100 Things Every Quilter
Should Do Before She Dies
1. Visit a quilt shop. Oh, Yeah! At least a Million!
2. Make a Nine Patch. Yes
3. Make a Log Cabin. Yes
4. Label a quilt. Yep, with machine quilting and pictures
5. Figure yardage for a quilt. Seems like every day! Well, every other day.
6. Learn about warp and weft. Yes, thanks Mom.
7. Use a rotary cutter. Of course!
8. Use templates. Yes, in piecing and longarm quilting.
9. Paper piece a quilt block. Sure thing!
10. Hand applique a quilt block. Yes, but I'm not very good at it. But, I'm learning.
11. Make a yo-yo. We made a family king-size Yo-Yo quilt.
12. Embellish a quilt. Do buttons count?
13. Try free motion quilting. I quilted a baby quilt and a twin quilt. Exhausting!
14. Stitch in the ditch. On the sewing machine and on the longarm.
15. Try hand quilting. I was taught and worked on one block. It was sooo slow!
16. Bind a quilt. Of course! I'm very slow at it.
17. Miter the corners of quilt binding. Yes, not a problem!
18. Join the ends of quilt binding. Yes, there are several different ways. I'm still deciding my favorite.
19. Sew diagonal seams. I'm assuming that Half Square Triangles count. Yes.
20. Use a walking foot. How else do you do the free motion quilting?
21. Attend a guild meeting. Yes, I've was even on the board for 2 years.
22. Visit Houston for International Quilt Festival. Oh, yeah! One of the perks of living near Houston.
23. Have a quilt appraised.
24. Visit a quilt museum. Yes, a small one. I want to go to the Texas Quilt Museum.
25. Go on a quilt retreat. Yes, 6 so far.
26. Try curved piecing. I love curved piecing! I've made 4 Montana Cartwheel! And, 2 Drunkard's Path Quilts.
27. Miter the borders. Yes, Mom helped me. Thanks, Mom!
28. Learn to do blanket stitch by hand. Done this a long time ago. Now I do machine blanket stitch.
29. See a local quilt show. Yes, of course!
30. Put your quilt in a local quilt show. Yes, 2 of them.
31. Sell raffle tickets on a quilt. Sure thing.
32. Take a road trip with quilt friends. Well, of course! Who hasn't?
33. Create a Pinterest board with quilt images. I have 3 of them!
34. Make a 3-D quilt block. Yes, but I had to tack the edges down when it was longarm quilted. I couldn't stand them up, you know.
35. Donate a quilt to a good cause. Yes, a military hospital, a battered women's shelter, hospice, breast cancer awareness.
36. Make a sampler quilt. Yes, several. One has been in the making for 10 years!
37. Make an art quilt. In my opinion, yes, but not made a pictorial art quilt. I want to take a class from Janet Fogg in Portland, OR. She does amazing work!
38. Try bobbin work. What is this? Quilting on the sewing machine where the thread is the featured element? I've done that, if that is what bobbin work means.
39. Learn to maintain your sewing machine. Yes, my longarm and my Featherweight.
40. Add rickrack to a quilt. I don't like rickrack, so it may be a while before I get this one done.
41. Design a quilt. (Remember, you don’t necessarily have to make the quilt.) Yes, on EQ??.
42. Change/tweak/alter a pattern to make it your own. Of course, how can you make a quilt without changes?
43. Make a color wheel with fabric swatches. Not a color WHEEL, but a color LIST... for 2 quilts.
44. Chat about quilting with a stranger. Yes, almost DAILY!
45. Talk about quilting with your family. Yes, I've gotten most of the quilting now!
46. Give a quilt as a wedding/graduation/retirement gift. Yes, 3 wedding quilts.
47. Visit Paducah during the AQS Show.
48. Take a class with a nationally known teacher. Yes, Jo Morton, Laura Lee Fritz and Jaime Wallen at the Houston Quilt Festival.
