It's That Time of Year.

It's that time of year when we try to finish things started during the year or even several years ago.  Is it because we don't want to start another year with all these unfinished projects hanging over our heads?

I have just had a customer call in with a 9 Patch Chop Chop quilt which she started in 2007.  It is quilted now and she  needed to check that she had enough fabric for the binding.  Because I work out those sort of amounts all the time I forget that others don't find it so easy to estimate.

The formula is the circumference of the quilt divided by 40" (the width of most fabrics is between 42" and 45") which gives a bit of wriggle room.  That tells you the number of strips you need so all you then have to do is multiply that figure by 2 1/2 to know how much fabric you need. If in doubt always add another strip because if you come back in a couple of weeks for one more strip, you know it will all be gone.  I think that is one of Murphy's Laws.

I have been trying to finish things all year myself and have concentrated on the small projects.  The subject came up at my last friendship group meeting.  I had a bag of blocks that I know I will never finish so I gave them to two of the other girls with the condition that they have to make something with them by the end of 2014. We finished up by writing a list of what two projects everyone plans to finish.  My number one is Dear Jane which I started in the 1990's and the other is Pennsylvania Applique started in 1998 at Primarily Patchwork. I still love both of them and look forward to working on them all year.  I am planning on having them quilted and bound before 31st December 2014.

Happy Stitching from Therese.