The thing I hate the most about quilting is .......

That doesn't happen here, Sunny. Once I appliqué something down, it is DOWN. I might could cover it up but it's not coming off. So many years of making baby-proof quilts, you know? Polly

Don't know if it is a task, it is simply finding the time and energy to do all the designs I want to do!

G> ripping out zig-zag or blanket stitches made by my sewing machine in the =

course of applique.

This I agree with wholeheartedly. I am now 70 and am beginning to be filled with apprehension about the projects in bags in my cupboard - let alone the ones in my head ... . In message , Ginger in CA writes

Ditto - and I am older than you! This year was supposed to be a completing year, but turned out to be a starting year instead! I am determined that the Christmas things 'in progress' will make this Christmas - table runner 1/4 quilted, Christmas tree wall hanging just needing the embellishments and a smaller one made from the over-cutting and making I'd done on the half square triangles, which will go to DD. It was quilted last night and now just needs binding and embellishing, but as the sun is shining at last and I have daffodils, tulips and irises screaming to be planted before they go mouldy, I think I have to make gardening today's task. I'll try to get that binding on so I can hand sew it down this evening.

I give DD a Christmas decoration of some sort every year as she's so busy she would never get round to round to it. They are all things she can just hang or place without any effort - I even gave her the box to keep them in!

What is my New Year's resoluti> This I agree with wholeheartedly. I am now 70 and am beginning to be

I hate the 'second' time doing anything. So, for example, the second repeat of a motif, or a second block, or the second side's binding. A new one is fine, but I hate repetition. BUT I love symmetry, so I just have to get on with it, most of the time. After number 2 is done, it's all right again, because I am either over half way, or the process is easier/more streamlined, or I more 'into' the design somehow.

I would hate to be in a repetitive job, so I suppose it seeps through to everything I do.

Nel (Gadget Queen)

...the borders.

Sunny wrote:

course of applique.

Getting everything ready to start, then real life gets in the way and I have to postpone it again.

Next year, there will be lots more me time, quilting time, genealogy time; visiting friends time then more quilting time.

Di Vic Aust

course of applique.

Not being happy with the current 'end result' at whatever stage you are at and having to rip and redo! Be it the middle of the block, middle of the quilt or end of the quilt - just an extra step we hadn't planned on.

Kim in NJ

I'll agree with you on that thought! It's been such an up+down roller coaster year for us.... Have quilt fabric all cut out to assemble blocks, but somehow can't get them all put together faster.... something always comes up (good and bad). One of these days life will settle down. ME-Judy

Basting...

especially when its the queen size that I made foe DS 18th. ( I have basted now have start quilting)

Dee in Oz

Phew! Finally someone said basting, so now I don't have to feel like a heretic for saying quilting! I love the piecing and creating tops, but the basting and quilting parts really get to me...

Claudia

I'm almost with you Claudia, except that I am beginning to like quilting! But: basting, no. So, I thought, get someone to do it for me? There is a professional quilter in my area who advertises that she is quite willing to baste only, for quite a good price. Right, I thought. Wrong! When I got it back, it was beautifully done. However, there was one 'small' fact I had 'forgotten'. Having been done on a machine, the stitches were machine stitches - therefore locked. They weren't (of course) the running stitch equivalent of hand basting which can just be pulled through, to unpick. OK the stitches are about an inch long; but the thought of unpicking, after the quilting has kept me from quilting this pretty little quilt for two year (it is quite large). I will do it, but it is going to be a much larger task than I had meant it to be. (I don't like her batting either, but that might be cured by washing). Ho hum - shouldn't have been lazy I guess >g< . In message , Claudia writes

course of applique.

Deciding on the quilting design. I'm OK doing the quilting, but deciding HOW to quilt, what motifs/designs to use is very difficult for me. I am slowly getting braver as time goes on, but often I have to do some of the quilting and then wait for the quilt to tell me waht else it needs.

Lizzy

Ah! Thanks for the tip, Sandy. I have been using the microtacks (and those before them) for so long, that I had forgotten all that had to be done with pins. That'll be something to try - to help me get it done! I have quilting thread out and chosen, quilting patterns ready, and binding fabric out and ready - just want to summon up the oomph to do it! I'll remember the word about the batting, too - just in case I ever decide to do it again! Nowadays I find that the ideas I hatch in my mind for future quilts all tend to be of a size that I can manage with my own machine. This top had been hanging around a bit and so was quite large (I do have a long lap >ggPat, basting isn't a huge thing for me, unless I'm doing a larger quilt.

course of applique.

I think it's a tie between being ready to go on a project, excited about working on it, have all the fabric, materials and tools ready and.... I can't find the pattern! I know it didn't leave this room. What are Scottish pixies/brownies/elves/leprechauns called? They have hidden it away. I have looked for hours and hours. I finally admitted defeat today and ordered another pattern - even though it will take a week to get here and I want to work on it NOW. No doubt it will show up tomorrow.

Oh yes. A tie between that and the project one feels they SHOULD do, because it was promised or something, and yet when a person returns to it, each time she finds exactly why it is a UFO. For example, when I started this quilt I'm 90% done with, I made the top and then a pieced back exactly the same size. Try getting those lined up to baste together, let alone quilt. I wouldn't do that now, but I started this in 2002 or 2003. That sort of thing. So you soldier on, but it's not that fun, and you keep thinking "It will be nice to be done with this" not, "It sure is nice to get to work on this!"

-- Jo in Scotland

My least favorite part is when my rotary cutter takes off on it's own and leaves the side of the ruler in it's dust. And it always seems to happen when every 1/16th inch of the fabriuc is needed and then I have to re-square the edge of the fabric and waste even more of it. Usually it's due to the nut that holds the blade coming loose.... maybe it's a tired-out nut? My rotary cutter is about 24 years old now. LOL

Leslie & The Furbabies > ripping out zig-zag or blanket stitches made by my sewing machine in the =

course of applique.

course of applique.

course of applique.

Two bottles of cider helped me to baste that sucker. It's had all the grid quilting done, I'm doing the diagonal quilting now, when I get a chance. We've all been ill with fever, hacking cough & green phlegm and vomitting for 2 weeks now.... quite tired out by it all, and no sewing has been getting done. However, I am going to sneak up to the sewing room now and do some ironing. Very therapeutic. I might do some stitching as well.

I did think about adding a border of muslin, because the back is a giant Carpenter's Wheel on muslin, but my sewing room was all in boxes in storage and I couldn't find my muslin anyway. C'est la vie..

-- Jo in Scotland