Keeping a Quilting Log

Once a month I attend a long arm quilting club at my local quilt shop.  A few months ago they asked if I would give a presentation at one of the meetings.  At first my answer was "no."  I didn't know what I could share with the ladies.  Most of my quilting is done sitting down.  I can count on two hands the number of quilts I have actually quilted on a long arm machine.

After that initial surprise, I got thinking about it and realized that maybe I did have something I could share.  I am a very organized person and thought that I could share how I keep records of my quilts.  So I went to the manager and told her my idea.  She loved it!  She was particularly interested in my quilting log.  I have found my quilting log to be very helpful, and thought that it would be good to share on my blog as well.

My quilting log is kept in a journal one of my friends gave me.  The kind that you put in a cupboard until you know what to do with it.    I started using it when I purchased my Tiara and was so grateful for a cute journal I already had.  I use it to keep track of all projects I quilt with my Tiara.  I think I need to start another one for projects quilted on my domestic machine.  I have already started one for my mother for projects quilted on her Fusion.  

I keep my quilting log on the shelf underneath my Baby Lock Tiara.  It is right there so I remember to write in it every time.  In it I include this information:

• The project number (I have quilted 51 projects on my Tiara)
• The dates I quilted that project
• The name of the project
• The batting I used
• The size of the project
• The types of fabrics used (cotton, minky, flannel...)
• The thread used (type and color)
• The needle used
• The total number of stitches (I love the stitch counter on my Tiara)
• How many bobbins used
• How long it took to quilt the project
• Any special settings on my machine: stitches per inch, cruise speed, maximum speed... On a domestic machine your settings might include: stitch length, feed dogs up or down, tension setting, needle position...
• What designs I used (name, diagram, description...)
• Any notes or other things I want to remember

Here are a couple pictures showing pages from my quilting log.  

I find this helpful for a number of reasons:

• I can review previous quilts of the same size and similar design to guess how many bobbins to fill.  (I hate stopping in the middle of a project to wind more bobbins.)
• I can remember what needle worked best for which thread type.
• I can remember what kind of batting or thread I used in a quilt. 
• I can remember any special settings for different types of thread or fabric.  
• I can keep track of any challenges I need to overcome in the notes section. (I had a hard time with Omni thread in the bobbin at first and tried different things to solve that issue.  Turns out a different bobbin case worked much better.)
• I can review designs I have already tried and what worked well.  
• I love numbers, and find keeping track of the total number of stitches fascinating.  I have 3.3 million stitches on my Tiara.  

Do any of you keep a quilting log or do you have any suggestions for what to include?

I will be sharing more ideas I have for keeping records of your quilts in the future.  In case you missed it, I have already blogged about my quilt photo albums/scrapbooks here.

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I will be linking up with some of the fun parties on my sidebar.  Check them out for lots of quilty inspiration.

Quilt Photo Albums

I mentioned my new quilt photo albums in my last post, and thought I would go into more detail today.  :)

While I love blogging as a record of my quilts, I decided that I wanted something more tangible as a record of my quilts.  I spent several days selecting, uploading, and printing pictures of all of my quilts so far.  (Good news is that Costco gives you a discount on 4 x 6 photos if you order more than 100 at a time.)   Then came the time to actually organize the photos.

I started out by using divided sheet protectors.  The ones I used are Albums Made Easy and are very similar to the ones made for Project Life.

Then I used some lined journaling cards to write the quilt statistics.  One nice thing is that they have different styles of divided sheet ptotectors.  I could choose what worked best for the quilts which would be back to back.  It was also nice that you can just slip in the 4 x 6 photos.  So that is what I did for my first 100 quilts.  (I will admit that some still need the journaling done.)

I was feeling limited by the dividers, so I decided to do some very simple scrapbooking for the next 100 quilts.  I have to say that I like the second way lots better!  I selected cardstock which coordinated with the photos, trimmed them, stuck them down, and added some simple journaling.

I had so much fun doing this that I even printed pictures of quilts for my mom and started a different album for her using the Albums Made Easy sheet protectors.  She loves it!

The biggest thing I learned by doing this is if you are planning on printing 4 x 6 photos of your quilts, make sure you leave room on the sides to crop the picture without cropping your quilt!  I had been taking pictures of quilts so I wouldn't have to crop them before including them on my blog.  Some of them lost a little on their sides.  So now I am taking extra photos:  Some zoomed in and some zoomed out.

What do you do with pictures of your quilts?  Do you print them, or just keep them digital?

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I will be linking up with some of the fun parties on my side bar.  Check them out for lots of inspiration.

P.P.S.  I wish everyone celebrating the 4th a safe, happy, holiday weekend!