“Just when I was settling down to it, Lettice Protheroe drifted in.
I use the word ‘drifted’ advisedly. I have read in novels in which young people are described as bursting with energy--joie de vivre, the magnificent vitality of youth. Personally, all the young people I come across have the air of amiable wraiths.
Lettice was particularly wraithlike this afternoon. She is a pretty girl, very tall and fair and completely vague. She drifted through the French window, absently pulled off the yellow beret she was wearing and murmured vaguely with a kind of faraway surprise.
‘Oh, It’s you.”
The Murder at the Vicarage
Agatha Christie
Hello and Happy Friday!
Last week I promised you a discussion of how long it actually takes to make a quilt. Of course, you might guess that I am going to say the time depends on a lot of factors. The type of quilt, the size of the quilt, availability of fabric, and the time of year all contribute to the length of time it will take to have a quilt made.
Cutting lots of strips!
The actual making of a quilt usually takes me anywhere between one to three weeks, but you should keep in mind that I tend to work on at least three projects at a time. For instance Wednesday and Thursday of this week I made a bear, finished a tie quilt, and pieced a Classic 25T in addition to creating a pattern for a pillow case, researching classic patterns, emailing and talking with customers, and writing this blog. The Classic 25T took me about five and a half hours to piece once I had prepped and cut the shirts and washed and cut all of the fabric. That does not include the time it took me to piece the back and make the binding. I can quilt and bind a Classic 25T in one day, but I often split those tasks up into two days because of the physical demands of that work, which is one of the reasons I work on more than one project at a time. Sitting and piecing for six to eight hours is not healthy, so I break my day up into tasks. I might work on piecing a quilt in the morning for three hours and prep the next order in the afternoon.
Cutting Fabric for sashing and borders.
The type of quilt is a huge factor in how long it takes to make. Classic quilts are the fastest to make. Custom quilts are more complicated, so they take longer. Memory quilts or special custom quilts can take the longest because of the pattern and fabric being used. But I love having a variety of orders in the studio at once, so that I can easily make my tasks diverse
Time of year can also play a role in how long it will take me to make a quilt. By mid-October my queue is full for Christmas orders, so if I take in an order after my Christmas slots are full, then that order will likely be the first order of the new year.
I really try to be honest about my work load when I meet with customers, and I try to plan accordingly for anything that might arise to foil my plans.
Would you like to see a “Day in the Life” blog? Maybe I will do that next week!
Sending Quilting Love,
Ginger
Coming Next Week: A Day in the Studio with Ginger, and maybe I will layout a week, too.
I am Reading: I am still reading Wicked by Gregory McGuire and Tightrope by Simon Mawer, and I am working my way through Let Your Creativity Work for You by Heather Allen. I am still reading bits of poetry, and I have stacks of things to read, which always makes me happy! I am also waiting on my copy of Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston’s exhibit of the same name...I’ll put some pictures in the blog once it arrives!