Needles and Pins

Last week I was fortunate to hear a lecture and slide show by the wonderful quilter, Sue Garman. 

She is a fantastic quilt designer, prolific quilter, 

 (completing no less than 20 quilts a year on average-and they are not easy panel quilts! LOL!),

 and an amazing hand quilter, and even does beautiful longarm quilting! She does it all!.

I found these pics on Pinterest. If you simply type Sue Garman Quilts into the Pinterest search you will have a feast for the eyes!

 I especially love her green and red quilts.

But what really struck me was her focus and organization-which is what allows her to finish so many quilts. She talked a lot about getting as much prep work done on a quilt ahead of time as she could. So for example, on an applique quilt, she preps every single block, making all of the vines, circles and pattern pieces, for every single block.

 She then separates all the pieces by block and before she begins the applique, bastes down as much as possible on each block before beginning.  I think this is a more efficient way to get it all done.

I was so inspired by her beautiful intricate quilts. Each one looked like it would take me a lifetime to make, yet here they all were, quilt after quilt!

So I went home to look at all of my UFO's. I fully admit that I am a serial starter!

I have no less than 10 QUILTS IN PROGRESS!!

This is my oldest one,the civil war quilt; War and Pieces. I decided to focus on this quilt and try to finish it to give to my brother for Christmas.

I pulled it out, and realized I have all the blocks done, so all I have left is to set the center blocks and finish the border. I began trimming all of the blocks and OH! I foumd that one of the blocks was supposed to be set on point, but I had appliqued it as a straight set! Grrr! So I have to re-do the entire block! Luckily there was plenty of extra fabric with this BOM, (I purchased it through Keepsake Quilting). I just had to purchase more backing fabric which was easy to find.

So I prepped it and began again. I took Sue's advice and basted everything down. It does make it easier as there are no pins for the thread to get caught up in, and it makes the block completely mobile. I appliqued most of this while waiting for my mother at the eye doctor!

 I also began prepping everything for the border.

This civil war quilt is really a learning piece for me. I have used just about every type of applique on it, from needle turn to machine! What is your favorite method of applique? I still haven't settled on a particular technique!

Happy Stitching!

~Annie