I’ve been wrestling with an unfinished quilt top this month. It’s enormous (by that I mean queen sized) and I’ve finally wrangled all the pieces through my sewing machine. It is a Trip Around the World (the pic below shows it in an early stage on my design wall) and there’s no way I’m quilting it.
My purpose was to use myriad fabric from my cupboards. Ha! I can’t see any difference to the size of the fabric piles.
I’ve arranged to have it professionally quilted. By the time I bought the batting and backing fabric and factored in the cost of the quilting (which is so worth the money and will look fabulous), my quilt works out to be very expensive.
I don’t want to spend so much money on a quilt. Making quilts is my hobby, not my job, and it’s not like I have a lack of bedding. It’s just too expensive to make these big quilts and I’d rather save the money.
I’ve decided that I won’t start any new bed quilts. I have two other queen-sized pieced quilt tops nearly finished. One’s made with simple rectangles in low contrast fabrics and the other’s a scrappy Lady of the Lake design. I will complete these and then that’s it for me.
All my quilt projects from then on will be small quilts that I can hand quilt myself. I will be exploring more hand applique (I love that process) and am looking forward to the joy of contemplative stitching.
It’s such a relief to have a clear intention for my future quilt making. Do you have a plan for your projects?