and top drape over the clamps on that side. (See the near side in the photo below.)

Pinning the Lobster Boat quilt.

I'll be quilting for the next few weeks. I've got a deadline to finish before the next workshop - this one with Freddy Moran. What fun!

Enjoy the day, Ann