Salvaging A Quilt Gone Wrong

You may remember my post about my quilting disaster.  Well, the Quilt From Hell is no longer from hell!  In fact, now I love it!

Yesterday I squared up my blocks and trimmed them so that they’re the same size.  They finished at five-and-three-quarters inches, so will sew up to five-and-a-quarter.  It will finish up as a lap quilt, and I’ll have four blocks left over.  Who knows what they’ll end up in?

In the afternoon, I laid them out in the floor, and tried some different configurations.

Zigzags was my first try. It was OK, but I didn't really care for it.

I liked the diagonal set a little better...

And the winner is...an off-center barn raising set!

The barn-raising set was the one that I liked the best.  The quilt is eight blocks tall, by seven blocks wide, so there’s no way to really center it, which I didn’t want to do anyway.  I like the off-center look.  It has a lot more visual interest.

So today I hope to get it sewed together.  I was raring to go yesterday, but my driveway desperately needed to be shoveled!  Real life always calls, doesn’t it?  But there may be a break in the snow for a few days, as the forecast is calling for highs in the 30′s through the weekend, with maybe even some sun peeking out.  Warm enough to enjoy a few walks, too!  I feel like I’ve been cooped up in the house forever!

On the baby quilt front:  I mailed Sarah’s quilt out last Friday.  I called and let her know it was on the way, and extracted a promise that she would call me before she opened it so I could hear her reaction.  The Post Office came through, and the quilt arrived safely yesterday.  She had just gotten back from shopping, and had to put away the cold stuff before she could call me!  I praised her for her self-restraint.

She loved it!  Of course I knew she would, but it’s always great to hear it.  The older boys were at school, but Kieran, who is two, loved it, too.  He saw it, and said, “ooooh, kitties!”  Sarah’s telling him that it’s for the new baby, so hopefully he won’t glom onto it!  He has his own kitty “kilt” from Granny that I made for him when he was born.  Sarah’s probably going to hang this one on the wall above the changing table so they can enjoy it until the new baby comes.

In spite of the snow shoveling, I managed to do some more handquilting on my AAQI Challenge Quilt, too.  I was afraid my hands would be too tired, but such was not the case.  I made myself quit after an hour or so, which was hard.  But the quilting is nearly done now, and I should finish it tonight.  Then I just need to do the wolf applique, and bind it, along with the hanging corners.  Can’t wait to finish it so I can get started on the next one!  I have ideas for a couple more.

Molly, Quilting Supervisor-In-Chief

I’ll finish up today with a picture of Molly.  She was watching me lay my quilt blocks out in the floor yesterday afternoon, and looked so cute sitting on her stool that I couldn’t resist snapping her picture.  She sat next to me on that stool while I was sitting at the ironing board trimming quilt blocks yesterday morning.

How sweet, you say?  Don’t be fooled.  She wanted me to feed her, and was trying to get me to give in and do it by patting me on the arm with her paw.  When that didn’t work, she resorted to knocking things in the floor.  But I held firm, and made her wait til I was done.  Life is so hard for a cat!

Tagged with: AAQI P • barn raising set • quilt photos • quilting cat • quilting disaster

Filed under: Helpful Cats • Sewing Adventures

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!