49. Use some fabric you dislike. Yes, it's hard but I've done it for someone that wanted it.
50. Participate in Show and Tell. Yes, but I can't stand Show and Tell. Sorry.
51. Volunteer for a job in a quilt group. Yes, 2 years doing the newsletter.
52. Use a color you detest. Yes, that would be pink. But, I learned to like pink in quilts!
53. Make a quilt inspired by nature. Yes, my bargello quilt... fall leaves.
54. Get up early or stay up late to quilt. OH, YEAH! That is normal for a quilt retreat!
55. Make a scrap quilt. Yes, I love scrap quilts!
56. Make a tote bag. Yes, several.
57. Make a postcard quilt. I have the interfacing and the book to try one.
58. Make a baby quilt and gift it to a newborn. Yes, grandchildren.
59. Understand the basics of caring for quilts. Yes.
60. Borrow a quilting book from the public library. Yes, from the quilt guild.
61. Teach someone else to quilt. Yes, family and I helped teach a class or two.
62. Creatively piece a backing for one of your quilts. I love to do pieced backings.
63. Apply a piped binding, or some variation of it. Yes, they are fun!
64. Post quilt pics to Facebook. I like to use a quilt as my picture.
65. Install quilty wallpaper on your computer. Hey, I thought that I was so clever to do that!
66. Put a quilty bumper sticker on your car. That's never going to happen because I can't stand bumper stickers.
67. Cuss mildly when you realize you've been sewing air (because you ran out of bobbin thread). Yes, Mildly???
68. Read your sewing machine manual cover to cover. Yes, I did for the featherweight and the longarm.
69. Learn to thread baste. Sure.
70. Learn to pin baste. Yes.
71. Use basting spray. Yes.
72. Help a friend make a quilt. Yes, I have, several times.
73. Make a quilt for a special child. Yes, how special? Do grandchildren count?
74. Make a quilt for a spouse or partner. Yes, but I should make another one for him now.
75. Make a quilt for a friend. Yes, she cried when I gave it to her.
76. Include your quilts in your last will and testament. No, Not yet!
77. Determine your favorite thread for piecing. Yes, tan or gray. Precencia thread!
78. Understand the concept of value. Yes, but I'm not perfect at it.
79. Understand the mathematics of quilt blocks. Yes, kind of. I just ask Mom to tell me how to change the size!
80. Apply a bias binding.
81. Take a guild speaker to dinner. Yes! My friend, Jeanne.
82. Comment on a quilt-related blog post. Sure, all the time.
83. Make a mystery quilt. Yes, several. It's hard to let go of making the design choices.
84. Take part in a block exchange. Yes, but I worried that I wasn't perfect enough.
85. Write how-to instructions for making a quilt block. Yes, too often the patterns we buy aren't right.
86. Be able to state clearly what you learned from a particular quilt. Of course!
87. Know the difference between lengthwise and crosswise grain. Yes.
88. Know the parts of a sewing machine needle and why they matter. Yes, mostly for the longarm.
89. Organize your stash. Yes, over and over and over again.
90. Know the names of hand sewing needles used for different tasks. I don't do hand sewing.
91. Finish a UFO. Yes, how many to count this?
92. Purchase fabric on impulse. Oh, brother! All of the time!
93. Try sewing with precuts. Sure, they are good sometimes.
94. Trade fabrics with quilt friends. Yes, plaid fabrics! Oh, yeah!
95. Identify your ancestors who quilted. Yes, my great-grandmother, Flora Belle Riley Johnson.
96. Visit a quilt shop while on vacation. Of course! Duh!
97. Sew on a treadle for old time's sake.
98. Subscribe to a quilting magazine. Yes, in the past. I don't anymore because I find them boring.
99. Become a regular reader of a quilting blog. Yes.
100. Go on a Shop Hop. Yes, but I don't like them. It's good to learn where the quilt shops are, though.
I'm doing pretty well! I have done most of them. A few I will probably never do. But, YEAH ME!
I'm doing pretty well! I have done most of them. A few I will probably never do. But, YEAH ME!
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