Hey, wait a minute... hmmm... If the quilt was finished on Sunday, why wait three days to tell everyone? I will blame it on the weather. Really.
It has been raining for days. If it did clear up (read, stop raining) even for a moment, the quilt, me, and the camera were not in the same place at the same time. Really.
I tried to take some photos, but didn't care for them. I made the bed. Spread it out. Opened the curtains, turned on the over head, and table lamps. The lighting just wasn't great. I moved it to the living room, in front of the largest window. The grey outside just washed out the colors. Duh.
I just can't wait any longer. So I'm going with the photos on the bed. OK. Maybe some from the living room too.
This quilt is not an original pattern. It's become commonly known as Wonky Squares. The underlying pattern is a variation of the Courthouse Steps or Log Cabin. I followed the Tutorial offered on the Tall Grass Prairie Studio blog. If you know me personally, this is a stretch as I tend like the world all lined up and orderly. (I imaging my mom laughing so hard tears have come to her eyes as she reads that last observation.) Chaos is not my natural inclination. This project was and exercise in 'Lighten Up, Kid'.
I chose to limit my colors to three. This is designed as a throw for my office/guest room which is light blue, and white, with grey and chartreuse accents. I've seen beautiful Wonky quilts with broader color palettes, but this was an exercise in editing. Seriously. It was so difficult to narrow my choices in the fabric store as there were so many fabulous options.
I used a Gees Bend teal fabric. I was warned that this fabric bleeds like crazy on the first washing as it is hand dyed, so washed and dried it separately. The lightest fabric is Spa by Rosemarie Lavin (Wyndham Fabrics) and the grey is from Kona Bay.
Next I decided to do the quilting myself. I wrote about my first experience which involved ripping it all out. When it doubt, rip it out. Glad I did. My main issue was that my machine does not have a walking foot. I borrowed my friend Lisa's machine (as she picked up a shiny new one just the other day), and presto, much better results. Finding a walking foot for my 21 year old machine is proving to be a little tricky - I'll double check eBay.
I used straight line quilting for my first time out - nothing fancy. Again I followed a tutorial from Tall Grass Prairie Studio where you use painters tape - yup, that blue or green stuff - as a line marker. Pretty slick.
Once I let the walking foot do most of the work, rather than me wrestling (and losing) with the fabric it all became much easier.
Last but not least, I applied the binding by machine. No hand hemming the second side. I enjoy hand work, but I just wanted this baby in the Finished pile, not the Work In Progress (WIP), or Unfinished Object (UFO) piles. Hand hemming was an opportunity to procrastinate - again. I just looked Procrastination in the face and said - not today, fella.
I did notice that my stitch in the ditch technique could use some improvement. While the pattern is Wonky, the stitching, perhaps, should not be.
Once finished I washed the quilt. It had been on the floor for basting and the Overly Helpful Helpers had napped and walked on it. I had prewashed the fabric before starting and had used a fleece styled batting so wasn't sure I would get a puckery, quilty result. But it did - super excited about that part.
Overall I am very pleased with the result. I could write a longer piece on it's imperfections and things I would do differently, but will spare you, gentle reader, from that particular torture. Let's lock that perfectionist into a dark closet and throw away the key.
Now onto the next Procrastination Project - tucking in the tails of my nearly finished scarf. Tomorrow is another day!
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