The Life of a Quilt

I love doing projects for people.
No, scratch that.
I love making things for kids. Not just because the projects are smaller and cuter, but because I know how much I loved all things my grandmother made for me, and I think of how much fun they'll have with something I made while thinking of them.

My friend Becky asked me to make a quilt for her daughter and I eagerly agreed. I usually only make a one quilt per year. I have started 3 large quilts over the past 3 years, but pregnancy, and loss, have stopped my from continuing them. Becky had a few ideas for quilts (she sent me a Pinterest link) and said she just wanted it to be girly, colorful, and cute - with a border. And that I could do what I wanted. I like this type of project and I thought it would be a great way to better understand the quilt process and maybe kick-start me into finishing past projects.

Hour 1: Decide on a pattern. This might take you longer but if you already have a plan it's easier to condense

Hour 2-3: Determine how much fabric you need, what you already have, and create swatches to take to the fabric store for supplemental fabric.

Hour 4-5: Clip coupons for fabric store and SHOP! This is the best part, everything is new an exciting (if you don't get overwhelmed by choice). You wait in line to get your fabric cut and make the drive home- Oh this is so much fun!

Hour 6-9: The initial cut. Something as simple as strip cutting takes forever when you have to iron, measure, sort and plan.

Hour 10-13: The second cut. You have made your strips or blocks but now then have to be perfect so everything will fit together JUST SO. You start to wish you made a smaller quilt.

Hour 14: You lay your quilt out a million ways so that like colors aren't touching, one area doesn't pull focus, everything lines up, etc. You begin to want to hurt someone. You hate your color choice. One block/color is RUINING everything! Is it too late to start over? You start to realize how much smaller the quilt will be sewn together rather than in pieces laying beside each other...you panic a little. Should I add another row?

Hour 14-18:You sew all the blocks together. You're starting to see the pattern come together so perfectly and you start to feel the pride swell up- until you reach a seam that doesn't line up and you start to strategize what you're going to do. Cut it? Readjust the whole line? Stretch/shrink to fit? You realize you need to walk away.

Hour 19-21: You're done, just slap a solid border...oh wait- you want MORE PATTERN? OK, here we go again. Cut, sew, iron. Oh, your border pattern doesn't perfectly fit against the already sewn side (or worse, one side is perfect but the other side needs a teensy bit more) well, it's ruined. The whole thing is RUINED. Time to strategize again.

Hour 22-25: You sewn and iron your backing fabric and you painstakingly stretch it against your floor, using weights or tape to keep it in place. You lay the batting and quilt top in a perfect sandwich. You think you are done but then oh. oh. oh. As you smooth out one side it runs over the edge of the back and you have to move the whole thing over- time to start again!

Hour 26-28: It's time to get on your hands and knees on whatever impossible hard surface you're placed your quilt sandwich on and start pinning. This means using a large safety pin to secure all three layers (while not pulling the fabric, pricking your fingers, or scratching your floors). Place the pins no more than 6 inches apart and when completed, flip the quilt to insure that there are not gathers in the backing. There will be. Flip it over and fix at least 1/4 of your project. You will start to think that imperfections are part of the charm of a handmade quilt. Anything to just make it stop.

Hour 29-34: Time to quilt. I timed myself with this double sized quilt and it took me just under 5 hours. I spread it out over several days so it wasn't too overwhelming but by the 100th time of rolling your quilt under the 12 inches of space your sewing machine arm gives you, you start to feel like this is a waste of time.

Hour 35: Trimming the basted edge of the quilt. This is the most freeing part because those loose edges that have no business being near your perfect quilt are cut away. Remove all the pins! FREEDOM!

Hour 36-38: Cut the binding, iron it, and attach it to the quilt. At this point, I'm so excited because I know I'm almost done. The hard part is over!

Hour 39-44: Now that you have the binding on, you could stitch it down with your machine  or your could blind stitch it by hand (which is how I was taught and love the look it gives). To be fair, I had help doing this step, so my hours are really 39-42, but I included total quilt work hours for this post.

Hour 45: Trim the loose threads, take a few pictures and marvel at your hard work. Try to look past the mistakes you made, the color palate you wish you would have chosen in stead and just think WOW! I usually hate the quilt by this point- I'm so sick of seeing it and lugging it from one room to the next.

Good Bye Quilt:Fold it up and send it to it's new home, where hopefully, it will be dragged through mud-puddles, napped on in sunbeams, read on in freshly cut grass, and serve as a reminder that someone thought so highly of a little girl that they put that much time into making her feel special.