At Last, A Finish

I surely must be one of the slowest quilters ever. I can take a seemingly easy-peasy pattern, and turn it into a month-long journey. I do believe that I find the thrill of the start to be the most fun and exciting part of the quilting process. It's staying with it to the finish that finds me slowing down.

This particular quilt was begun on February 2 of this year. Over a month on this easy quilt?? Honestly. Click here to read that first blog post about this project.

Regardless, I am pleased to be able to share a finish with you today. The kit from Bits N' Pieces made with Le Petite Ecole fabric by French General is now complete. At least, the part that the kit provided. I need to decide whether or not I will add borders, and if so, what I will use for said borders.

If you recall, I began this quilt only to discover an error in the directions. Since I'd had the kit for at least a couple of years, I was skeptical that I'd get anywhere with rectifying the situation. I was pleasantly surprised, then, when the folks at  Bits N' Pieces were absolutely helpful and gracious in solving my dilemma.

There she is! Fresh off the sewing machine and newly pressed. I tried not to be overly OCD about block placement; it is random in the fabrics used in each block and so I wanted to be random in the placement of blocks.

It nicely covers the top of our queen-sized bed. Borders would be nice, but not necessary. I have put it on a hanger in the closet while I think about it.

So, what's next? I could cut out the Kaffe quilt that Erin wants me to make. I also have that red, black and white Thimbleberries quilt to finish. That is yet another quilt that was going strong before the room switch and before the Christmas chaos. I need to get that back out and finish it.

Yes, I think that is what I will work on next.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

 

A Quilt Kit Project

On Thursday when Sharon was here for sewing, I pulled out one of the items on my 2013 quilt goals list. I bought the kit at a quilt show perhaps 2 years ago. In the process of moving the sewing room, I began studying this quilt and decided that it looked really easy and would make up fast.

Since Miss Bernina is still in the fixit shop, I am cutting and NOT sewing, but that will come in time. I trust she is in good hands. This quilt will be ready to hit the machine when she's back in action.

I cut 6 of the 12 fabrics following these instructions. Do you see the problem? The measurements add up to more than 22"x18". Hmmm. Drat. What to do?

Contact the shop and hope for a workable resolution. I did that through an email to them explaining my predicament and asked if there'd been any corrections posted in the intervening months/years since I bought this kit.

 Within a day, the friendly folks at Bits 'n Pieces responded with a solution to my dilemma! I was not expecting this to be as easy as this was turning out! They said yes, there had been a correction, and that for a time it was posted on their website. They asked how much fabric I'd used, as they had put some back for this very situation. Now am I a lucky gal, or what? They sent a PDF attachment of the correction, and it all makes sense now.

Here are the pieces I cut. I love this line! I am frankly surprised it took me so long to get this going. The fabrics are just luscious!

More lusciousness...Le Petite Ecole by French General.  These are the pieces that I did not cut. I am so glad that I paid attention to the directions as I was cutting. Lots of times I just charge right into cutting a project with little or no regard for the number of pieces or the sizes of everything.

Here is the layout of the block. You can see that I did not waste much in trimming, and the pencil and paper there is proof that I was checking my math! Yikes! Not a fun thing for a former English teacher!

So I am getting back to the folks at Bits ' Pieces. Hopefully I can get the exact pieces I have already cut. It will be a fun quilt to work on, too; I am looking forward to getting to sew it.

Happy Quilting, Friends!