Quilting during a Michigan Summer

I saw the coolest thing today (wish I could’ve taken a picture!). 

A woman walking her 2 dogs and 1 cat in the park at lunch!  Yes, I said cat, and “Martin” was the only fur-baby not on a leash.  It was so funny to see him bouncing after the dogs like Tigger on pixie-sticks!  Martin followed the trio the entire perimeter of the park, fur flouncing in the breeze. He was only distracted once – by a very pretty yellow butterfly.  Not making this up!

As I’m sure you can tell I love summer in Michigan.  It’s so blue! And yellow! And orange!  I took this one walking along Meadowbrook road yesterday.

I can only see two downsides to summer: the heat and the distractions.

Heat. Very recently, we’ve experienced 95+ degree weather. Really hard to enjoy a large, very warm quilt draped over one’s lap while quilting.  I find that I’ve timed most of my projects to work around this.  In the Spring/Summer, I:

• Make small gifts for the holidays.  See some of my favorite tutorials here.
• Piece or embroider my blocks.
• Work on making bags and purses.
• Organize my UFO’s – love the index card method.

I then spend my Fall/Winter:

• Layering & basting quilts
• Machine quilting (snuggly warm!)
• Sewing down the binding (if on schedule, this occurs normally in the slow January or February months when you have time to sit in a warm house, for several hours, watching TV).

Distractions.  As you can see from my love of geocaching, the Zoo, car rides, family time… I love getting out on a good adventure.  However, I think even 15-minutes a day you can accomplish piles!  If I know I’m going to have a busy day away, I will normally plan 15 minutes first thing in the morning.

• Cut my scraps into charm squares or strips.
• Straighten my work space, clean out the bobbin area of my machine, return my thread to the proper place, etc.
• Reassemble strewn patterns & return them to their plastic sleeve.
• Add another block or strip to my journal quilt.
• Prepare squares of Kona cotton for embroidery.
• Trace embroidery patterns onto prepared squares of Kona cotton.

So, long story short…. Even though I don’t have many “finishes” to share right now, I’m still on schedule! LOL!

Elisa