Monday, November 4, 2013

My First Quilt (of course it's for Marlee)

I am a procrastinator.... it takes me forever to do anything... mostly because I can't make up my mind on details... for example I started this quilt back in November of 2012.... that's right... a year ago.... and I am finally getting around to blogging about it...I'll throw in dates here and there so you can see my lack of progress... 

here goes...

November 2012

I have spent months browsing through Pinterest and YouTube on the subject of Quilting. I have been dreaming about quilting.  It's about time I started one.  I found a pretty easy pattern on Pinterest, which you can see right here..




http://www.polkadotchair.com/2010/08/snuggly-bricks-quilt-tuesday-tutorial.html






 
 
I rummaged through all my fat quarters to find just the right fabrics.....

 
 
 
I began cutting all my squares
 
 
only to find the pattern was a little wrong....
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I didn't have enough fabric for the length it was supposed to be...
no worries though....
I can make it work....
I am resourceful like that. 

While I was at it.. I expanded on the pattern to make it longer... see.... that's using my head... I decided that whatever fabric I add needed to be the same... meaning whatever I add is going to be used for all the extension pieces...
 
that's when I thought about a crib sheet.  I cut off all the elastic and ironed it and I was surprised at the amount of fabric I just gained.
 
 
  
 I cut out all the additional pieces...and laid out the pattern on the floor again and numbered them ...


once I was happy with the order... I gathered them all up...and they sat there.... for 3 weeks.. ... until I decided ok... let me start this... so I get out my brand new machine... and the drama begins....

December 2012

I pull out my new Singer and low and behold... I can't get the tension right... over and over again I change the tension... turn it up... turn it down... Ugh... nothing is working!!!




Enter my OLD sewing machine... my Brother XL-5500...download the manual... see the proper tension settings...turn a few dials... and I'm good to go!!!  Woo Hoo... let the sewing begin....5 weeks after my intended start date... but its still progress nonetheless.  

so I start sewing all my blocks together and placed them to see if I liked the pattern... Guess what????


 

 
 I didn't like the sheet....
it just didn't fit in for me....
 
So I ripped it all out and back to Joann's I go....and I found my backing fabric....
 
 and another that will be good for the extra rows and blocks...
 
 
 
so it was back to the cutting board and sewing machine I go..... now remember I said I was a procrastinator....now it's December 13th. 

Time is
passing me by.... tick tock.... again... as usual...by this time I had given up on any thoughts that I might actually give this to Marlee for Christmas... Ha ha ha... that's so funny!!!
 
December 19th....
 
Lots of sewing and ironing and sewing and ironing....
 



 
And I finally finally finally have my quilt top... by the way... its December 30th!!!
 
Still have work to do....
let's see how long it'll take now.
 
February 11, 2013
 
That's right... I said February.....
 
It turns out that I had a lot of the extra blocks fabric left over so I decided to use it for the backing.
 
More cutting... and sewing and ironing... and I had a quilt backing...
 
 

 
Looked real nice.... for a minute...
 
Then I messed it up...
 
Again....while trying to square up my quilt and cut corners by doubling up my fabric... I ended up cutting a little too much off the edge and sliced into the good fabric... Right in the middle of the quilt... sooooooooooooooo now I have to change the backing... UGH!!!
 
 
 
And I can't find any pics of my mistake... which is a good thing... I still had to quilt it... and that was an experience I'd rather not go in to right now.. (and I can't find those pics either... Windows 8 SUCKS)... so now
 
it is
 
SEPTEMBER!!!
 
Time flies huh??
 
Now it's time to bind this thing
 
 



boy do I suck at this....



 


 That's Better!
 
 


Now I'm done... that's all she wrote...
 
 
Stick a fork in me.... I'm done...
 
 
 
 
maybe someday I will go and fix my many binding errors... until then....
 
Marlee Loves It!!!!




And it looks great.... right where it is...
 
 
 

November 4, 2013
The End!