Quilting Time

I signed up for a "I want to learn (blank) swap" on Craftster.org and got a quilting kit from my partner, donniesgirl. I remember helping my Grandma Edith do a couple of quilting projects when I was younger, but I've never really learned (or just don't remember) the finer points of the craft. When I moved to California I stole the sewing machine from my mom's garage in the hopes that I could pick up this craft again. Swaps like the ones at Craftster are fantastic for giving you an excuse to learn a new craft and this one in particular was a huge motivation. The best way to describe it is that if you have the motivation to sign-up and send a kit to your partner, you're going to have the motivation to actually do your craft when you get your kit. I think I proved that point as I did this quilt in two sittings of about 8 hours each and just finished it this weekend. Now I just want to brag about it. So yeah. First quilt. Woo!

It was supposed to be a log cabin quilt that was just 2x3 squares, but I decided to take advantage of the fact I was sent a ton of fabric and make it bigger, as well as tweak the pattern to something more me. I made the squares per instructions from my partner and then winged the rest based on my favorite quilt from Edith. (I still have fabric left over to make more squares.)

On a side note, my dining room/library/nook-of-awesome really lived up to its name and was turned into a quilting cove for the last two weeks. It will probably be a scrapbooking cove soon, after I get my next round of knitting projects done, that is. I really need to come up with a better system for storing all of my different craft stuff.. that will be a project in and of itself. Back to the quilt.

I don't really have a large flat surface to lay things out on, aside from my floor. So this quilt has spent a lot of time on the floor, something that Ichi has been enjoying thoroughly. Ichi just wouldn't leave it alone. She's been laying or playing on the fabric since it was in jelly roll form. Laying it out to pin was apparently an open invitation for her to take a nap on it. She finally got the hint and started laying on the edges (until I wasn't looking, of course). There's something about this thing that just draws her to it.. no idea. Maybe my partner had something interesting in her house which had a very interesting smell.

The colors are very warm and I'm glad I decided to make it bigger, as well as put the brown strips between the squares. It was a LOT of extra effort and I was pulling my hair out by the end. Naturally a couple of mistakes were made and I've fixed them all but one, so far. By the time I finished I was just fed up with working on it. I still have to get myself to fix one seam and then wash it. Who knew cutting straight strips was such a pain in the butt? Not having a large flat surface to lay the fabric out doesn't help matters either. The jelly roll strips for the squares were precut and I didn't realize how easy I had it until I went to cut the strips for the brown between the squares.

I still can't get over how much I love these colors and patterns... they're very busy, but I don't care. They're perfect for me. I wasn't too sure about how the strips would all work together. There's a lot of different patterns in that one jelly roll. I tried to group them into "heavy" and "light" pattern categories and build the squares based on that. I didn't really get a division I liked until around the 4th square, though. I can't even tell you when I caught the hang of it, they're all just so chaotic. That and I was exhausted for most of the square making. I did them all in one shot one Saturday after softball practice and DnD, not wrapping up until about 1am. Even considering how tired I was whenever I worked on it, I think I only messed up once or twice when making these squares. And even still, I can tell you the screw ups were just cause I was tired or too into watching Abby play in the fabric.

Both the girls were very into my project. Abby spent most of her time laying on the scraps or my felt "ironing board" on the table. She would watch the needle on the machine when I was going and I was always a little worried she'd try and swat it while I was working. She was very good otherwise, never getting in the way. When I needed to move her, she was more then happy to comply. Ichi, on the other hand.. was a pain in the butt. She kept trying to lay on the fabric when I had it laid out, taking naps and playing with her toys whenever she had the chance. When I had it pinned and was sewing the edge on, she followed me to the machine and laid on the part of the quilt that had overflowed onto the floor. While I was sewing the edge on. I didn't realize it until it was almost too late and nearly ripped a hole in the layers. I'm lucky I didn't break the needle.

Ichiko's excitement about the quilt being done makes mine look insignificant. She followed me around when I carried it and tried to lay on it whenever it was one a surface that was flat-ish. I kept the quilt to myself for awhile but she just literally would not stop trying to lay or be on it. I finally gave up and let her have it all to herself. I don't think she minded much. Because of this, I was only able to get one shot of the edges. I used the tie-dye looking strips for it and just absolutely love the extra "pop" it adds to the quilt. I was eyeing the leftover strips I had when I was pinning it all together. I really wanted to add another row of squares so it'd fit on my bed.. but I didn't have enough backing. So it's destined to be a couch blanket, which just means it gets more exposure.


So yeah. Just showing it off, cause I'm proud of myself. I should be, right?

Love, Peace, and Here's the forum post,
Tar