Well, I uploaded these photos a couple of weeks ago and am just now getting around to posting them. I've been wanting to get into quilting for quite a while now but have always been very intimidated by the process and lack of knowledge in the area of sewing in general. When I found out that a coworker of mine is due to have a baby this August, I knew that my gift to her would be a quilt. I just think that a handmade quilt for your new baby would be such a special thing to receive. When I told people what I was working on they would say things like, "Wow, what a labor of love. You must like her a lot." Huh, well, actually, we hardly know each other. Needless to say, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. It was a HUGE project and I wish I had logged my hours because I am curious to know how much time I actually spent on it. Maybe should have started with an easier quilt...
The nine patch blocks (the small pile under the scissors in the above photo) weren't very difficult and were actually really fun to put together. That bad part was when I realized that somehow I was sewing 3/8 inch seams instead of 1/4 inch seams -- EEEK! I was losing 1/4 of an inch on every block! This caused problems later in the process.
The quilt pattern that I chose was, I think, rather difficult for a beginner such as myself. Around midnight the first night I was working on the quilt, I got to the appliqué portion of the project. I spent the next forty minutes on various websites and watching youtube tutorials before diving right in. That's right, I taught myself. No big deal.
So tedious!!! As I was tracing and cutting out the letters I thought to myself, "I will never do this again!" But, of course, as the project came together and started to look freaking awesome, I decided that I probably would choose to do something like this again at some point in time.
Putting the pieces together -- major problem: lack of floor space to lay everything out. Ha! I barely had enough room.
I had a major frustration when I first started laying out the pieces because the book I was using gave me the wrong measurements for the blue triangles -- they were ALL cut wrong!!! I frantically looked around on the internet trying to figure out if I had made a mistake only to find that the book is indeed wrong and the publisher has a spot for "corrections" on their website. Well it never occurred to me to get on their website and double check to make sure the pattern I was using didn't have any corrections posted online, but it will in the future. I sent them a (mostly) respectful but obviously irritated e-mail and received a prompt and apologetic reply with a $25 credit to their online store. I don't even think the measurements in the correction posted online were quite right so I trusted my instincts, did a little math and cut them the way I knew I needed to. I had just enough fabric to fix the error.
And now let's see if you can spot the error in the next photo... And I'm not talking about the fact that the "y & z" aren't quite centered on their square. (I'm so embarrassed, I can't believe I even included this but it's somewhat humorous and a mistake I will NEVER make again!!!)
Um, yeah, after a week of looking at this out on the floor (because I didn't have time to move forward with it just then) I finally looked down and thought to myself, "Wait, there's no 'n' in that part of the alphabet!?" Shoot shoot shoot!!! I had the "u" right side up initially but it somehow got flipped when I was piecing things together and I didn't even notice. Oiy. I had to get real creative when ripping it out and putting it back in. I hope Sue and Grandma Barb aren't reading this... so embarrassing.
And we're finished! Oh man that was a lot of work! And machine quilting in the middle of the night when you have no idea what you're doing and have just been hit hard with a terrible head cold was just no fun at all. I only quilted on the diagonal lines just to hold everything together. Basting was stupid. I'd much rather baste a turkey. I will use pins next time.
And blue flannel on the back. I LOVED the Berenstain Bears fabric -- it was hard to part with. It turned out really cool but I didn't actually want to keep it because I know where every single mistake is and that would have made me crazy. I hope the new momma and baby love it though, if not, I want it back :) It was a great process to go through but I really want to do my next quilt right. I want a real quilter to hold my hand and walk me through the process. Steven has a coworker who is having a baby at the end of the summer. I would love to make one for them to but we'll see if it actually gets done in time.
What an accomplishment!! Glad to have the first one out of the way.
