No sewing on Saturday because I spent the day with my mom - wonderful! But that meant I just had Sunday to sandwich the Cub Scout quilt because we meet tonight to tie it. In my infinite wisdom, I decided I needed to "birth" this quilt, since I wouldn't have much time before this Saturday's ceremony to bind it, and I'd rather use that time preparing for Bonnie Hunter (I did tell you that Bonnie Hunter is coming this Friday and Saturday, right? And that I get to have dinner with her before Friday's trunk show? Oh, I am SO excited!!!)
Who cares that I've never birthed a quilt before. It can't be that hard, right? I laid out the quilt, pinned it and sewed around the edges.
Then, I trimmed it down nice and neat, and started turning it "right side out". Hmmm, something isn't right - the batting is on the OUTSIDE!!! Out with the seam ripper. It took me half an hour to pin, sew and trim, and another hour and a half to rip out the seam.
So, two hours later, I was back where I started. When I was giving birth to my first son, they called that "failure to progress", and gave me a C-section. Apparently, I'm not much more facile with this birthing process. About half way through the seam ripping, I considered "an emergency C-section" of my own. What if, instead of WASTING all this TIME ripping seams, I just trimmed all the borders down by 1/4". Who cares if my borders aren't the same width as my sashing strips, right? I could avoid all this seam ripping and just sew around the new perimeter. I was tempted, but I didn't. While this quilt isn't going to be a masterpiece, I did want to do as nice a job as I could for the boys. I'm curious, though, would any of you gone ahead and cut it down instead of all that frogging?
I had hoped by now to be able to show my completed Birdie BOM block. I've been working on it at basketball games and practices for two weeks now, plus through a movie. I've discovered why it is called a Block of the Month - it is going to take me ALL MONTH to finish the darned block!
I eased some of my frustrations last night with some mindless pressing - all the bonus triangles from previous projects that I've been sewing together into HSTs as a leader/ender project these days. One day, there will be enough to make some crazy quilt that is a conglomeration of leftovers from lots of different quilts.
10 comments:
Sorry you had so much trouble. It seems when I need to get something done in a specific time I make all kinds of mistakes. Quilters' Law, I guess! I still can't wait to see the finished quilt!
Too funny, Erin (although I'm sure you didn't think so at the time). I've made similar mindless errors - so frustrating. I would have frogged it, rather than cutting. Cutting off the seams would be another mistake waiting to happen for me. Every time I try to take the easy road, it ends up being more work (a lesson for me to learn, eh?)
Have a good week :)
I would have ripped the seams too, but you probably guessed that. I've birthed a few quilts but have never been totally happy with them. Seems like the top is always lapping over the back too much, even though they start out the same. I'm much happier with binding them but I an understand why you did that. I spent all of the Super Bowl game and more last night cutting out some of the blocks for Bonnie's workshop. Still have to do the lights, but I do have about 60+ "darks" in different Christmas prints. I will have to double up some on the lights but I think that will be OK.
Good luck with the boys tonight - and see you Friday!
I call it pot holder style (don't know why just do) or turn style. I would have just cut off the edges and moved on.
I do this on a lot of smaller donation quilts b/c it is fast and secures the edges.
lay out your batting first and then the backing face up. third the top face down. I do use pins
pin the middle (ish) of each side then work from the middle out towards the edges.
once you get this down you will love how easy it is. cw
I would have used the seam ripper too. However, I can't imagine having to rip out all of that stitching with the batting layer included. WOW! I'm sure it will be wonderful once it's completed. The boys will be happy and you will having another creation to be proud of.
I might have been tempted to use the rotary cutter and cut off the 1/4 inch given the time constraints. I am looking forward to seeing the finished quilt! What a great way to practice the boys' knots!
I didn't know that was called "birthing" a quilt. Your story is quite humourous - I'm sure you'll be able to laugh about it sometime soon and it will be a treasured story to tell for years to come. So it's a win situation for you in the end :)
So ... You lost some time but got a good story. I'd call it even. Probably that is one of the reasons I do NOTHING by machine.
I would have cut it...remember my Mum's table runner that ended up being approximately the size of a potholder?
And my cutting would have been accopmanied by swearing. LOTS of swearing.
At least you excelled at the pressing. Some days things just dont go right ...looks like it turned out beautifully though.
Okay, that term "birthing" a quilt is new to me, glad I know now. And LOL to your real birthing comparisons. Have an awesome time with Bonnie Hunter! How fun that sounds, I can understand your excitement!
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