The Big Sort and Quilting

Part of my big sort was purging.  Those things that I could not throw away, give away or return to their owner are things that I deemed as a keeper, a project (it needs deeper attention.  Think photos) or things that I made a commitment to do something with before returning it.  The one item I have a lot of are charity tops.  There are those that I accepted to complete and those that others accepted but asked me to finish.  I also have lots of tops intended as gifts for family and friends.

This bounty has led me back to using my longarm.  It frustrates me because I tend to have tension issues.  I do silly things like trying different types and weights of threads.  I recently tried a bigger needle in anticipation of quilting through some heavy stabilizer.  I even lost my mind and over adjusted my upper tension after knowing my tension was near perfect.  I got halfway through quilting a quilt to find I had thread nests all across the back.  I realize that I need to not change so many factors with each quilt and just find what works and stick with it.  The other thing is to resist the urge to try a new design on every quilt.  Just get it done!  I went to a quilt show recently and guess what quilt design they used.  Wavy lines!

Here are some charity quilts I’ve done recently.