Monday, September 10, 2007

Another Question for You! :-)

When you spend time in your quilting corner of the world, what do you enjoy doing the most? What brings a smile to your face?

i.e. planning a project, cutting, piecing, hand or machine quilting, hand piecing, hand or machine applique, embroidery by hand, etc.

My first love is piecing and I truly do not like planning a project! I'm trying to cut back on piecing for awhile so I'm enjoying hand applique and hand embroidery.

I'm looking forward to hearing about your likes and dislikes! :-) Thank you!

In Friendship!

46 comments:

Carol said...

I love to piece...I like to pick out the fabrics and my least favorite part is cutting, but I have to cut before I can piece I guess. Thanks for geting me to think about the process this morning...and I'm first here this morning too...this Eastern time zone girl must have gotten up too early!

Toni said...

I love to shop for the fabric and then the piecing is my favorite part of quilting. I just wish I had more time to do it...Thanks for asking. Toni

Joyce said...

I love choosing fabric. That's why I love wonky quilting so much. I enjoy mixing all sorts of weird colors just to see how they will look together. I also enjoy piecing. The quilting part not so much and applique not at all.

Anonymous said...

Ah, my dear friend, you have such good questions !
I like everything, except what requires the machine. So I tend to choose hand piecing projects, applique (with freezer paper) and fusible applique with hand blanket stitching. I only use the machine to assemble all blocks together, and to put the borders...
Give me a handpiecing project, saying "cut 3.245 pieces A, 950 pieces B and 2000 pieces C" (LOL) and I'm in 7th heaven, selecting all fabrics in my stash (+ every little piece I can steel or borrow), drawing the plastic templates, drawing them on the fabrics, and then CUT !!!... I just love English paper piecing, and drawing + cutting the shapes on paper doubles my pleasure.
I recently discovered the pleasure of stitching. These cute Australian patterns were designed for me, I'm sure. So I'm tending to dream about some stitchery quilts in the future...
Then, as you know, I'm an unconditional fan of handquilting, which comes as the icing on the cake !

The patience these processes are requiring help me to calm down and relax.

Now you will understand why I'm so sloooooow to finish a project (or a present!! Sorry, dear - don't loose hope, it'll soon reach your door - smiles) and my Ufo's pile is increasing with perfect constance.
New ideas, inspirations (thanks Bloggers !) are so numerous, and my days are so short...

Biiiig ((HUGS))and smiles to you !

The "talking machine" LOL

~Bren~ said...

My favorite part..Hand quilting Hands Down! Any other hand work runs a close second. Anything to do with the machine is not my cup of tea, however I do machine piece patchwork in order to get to the hand quilting quicker!!

Jenny said...

Currently hand quilting or hand embroidery are my favourite things to work on. I enjoy it all but my least favourite parts are the cutting and having to figure out any math. I don't really like ironing but I love the smell of warm cotton. Just reading about quilting is quite enjoyable too whether it's blogs or a magazine.

Juliann in WA said...

I love hand applique - that is my favorite part of quilting. But I also like just puttering around, sorting fabric, pulling patterns and picking out what fabrics might go into a quilt.

Lisa D. said...

This is another fun question, Darlene. My favorite part is the planning - choosing the fabrics and cutting them out.

Belvie said...

Hand applique is my very favorite with machine piecing second.

Julia said...

I love the entire process!!!!! Shopping for fabric, planning, cutting, piecing, applique, hand stitching, machine quilting, etc!!! I just love it all!!!!!!!!

Mar said...

planning/purchasing,hand applique,piecing.(I get so involved with those that I don't get to the quilting):-)

Libby said...

I just love it from beginning to end! Anything that lets me think, dream about, and touch fabric! Somethings I enjoy on some days more than others - but any step that lets me put needle and thread in my hands just makes my heart sing and relaxes me all at the same time. But my absolute favorite . . . stitching down binding - there's a mindless rhythm that just puts me over the top *s*

Wendy said...

I love it ALL, buying fabric, cutting fabric, sewing fabric. Maybe not quite everything, I don't like the sandwiching and machine quilting part . I really love hand stitching but not hand quilting. I love applique but not needleturn. I'd put a binding on a quilt any day!
Great questions, starts me thinking.

