30 Quilt Tops in 30 Days Challenge

One quilt top a day for one month (30 Quilt Tops in 30 Days). Specific size and specific ‘theme’ are required. I don’t/won’t have to finish out the quilt. No batting, backing, binding, or quilting. Strictly quilt tops.

Fabrics and patterns provided by me. Possible reimbursement of some of the cost at the end of the year. I’d have to save my receipts.

– Would it be worth doing? Yes, as the tops would go to a specific charitable organization for completion and disbursement.
– Is it something fun? Yep. I’m working with fabrics and doing stuff I’m good at.
– Who issued the challenge? Me. Just to see if I can/will do it. Still weighing the pros and cons.
– What are the cons? Saving the receipts, it’s about 2-4 hours taken out of each day, probable boredom with the theme after the first few are done, wondering if I could double/triple/quad up (so long as I hit the final total)… those sort of things. Mostly, I’d consider doubling or tripling up on a few days, so I can spend time with my husband.
– Pros? I get to work down my fabric stash! As I said before, these would be going to a charitable organization. It gets me back in line for basic piecing and assembling – it’s that time of year again. It’s supposed to be fun.

The “nuts and bolts” of the challenge:
– Quilt tops have to be between 60″ – 65″ inches, square-ish. Meaning, they can be rectangles, too.
– Patriotic/Americana theme – the quilts, once completed, will be going to American Veterans.
– 100% cotton fabrics; quilting cottons

Nothing says that I can’t spend a day or two pre-cutting the parts and pieces for upcoming quilt tops. If I make myself kits ahead of time, then I don’t lose quite so much of the day making it.

After rereading this a couple of more times, it looks like I’m going to give it a shot. The charitable organization wins, I get some fabric stash busting done, and I get some more practice done with basic piecing.

Well… that was my original intention. That’s not to say that’s what actually happened. After talking to Mom, she decided we were going to actually join this group of quilters. This, then, made my challenge a lot more affordable. I knew I was still going to aim for 15 patriotic themed tops and 15 of whatever was in my stash to use up. If I had the time and energy, I was going to try a couple of techniques I’d been wanting to learn. If I still had time, I had a couple of backup ideas to play with, too.

As you go through the photos, you’ll probably count only 28 pictures. I know this. Quilt top #s 20 and 21 have not been photographed at this time. Until I get the assorted doll parts, I’m not going to photograph them. Those are gifts for a couple of people, and I’d like to not spoil their surprise.

One other thing about the photos… I purposely have not changed the names/dates on the photos. They are as they were named by my cell phone, which means you can double check the dates on me. You may notice a few days gap between some of them. Just because I was doing this challenge doesn’t mean that I put everything else in my life on hold.

Wanna see some pictures?

Yes, I’m well aware that a few of the patriotic ones will need borders to bring them up to the required size. However, the patterns I was using claim that what I’d done was considered a completed quilt top. Those will be adjusted before I donate them to the quilting group.

One last thing, before I publish this post… There are a couple of friends that really stood by me while I was going through this. I don’t know as that I’d want to re-attempt this type of challenge again without them. Trust me when I say they were on the phone with me for hours (Yes, even while I was sewing), just listening and talking to me while I worked.