Crafting away

It has been a busy time. Of course, as usual, I have tried to do more than is reasonable. But actually this year, I am doing somewhat better.

Since some on my Christmas gift lift may read this, I can not expound in detail – ha ha – but let’s see how I can get around that!

First of all, as some may know, I began quilting last September (2006). My goal at that time was to make a quilt for each of my kids for Christmas last year. Well, I learned pretty much immediately that that was not going to happen. So I quickly changed Sarah’s gift to a coat – which to me screamed, “Sarah.” That left Chana and Joe. When I began making my first quilt, I decided it would be for Chana – I wanted it bright and happy colors and warm and snuggly. That it was, and I believe she still loves it immensely. She told me this Christmas that it was the best gift she had ever received. Okay, whether true or not – I will take it.

That left Joe – well, not being too wise in the way of quilting, I let him pick out a pattern. He told me he would like it to be in red and black. Sounds fine. I gave him a book by Alex Anderson on rotary cutting. One would think that would mean those quilts would be appropriate for a beginner. Hmmmph. Not the case. This quilt had a gazillion stars, which in and of itself is not a problem, it is that the stars could not be assembled as a block. Okay for all you non-quilters – what this meant was that the stars were assembled in rows and since the stars were of different colors, you had to pay special attention to the order of the colors. Again – not a biggie – just that with 120 stars it took a LONG time and it wasn’t mindless sewing – but rather I had to be very diligent and focused.

Oh, the other thing – I started this quilt last October (2006) right after I began this odyssey and really didn’t know about needing to be so precise – which is most critical when dealing with half-square triangles (HST) and quarter-square triangles (QST). Last year I got all 480 – 2-1/2 inch blocks of HST joined to QST group done. And the focus fabric block of a square with triangles on each side. Then it became obvious this was not going to be done by Christmas ’06 and it was put away for several months.

Fast Forward to September, ‘07. I begin working on it again, going to set it all together. Not so fast there – all those 480 blocks and the 100 or so focus blocks didn’t go together too well. Oh, no, many were wopper-jawed and needed to be squared up. Yep, I had learned about that this past year. No problem, I had my handy little 2.5 inch square – guess what – they were too small. Now it came to ripping out, excuse me, unsewing. I averaged six good blocks out of every ten. I found it taking nearly 4-1/2 hours to do ONE row! What with unsewing, sewing, pressing, and so forth.

In all honesty, there was a learning curve. By the time I was down to seven rows left, I had it down to a little over two hours. I took it to Quilting on the Mountain and finished the piecing of the star rows. Woo Hoo! I came home and sewed the borders on, sandwiched it and began quilting.

If I thought the stars were a pain, the quilting was even more so! You know all those 120 stars? Yep, they now required quilting all around them. There was no way it looked right any other way. So that is where I am, three days before the boy comes home. I need to get it done, bound and wrapped. He still thinks I am “vaguely working on it.” But it will be done! And it will be the best gift I have ever given my son to.

You see, my very heart and soul has gone into each of these two quilts. No, they would not win any prizes in a quilt show, but the fabrics were selected with each of them I mind. The fabrics reflect who Joe is and his interests. Motorcycles, music, coffee, geometry (order), and the colors he chose. Someone said, forget this one, pick out a new pattern and make him a different one. Not a chance! This is Joe. Merry Christmas, son