Alisa said...

Planning is the most fun for me, then machine piecing. Fun questions Darlene!

Unknown said...

I love every part of the process, except for the sandwiching. Like Jenny I'm not too good when it comes to the math aspect of working out say a pieced border, so I tend to stick with plain easy borders. I adore hand embroidery, I find it so relaxing and love watching the design come to life on the fabric, and am getting back into applique and enjoying that process as well. The most enjoyable part is seeing it finished, instead of sitting in the ufo pile. That really is a great feeling of satisfaction.

Anonymous said...

I always like plannig a quilt, I love picking out colors and the perfect pattern ( I quess that's why I don't get much done) I like machine quilting (I am usually quilting other peoples) I love the finished product:) I enjoy looking at all your samples.

Laurie Ann said...

My favorite part is ironing and cutting the fabric. Hands down. I could do it all day. And have!

The larger the quilt gets, the less I like it. Hate to put on borders and binding!

Nicole said...

The planning is my favorite part. I also enjoy the piecing. However, and this is a weird thing about me, according to my friends: I love cutting! The part I get bored with is assembling all the blocks and putting on the borders. Fun question Darlene!

Unknown said...

I have two "quilty" places. In one I love to applique. I have completed two full size quilt tops and many smaller things. I am working on four tops right now! I really do enjoy sitting in my chair downstairs stitching away while the world goes on around me.

In my other space I love to piece! It is my other favorite thing to get all the parts cut out and sit down to sew them all together. In a way I'm like you Darlene, I don't like the planning stage as much as the putting together stage. I think that is why I love those fabric bundles that are already planned for me!

Judith said...

I love picking out the fabrics, piecing the top and doing the quilting. The thing I really hate is sewing down the binding by hand.

Yvonne said...

I love running the pieces through my sewing machine. I don't mind cutting but I find squaring up the blocks especially the small ones tedious. I do like choosing the fabrics...that very fun. I guess I would have to say that I love it all!

Chookyblue...... said...

Love to pic out fabrics and plan the project althought not brilliant at it.........love stitcheries and piecing, would love to do some more applique bit to busy at the moment......of gosh I love it all except for the quilting but I am going to have another go on a very small project instead of starting on a king size flanelette quilt..........my god Nadine wrote heaps...I will have to come back and read them all later........I just LOVE material....

tami said...

Definitely the planning. I love to play in the stash pulling together fabrics for my latest brain child. I have stacks of fabrics bundled up with post-it note instructions as to what color goes where and with what pattern. I guess that probably explains my UFO problem. :c$

jovaliquilts said...

Piecing, piecing, piecing, and piecing. But playing with color is right up there -- piecing is just better when the color sings to you.

Evelyn aka Starfishy said...

Depends how tired I am or what is going on... if I am very tired, I love to look at my old quilt magazines, look through my books, etc. If I am sort-ov tired I might pull out a variety of fabric and lay it down to contemplate a pattern. I like rotary cutting, but only if my large, high table is available (it's in Canada, so I try to pre-cut things before heading to Austria). Chain sewing/piecing blocks is one of my favorite parts of the process - just so I can hurry up and get them all laid out to take a look. But those long seams to set it altogether - yuck. The best part? Snuggling up under a quilt that is completely done!!! Or, seeing the look of complete amazement on someone's face when you give them a quilt!

Cheers!

Evelyn

swooze said...

What an interesting question. I have been working at coming back to my quilting for over 1.5 years now. What I started with was finishing things. I am slowly progressing through those things now. I really have enjoyed working on small fast finish projects. So right now I enjoy finishing!

I guess as I get through the old projects my answer may change but this is where I am at now.

Sweet P said...

I adore the planning process. I love to take a pattern and start tweaking it. I often take a pattern and redesign 2 or 3 versions of it on paper before I actually start making it.

I like piecing, but I do get tired of it if there is a lot of repitition in the blocks.

I like hand sewing the binding too. It is very relaxing and I get to bond with quilt.

Tracy said...

I love to imagine and plan quilts the most. I also love machine piecing. Of course, I really enjoy cuddling up in the finished project!

Abby said...

