Understanding Cuddle Quilt math

The Choo Choo Quilters had a very productive Cuddle Quilt workshop yesterday. 

Quilt tops, backing fabrics and batting ready for the group spray basting session.

This annual workshop is a wonderful opportunity to spend the day with a group of generous and talented women from my guild while we make small lap size quilts for our community service recipient organization, the Chambliss Center for Children . As for the quiltmaking process, one of the most expeditious activities to take advantage of at this workshop is a spray basting session. Details about how we accomplish this are in this blog post.

Ginny (left) and Linda spray basting.

I geared up and was prepared for the spray basting session this year. 7 cuddle quilt tops were ready for basting. There were:

Basted quilts at the Choo Choo Cuddle Quilt workshop.

• Three tops made with blocks from the Making Do program.
• One top from blocks made at last year's Cuddle Quilt workshop.
• One improv scrap quilt top.
• One top featuring a panel.
• And one sample top from a fabric line called Bugalicious.

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During the 7-hour workshop, 45 quilt tops were spray basted by our dedicated quiltmakers. An amazing accomplishment! This was nearly double our first record of 27 quilts back in 2011.

My friend and fellow guild member, Ginny, enjoys the binding process. She had offered to bind cuddle quilts if I would quilt them. (She attached the binding to this cowboy cuddle quilt for me.) So, in addition to my quilt tops, I brought an extension table for my sewing machine with the plan to free-motion quilt as many basted tops as possible for her.

Cuddle quilts ready for binding.

By 3 pm, I had free-motion quilted 5 cuddle quilts which I turned over to Ginny for binding. At the end of the workshop, however, I still took home 5 spray basted quilt sandwiches from the 7 tops I brought in.

The Cuddle Quilt Math word problem:
"A quilter brings in 7 quilt tops for basting, then quilts 5 basted quilts while at a workshop. If said quilter gives 5 quilts to another quilter to bind, how is it that I still brought home 5 quilts to quilt?"

I guess this is "Cuddle Quilt Math."