Every once in a while I get so bogged down with a project or idea that I have to do something completely different in order to trick myself into caring about the original project. This goes beyond having the attention span of a six year old like my friend, Casey, says she has. This borders on beginning to loathe the project entirely. Sort of how I feel about knitting really. (I think I will always be primarily a crocheter.)
The problem I faced was how to take a break from sewing the Rendezvous clothes, but not have to put away all the sewing errata in the dining room just to dig it out again after I was done playing with something else. I prowled through the room-sized craft closet (my supposed workroom) and found a kit for a quilt that I purchased years ago at a Hancock Fabrics.
The kit contained 13 fat quarters, backing material, and fabric to make the binding. There was also a coupon for free batting that had expired some years ago. To be exact, it expired before I bought the kit on clearance.
Wild colors, huh? No wonder not many of them sold. I think people were put off from the fabrics because they couldn't see how fun they could be sewn up. But I kind of like them, in fact I like them more sewn up than I did as fat quarters. [The other choice was a combination of pinks. I prefer to leave all the pinks in the world to Marsha over at Sassy Mini Dolls. ;-)]
The directions called for cutting the fat quarters into 8.5" x 10.5" rectangles.
Which I then sewed into rows.
I tried following their "suggested patter layout" but it quickly got ignored in favor of just playing around. Ok, the real reason is I got myself mentally turned around while trying to follow their suggested idea and didn't figure out the problem until a couple of rows were sewn. ;-)
Once the top was finished, FH helped me get a picture. I'm behind the fabric. If you look close, you can see my shoes.
I think the brightness of the colors gets toned down a bit once the whole thing it together. It's not nearly as loud as I thought it might be.
I have some batting and the backing fabric together. I will be taking all three layers to a friend's house to get a second pair of hand getting the "quilt sandwich" put together and pinned. Then I will have to find a hoop or frame to use for hand quilting.
Yes, I'm going to quilt this by hand. Three reasons:
1. My current sewing machines are not equipped for machine quilting, nor do their models have walking foot attachments.
2. I need the practice.
3. I'm too cheap to pay someone else to machine quilt it, given most folks charge by the inch and my hands still work just fine.
No clue as to when I will start quilting this one. Probably will know more after I see my friend on Thursday evening. Maybe by then I will have decided whether to quilt in the ditch or stitch contours in the rectangles.
I've got another quilt kit to play with that has been in my stash since the maintenance men brought it over from one of the abandoned houses. [The tenant up and left in the night to avoid back rent.] I will post pictures once I do more that stare at it. ;-)
