Time Alone

It's kind of funny, I am so used to trying to find bits of time to sew or do other quilty activities, that when I find myself alone with time to do it, I am a little at a loss. It's not that I can't think of things to do, that is never a problem, it's more a matter of wanting to make the very best use of my time without little "helpers" around.

I knew the girls and the twins would be back this afternoon, so I had all morning and early afternoon to do pretty much as I pleased. I started deconstructing my thrift store shirts last night, and my goal is to have them all broken down by June 1st. I could have made a huge dent in my pile if I had just worked on those, but I'd rather just do a few at a time, so I did four or five while talking to DH before he went to work, and I did several this evening while watching a movie with DD#2  (Father Goose with Cary Grant).

I really need to get the July-ish babies quilts done, a great-nephew due in July, and grandbaby #5 due the beginning of August. I had already pieced a backing for grandbaby's quilt, but not the great-nephew, though the fabric was out. I decided I would get those pin-basted before I did anything else. Out came the brand new roll of polyester batting, all 20 yards of it. I took off all the wrappings, and as usual the poly batting expanded and looked twice the size it had when wrapped.

The batting is 100" wide, and the baby quilts are both about 48" square, so I could get both on one width of batting. I cut the batting, no problem, and since grandbaby's backing has already been pieced, I ironed it and the quilt top, and then layered and pin-basted it. That didn't take too long, so I pieced the other backing and got it ironed, layered, and pin-basted too.

Now what should I do? I look at this roll of batting and know I have no good place to store this large of a roll. I know, I will cut batting to go with my other finished quilt tops, after all, I have already quilted more than half the baby quilts I basted in my last pin-basting spree, so I will be needing more to pin-baste and quilt anyway. I went downstairs and grabbed my stack of finished quilt tops, and cut batting to go with each one. I didn't cut exact, and some will have excess I can piece together to make other batting, but I was careful to use the batting as wisely as possible. When I finished cutting batting for the last quilt top, this is what I had left of the roll of batting-

No roll of batting to store after all, and I put the cardboard roll into recycling. I'm going to have to look through stash to come up with backings now!

Here is my stack of quilt tops folded with batting. Unless I have a quilt top or two hiding, this is the rest of what I had finished. I am close to finishing a couple more quilt tops, and those will likely get cotton batting, since I still have some of that!

Oh, when I was unpacking from out trip, and I was taking most of the things out of my sewing trolley, (I don't have enough extras of things to leave it all packed) I hunted around until I found the power cord for the Bernina 1080 and the thread spindle for my extra thread stand, and I stuck them in the trolley case with the machine. I may forget something else next time, but it won't be the power cord or thread spindle on the thread stand!