Friday, August 10, 2012

Sometimes It Just Doesn't Quite Work Out How It Should In Your Head

I worked on these granny squares at CJ's Quilt Retreat in the spring. The squares themselves went together just fine, and then I'm not entirely sure what happened once I started getting the sashing on.


Okay, that's a bold-faced lie. I know exactly what happened...I got lazy. I was so anxious to get this top done and move on to my next project, I tried to cut corners (not literally of course!).

I don't HAVE to measure super carefully AND pin the sashing, right? It will be fine!

WRONG!

That is some MAJOR waving I've got going on. Seriously, this borders on ruffling! I'm not sure I could get that much waving if I tried! Sheesh! And it didn't look THAT bad until I put it up on the design wall and then I didn't even want to take a picture I wanted to take it down so bad...embarrassed =(

Once I unpack - WE ARE MOVING THIS WEEKEND! - this quilt is definitely going to require some quality unpicking time. Sounds like a great way to spend a few minutes in front of the TV post move.

Then I will return to good quilting habits and measure carefully and pin and THEN sew.

Lesson Learned

Friday, August 3, 2012

Getting Braver!

I acquired a new-to-me long-arm quilting machine. This has been very exciting and scary and overwhelming and fun all in one.

I've used it to quilt six or seven quilt tops now, and I have done stars and loops, loops and flowers...basically pretty easy patterns...but all free motion. I finally decided to be brave and try a more challenging pattern. This is a quilt my mom and I worked on together that is for my almost-two-year-old baby girl. I love how it turned out! And I'm super excited to try new patterns and get some of my quilt tops finished.



I love the idea of making an entire quilt from start to finish, and I've gotten much better at embracing the imperfections. After all, if I wanted perfection, I could have machines and computers do it for me.

This quilt is actually done...the binding is even sewn on it, and now I just need to hand stitch the binding to the back. And it's been seen sitting that way for a couple months now. Must get to it.