My favorite quilting task is paper piecing. I hate cutting all the pieces out. I would probably quilt so much more if some would just cut it all out for me.

Texan said...

Picking all the fabrics I will use :O) is probably my favorite part! I love love love doing that!

Katie said...

Easy question. Buying the fabric! :)

Kim said...

Yep, I love it all, but at different times. For instance, I might not totally love each step of making one quilt from shopping to binding, but at different times in my life, I find I best enjoy different parts of the process--if that makes sense? Sometimes I could sit for days appliqueing while at other times, I just want to piece like a maniac. Come to think of it, I wonder if there's some kind of bipolar quilting disease?

Red Geranium Cottage said...

I love to pick out the fabric and do the cutting. I like the piecing too but I get bored too fast so I pick out another project and get busy cutting again. LOL It's a vicious cycle I tell ya.

Cheryl said...

I love to piece quilts. In recent years I've been doing quick pieced quilts and I've just realized I want to get back to quilts that are a little more challenging. Also, I love doing bindings.

Teresa said...

I really love all parts, except cutting it out and that's simply because standing for that length of time causes me issues.

I have found, however, that I like different parts of the process more at different times. Like sometimes I just really want to do hand work and other times I am really into the design process. I'm not sure what triggers those times though.

Vicky said...

Bindings are my favorite part- but I'm always disappointed when I've finished it. How crazy is that?

The planning part is the worst for me. I have a tough time deciding on fabric. Sometimes two or three pieces will get rejected until I'm satisfied. Guess that explains the stash problem! I mostly enjoy all the rest of the process (up to the quilting part). I alternate between appliqueing being my favorite and machine piecing. I'm fickle!

Knot Garden said...

My favourite thing is planning. I love to put fabrics together and think of possibilities. Then I like machine piecing. My least favourite thing is putting on borders.

Jeanne said...

I love to do the handwork, especially applique and binding. Of course, shopping is always fun, too.

atet said...

planning, cutting, piecing. Love all of those. Though, I do get bored if I'm doing tons and tons of piecing of the same thing over and over (which is why I don't have many log cabin quilts). I also love it when I've got all the blocks done and am playing with the arrangements. Least favorite -- binding!

Happy Zombie said...

I love designing the best, and selecting the fab is right up there too. I love making the blocks and I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate making the borders.

I also love doing the whipping after I've put my binding on, especially when you round the last corner - whoo who. It's so relaxing and meditative.

Beth said...

GREAT question! I love planning, cutting, piecing...I'm like Sweet P and love to use a couple patterns put together. I HATE borders and piecing backs..but I love backs that are scrappy (huh?) and I ABHOR loading quilts on the frame..but LOVE quilting them and binding them! Go figure!

HanneJ said...

I like to pull fabric up from my fabricboxes, and I always get surprised. "Oh, i didn't know I had that!" I love to put the fabrics together and see how the colors match each other.. Or is it machine quilting? I love to quilt in a spiral-pattern,I get kinda dizzy, but that's just fun ;)

May Britt said...

I love handpiecing and handquilting. And I love to play with colours. Whenever I start a project I use a lot of time selecting colours. And when I'm in the shop I always goes around and pick fabrics and match them together.

Susie said...

First, buying the fabric.
Second, choosing pattern and/or fabrics.
Third, piecing
Last, basting or marking

Love your blog!

Patti said...

Just about everything! It would be much easier to answer "what part of quilting would you rather pass along to someone else?"

A lot depends on my mood - I go in cycles. But as long as it involves touching fabric, or planning for touching fabric, or reading about fabric, or buying fabric, or ironing fabric - just doing anything with fabric! - brings a big smile to my face. Just like the one you can see on my face right now!

Not Lucy said...

This is a great question and has caused me to really think about what I like most. I do enjoy the whole process but I think the best is when you start seeing in front of you what you have been imagining in your head. Especially if you are doing something scrappy or made out of pieces that other people might have just tossed.

Like kjquilts, I have two quilty places: my sewing room where all the machine stuff takes place and in front of the tv where I do all the hand stuff. I try to have some kind of handwork available at all times so I can sit and put my feet up but still be accomplishing something.

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