IT'S SPRING BREAK!!! YAY!!! I have a huge list of things I am planning to SEW during my free time. This morning I slept in while the hubby got up and went to work. It was great. I think I'm actually glad we are not going anywhere for Spring Break this year. The relaxation and free time will be MUCH appreciated! Hopefully I will be ready for the home stretch (testing) when school starts again next week.
Anyway.
I finished my first BIG quilt! It has been a long time coming and I have already posted lots of pictures of it in it's various stages of completion. But now it is officially FINISHED!
I started this one in the summer - probably July or August - back BEFORE I had my own rotary cutter and mat. Can you believe it? All the pieces for this quilt were cut BY HAND. With SCISSORS. I must have been crazy! I was tired of borrowing my mom's stuff, but I was still new to quilting and didn't own many supplies. Plus, my birthday is in August and I was pretty sure I had convinced mom to buy me a cutter and mat - I figured it would be dumb to go out and buy some myself when I could just wait for my birthday. However, I did NOT want to wait to get started on this quilt!
SO, using
THIS pattern (hence the name "Taffy Pull Quilt") as a starting point and a couple of fat eighth bundles from Joann's (because I was still afraid of mixing and matching my own fabric combinations and had to have someone else do it for me - I'm still not sure if I'm completely sold on these colors though), I meticulously planned, measured, and cut so that I could get the absolute most out of my fabric. And I think I did. Look at what I had left over!
(Do you think my hands are wrinkly? Hubby always makes fun of me for my old lady hands, but I think they are just normal and HIS hands are the funny looking ones. I promise, I am most definitely NOT an old lady!)
I also took a leap and pieced the blocks randomly. I put all of the different colors in bags and randomly drew for each block. Of course, I couldn't give up complete control and chose the colors beforehand - just not which print in that color. Still, it was a pretty big leap for me because I tend to plan things out to the finest detail. To me, that's part of the fun in quilting. But I'm learning that spontaneity is also fun. I did end up with a few repeat fabrics right next to each other that I didn't catch in time... oops!
I put off the quilting for the LONGEST time because I just couldn't decide how to quilt it! Finally, I decided it was just too big to do anything fancy and tried my hand at straight line quilting (I think I was inspired by
Rita's blog - she does a lot of straight line quilting and it just looks so clean and fresh).
Maybe straight line quilting was a bad idea, because there are TONS of puckers! All over the place! I must not be very good at basting. But the hubby said he couldn't see any puckers and even though I'm pretty sure he was just trying to make me feel better, I decided NOT to do it over again. Sigh. I figured, once I washed it, it would get all puffy anyway and the puckers wouldn't stand out so much - right?
I did learn a new trick while quilting this one. When I was rolling up my quilt to fit it under the machine, I had the brilliant idea to pin quilt roll as I went! I wish I had taken a picture, cuz to me it was pure genius. Probably nothing new to most of you out there, but it sure made my life easier.
I found out that it is very hard to take pictures of such a huge quilt! I suppose I could have gone outside - but I didn't. (This is my ironing board, by the way...)
I did find one place that was big enough for the whole quilt. Doesn't it look nice on my bed?
I tried my "traditional" picture on the couch, but the quilt just didn't fit like the other quilts I have made, so I had to improvise.
And here it is fresh out of the drier!
Whew! NOW. Do I keep this quilt for myself, or give it to someone - a sister, perhaps?
