Quilt seems like such a tame word for what has become a monumental journey that has required herculean strength of will from me. A much better word for such a thing could only be odyssey (from whence our title is quoted).
I am sure I have mentioned a few (thousand) times that I have been working on a quilt/duvet/blanket contraption. It stayed in the happy idea stage for months, went briefly into something resembling fruition, and then got stuffed back into the Extra Closet where it has hibernated like an angry bear for another month or more, to the point where I was loathe to even open the closet at all. I have an undetermined amount of free days ahead of me and aside from buying Kindle Ebooks like a back alley coke fiend (hence words in my vocabulary like “loathe”), I have spent most of my time finally, finally working on this… this quilt.
In the early months, it took on many shapes in my mind, the same way an amorphous amoeba does to capture prey, luring one in with it’s hypnotic flagellum. The only thing I truly knew starting out was that I wanted to use upcycled t-shirt material to make it. O, the tangled webs we weave. I have since downscaled it from an over-ambitious duvet cover to the simple task layed out before me: a throw quilt. WHY, oh why didn’t I plan on this before? I would have saved myself literal hours of sleepless nights. Because the fact of the matter was, though I was excited, I was equally TERRIFIED. Because I had (and still have) absolutely NO idea what I am doing. I am completely winging this entire thing.
Here’s how far common sense has carried me so far:
One side all pieced in 6.5" squares and laid out for deliberation.
The monochrome side after I had already sewn the horizontal rows into long banners.
Sewing the horizontal banners all together. Very tedious work with stretchy, annoying fabric.
I ended up inverting every other row because I liked the colors better this way and also because it was coming across a little OCD
The colored layer, facedown with thin batting on top.
All the layers sandwiched. I pinned each square to the square on the other side, making sure the edges were approximated before I cut away the extra batting.
This is where I am now. A very fluffy ENTIRE quilt trying to be maneuvered in my tiny little machine.
Honestly, everything else was a cake walk (once I decided which direction to go) compared to this HELL. I purposefully got a very simple machine last year with only about 12 settings. It was served me well, for the most part (other than a couple of hours of very frustrating human error). There is just so MUCH material and very little room to maneuver it. I’m not trying to follow any fancy designs because, sure this is a quilt, but it’s made out of old high school and college t-shirts. It’s not supposed to BE fancy. It’s supposed to be grungy and comfortable. I’m honestly just lacing up different colored threads on the monochrome side and simple black on the colored side and making doodle designs as best I can.
Besides needing two extra hands, I just can’t get the material where I need it to go in time to make elegant turns. So now I have jerk inelegant turns and a frustrated ego.
Some things I have learned so far:
- Do NOT try to pinch pennies by using cardboard ANYWHERE in the cutting process. Not for the shape OR the cutting board. It will just tatter everything and make you angry at life.
- Rolling cutters are SHARP and EXTREME caution should be used at all time. Also, bandaids. You can never have enough.
- There may come a time in a project when you think maybe you have pinned it too much. Over-pinned, as it were. This is completely false. You can never pin anything enough. In fact, once you are finished pinning, add ten or fifteen more just for fun. You will not regret it.
I am considering going out and buying a quilting hoop to make my life a little easier. It may make it possible to undertake this task with only my two meager hands (it gets worse when I have to hit the Reverse button). As it is now, the material is bunching more than I’d like and I want to scream a little more every time I flip it over to the back to check the damage.
To soothe my bruised pride, I’m imbibing in some new microbrews (coffee beer, for the record, is horrendous) and zipping together some simple headbands with old bandanas and 1/4″ elastic.
I’ll let you know how it all turns out. I see a late night ahead. Hopefully because I finish quilting and not because of the $0.99 historical romances on Kindle. *shakes fist at amazon*
A feisty chit cleverly coveting his lordship’s codpiece,
A
for each ecstatic instant 