How Many Quilts Have You Made?!
Oh boy.
The problem comes in two parts:
#1 – I’ve made a lot of quilts.
#2 – I’ve never organized the files or photos very well.
Rephrase that – I haven’t organized anything hardly at all. I had one folder for photos and another set of folders for patterns and written stuff. Sometimes the right things end up in the right files and sometimes they don’t!
I’ve also stashed free patterns off in a totally different weird place that made organizing everything else seriously challenging.
Today I finally pulled it all together. I sorted photos and added files. It looks like I still need to move the free stuff around again, but for the most part, it’s a lot better sorted.
While it was a pain to work on for several hours (I’ve been putting it off for several years), I’m so pleased I had the chance to look back on these quilts.
Quite frankly, I’ve forgotten about a lot of projects. Some I’ve given away or donated for charities and some were in that stack this weekend when I pulled everything out for the great quilt sort.
It’s wonderful to see these images and see where I was at and what I was trying to do over the years. I’ve run through so many different phases in both style and color and that’s fascinating too.
It made me wonder – what phase am I in now? When I look back at this time, what will I remember quilting and smile?
Minky. Definitely. It’s so funny because when I started quilting in 2005 minky was just getting popular (I think, no frame of reference there!) and I didn’t want to have anything to do with it. I wanted my quilts to feel like my grandma’s quilts!
These days I guess I’m just craving the comfort and softness. Or maybe I’m tired of quilting everything to death and you can’t do that with minky so it forces me to quilt big, open designs. And I LOVE wrapping up with the finished quilt!
Everything I make lately also seems to be a rainbow. I’ve loved rainbows forever (absolute favorite thing to color when I was 4), but for some reason I’ve just decided to stop worrying about it or questioning it and just making what I want to make.
It really is that simple.
I can see in my quilts over the years the times I was struggling. I was making what I thought everyone wanted. What I ended up making was something pretty ugly that no one, not even me, cared about.
It’s just been an interesting trip down memory road and it’s left me wondering – what do I do with all this? Just like sorting through and purging some quilts, it feels like I need to pare down on these designs and ideas as well. Clean out the old to make room for the new!
The hard thing is my hard drives are pretty big and when nicely organized, these files take up such a tiny amount of space! LOL!
So that’s what I’ve been busy with today. Have you had a chance to look back at your quilts over the years? Do you see phases and patterns in what you’ve made? Was there ever a time that was particularly dark or particularly bright?
Let’s go quilt,
Leah Day
Yes, my collections of quilt patterns is staggering too. I do tend to choose more modern patterns nowadays, whereas in my beginning I chose mostly repro-era patterns and fabrics. 'Still love both styles, but tend to choose the modern patterns and yes, even solid color fabrics.
I counted my photos (which I keep online, must print some hard copies) and I've made 78 quilts over the last fifteen years…mostly baby/cot quilts or lap quilts, but a few single bed quilts too. Almost all have been as gifts or donations, with a handful I've kept for here at home and have done a couple of commissions; about nine are still currently on the spare bed waiting for the right homes. And yes, I've been through many different phases of colours – brights, pastels, all sorts! I've made a couple with minky backings and am certainly keen to use it again; I love the softness of it too.