I have made an appliqué quilt and two art quilts. This is my first go around with a traditional block quilt. I THINK it is called a block quilt anyway. You cut up 8 million pieces of fabric in various sizes and sew them together. That is what I did. The idea is that all the blocks look fairly symmetrical.
I decided to start with a mini quilt called “Spools”. I thought it was a cute pattern and the 8×10 inch size was not intimidating.
I read the directions. I am starting to understand all the acronyms. WOF=width of fabric, RS=right sides, etc. At least I didn’t have to waste time on google!
The pattern gives you all the exact sizes I need to make all my spools. I have a rotary cutter (one of my favorite things, ever.) I really think I could cut my daughters hair with it. I offered. She said no. She has no sense of adventure.
ANYWAY, I got all my pieces cut without any problems. They actually look beautiful all cut up. Maybe I should just stop while I am ahead.
Next step is to sew. I was told that a 1/4 inch guide foot along with the 1/4 stitch will help me to create perfect squares.
The first problem I run into is that I have a hard time sewing all the pieces the same. This is quilting 101. All blocks should look the same. Whoops.
The second problem is, my blocks are not turning out symmetrical. Even though I use my special foot with my special stitch. Even though I actually TRIED REALLY hard.
Some spools line up perfectly in the middle, others are off to the side. Some spools have perfect tops and bottoms, others have wonky tops and bottoms. I do not even know how to solve this problem. I just left it as is. I tell myself that this quilt fits my personality. A little off kilter and slightly disheveled. I forge on to binding. The WORST part.
What do you know? I sewed the binding together wrong. Shocking.
I have no words for the end result. It is awful! Crooked, warped, uneven, and the binding is terrible. Keeping with my word, it is hanging at the store. My hope is that by seeing me share my mistakes with the world, that you can share yours too. It is okay not to have perfection. I heard a quote that said, “A completed project is better than a perfect one.”
I am going with that!
Cheers!
Andrea
