The Bottom Line

Through many years of sewing for the family, I saved the scraps with intentions of piecing comfort tops for the needy when I'm an old lady. Years passed, the pile grew, and nothing happened. I was busy with other things I enjoyed more than piecing comfort tops and I wasn't getting old. Eventually I decided I will never get all those scraps used up and gave them to an old lady who needed something to do and was glad to have them.

Of course, I kept sewing clothes, curtains, and other things. The pile of scraps started growing again. I was still happily doing other things and not getting old enough to piece tops for pastime. Instead of spending most of my time with the sewing machine when I was an empty nester, it turned out to be my computer instead. Writing stories is more fun than sewing.

A couple years ago when my scrap bin was full to the top, I decided it is time to do something about it. I got as far as cutting all the reds and blues into blocks and piecing one top. But after that was done I decided I had enough sewing. I cut up the rest of the scraps and gave them to someone else to sew.

I was intending to give the red and blue top to the sewing circle for comfort knotting, but after it was finished I thought it was nice enough to quilt. So I added a border and put it away until I had time to quilt it.

Two years later, it was on my to-do list for this winter. I put it on the end of the list and if I didn't have time by March it would wait for another year. The other things on my list went faster than I expected and I did have time after all in February. On February 22 a group of Burkholder cousins came to help me quilt.

I marked it with all straight lines, so it was easy quilting. They got a lot done and I was able to finish the rest myself the next day. I did the binding today and here is the finished product.

It will be put back on the shelf now for a couple more years until the next granddaughter graduates from high school. This is the only quilt I have ever pieced from small blocks and there may never be another one. 

The bottom line of this story is that I have finished everything I had on my list for this winter and I still have two weeks of winter left to do some extra things. Don't worry. I haven't run out of ideas!