Some stitching is what you might call "grunt" work....work that is menial, thankless, repetitious, and boring. Grunt stitching (for me) is thread basting a quilt, or doing a lot of stitching that is boring (quilting with a dark thread on a dark fabric where you can't see your progress or the texture as easily), or searching for and measuring hunks of batting or adding boring borders.
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| Attaching the binding on Journey of a Quilter |
I know a lot of people who would say that finishing a binding is grunt work, but I love hand stitching a binding. And this week, I have done a lot of binding, without one bit of grunting!
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| Binding ready for Celtic Solstice |
Maybe preparing a binding might be considered grunt work - cutting strips, joining strips end to end, and pressing all the strips in half. Although it is sometimes boring, I don't mind this task either. I like to remind myself that a bad day spent grunt stitching is still better than almost any other day!! LOL
I plan to start the quilting today while watching the 59th Masters Golf Tournament. It's total enjoyment of the first signs of spring - all that green grass, and beautiful flowers, and birds singing. Oh yah, and the golf is enjoyable to watch too!
What is grunt work for you? Do you dislike cutting, or basting, or tracing patterns, or binding?
Link up your hand stitching blog post below and share your progress (or grunting) with us.
20 comments:
I like your scrappy bias for Journey. How organized you are with another hand quilting project all lined up. I shall also be stitching while watching the Masters. Happy Spring!
dealing with my scraps - cutting them into useable pieces is my grunt work - all the parts of quilting is something that I just do and not think of it as work. It will be raining today so i think I well get the house cleaned and then enjoy getting a backing pieced and then get the basting done.
Let's see...with applique, grunt work would be standing at the ironing board doing the freezer paper / starch / iron thing. So I only do a little at a time. With quilting it is sewing binding...almost done with that on something but I just brought the back to the front. With piecing, because I don't have your skills, to put it mildly, lol...it is seam ripping! :)
What I consider grunt work is setting up a quilt on the quilting frame. It is set up on three different rollers, just like a longarm quilting machine. It usually takes me over a hour and I always see it as a lost hour. Maybe with more experience I'll be able to achieve this in 15 minutes like it suppose to LOL. Of course, after it is all done, I am so happy to be quilting that I forget all about the labor. Happy stitching everyone. (I might join you this afternoon in a slowing stitching session)
I don't like quilting in the ditch. What a waste of time, so it is rarely done at my house. I love making binding and especially hand stitching it down. Maybe because it is the same stitch used in applique. I do hate tracing templates on freezer paper and cutting them out. But, I love choosing the fabrics to use for each applique piece so that thought gets me thru it. I am looking forward to your new journey, another great quilt
I love sewing on the binding ... maybe because it means a quilt is just about done and ready to be used! Grunt work to me used to be cutting, although with my GO that's not as bad as it used to be. I guess grunt work now is basting. I'm glad you have another quilt ready to be hand quilted ... and I'm eager to see how you'll quilt it.
For me, grunt work is sewing the final borders on the quilt...the quilt is so big and keeps falling off the table....I am always relieved to be done this part! Your next hand stitching project is lovely! Where are you going to put your Journey quilt?
I pin baste because I can't stand thread basting either! lol I still don't love the basting process but it means I am that much closer to my goal of hand quilting what I am pinning so it happens pretty fast and painless overall for me :) I love your current new project and will enjoy seeing you bring all those houses to light even more than your brightly colored windows... I like it better that way and thanks for a link to your post all about it... nice to have the binding done... I am always happy when I do my binding while piecing a quilt! My grunt job is the piecing actually and only because my end results don't yet match my idea for what it should look like... trying some new things... then I will love ALL the process of quiltmaking! lol :) Thanks for offering the linky party too! Kathi
I really don't mind hand sewing binding at all, though it IS kind of grunt work, but I like ANY part of quilt making.....
I like the process of hand stitching down a binding, it's a very relaxing process. It's the last step in what for me can be a long path to completion. It's always nice to remember how the quilt came to be, where it's going, and all the things that happened when I was making it.
Fav thing about quilting is sewing the blocks. Least fav is putting blocks together into a top and piecing a back. That's why I have so many UFOs!
Are those homespuns in your next project?
I love your attitude about "grunt work!" I'm not a happy camper when I handsew binding on a quilt, so you can hear lots of grunts going on when that's happening in my house. :O)
I'm not fond of the thread basting either...even on the little quilts...love to do the hand binding, have to keep stopping to admire each section...pressing any part of a quilt is my least favorite...
I find stitching down a binding very boring, even though it means I am nearly done with the quilt.
What fun to start quilting a new quilt with you! It's unbelievable that your Journey quilt is all done and the binding is going on - wow!
My least-favorite "grunt" work items in quilting are cutting, ironing, and putting on borders. Any one of these can hold up a project forever while I get up the gumption to just Get it Done!
Grunt work as you say is that stuff I do when I only have a few minutes to kill in my sewing room or in between laundry loads. Binding, trimming a quilt or sewing a backing together. Little jobs that have to be done or you can't proceed. These jobs are just more steps in the process of quiltmaking!!
Basting--definitely basting!
Love "Always Home"!
Stitching grunt work would have to be the hand stitching down of hanging sleeves. I love your next hand quilting project. Today was a perfect day for hand stitching outside, too.
grunt work for me is starting a new project. Also well not grunt as I have not done any yet but machine quilting I am so afraid to try it!
I keep thinking about slow stitching Sundays. Well, my only slow stitching, heck, my only stitching was two small holly leaves and a half of a simple basket. Sigh. I'm looking forward to getting my mojo back. I wonder where it went?
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