I MADE A QUILT

I made a quilt.  I made a quilt.  I made a quilt.  I'm lingering in the land of disbelief and I'm cozy-ing up under it every chance I get.  

From start to finish - from forty strips of fabric to figuring out the binding - I made a quilt!

It is 47 inches by 42 inches.  Not a conventional size, but just the size that happened.  I think you could call it a large lap quilt.  I tried looking up the standard size of a lap quilt, but it seems that there is no standard, just a range of dimensions that will comfortably cover an adult's lap while sitting.  That's exactly what I've been using it for.  It wouldn't really work for a stretched-out nap on the couch, but I tend to spend a lot of time curled up or cross-legged in the corner of the couch and my quilt works perfectly to cover my legs.  

There are flaws everywhere - little things that I imagine (hope!) will improve as my sewing skills improve.    And, thankfully, I could care less.  I love, love, love it and love the flaws that are just a part of this learning process. 

I also made a few huge mistakes - some that I took the time to correct and others that I left.  I could see how quilting could be the art of a perfectionist.  This is one of those crafts where "perfect" is easy to see and where being fussy is celebrated.  I fall far on the other side of perfectionism and my quilt shows it.  I call it character and am 100% okay with the flaws - big and small.  

The most obvious mistake (and one that I chose not to correct) was the error of quilting from both ends.  Before I started the quilting step, I did a bit of internet searching to see if I needed to start quilting in the middle.  It seemed logical that I should, but the internet told me I didn't have to.  So, I started on one of the ends.  That would have likely turned out great, except that at some point I decided to also start from the other end.  Pressure from quilting each end pushed the quilt top together and resulted in a big bubble of fabric in the middle of my quilt.  

Oops.  I could have put my trusty seam-ripper to good use and pulled out one side or the other, but instead just stitched right over the mess in the middle and called it good.  As mentioned above, I'm an imperfectionist.  It works out well in cases such as this.  I chose to view this big oops as "character" built into my quilt and called it good.  

Some of the character was intentionally added.  I used a variety of thread colors - white, navy and aqua. Sometimes, I used the same color in both the top (needle) thread and bottom (bobbin) thread and other times I used two different colors at once.  I also had fun making a patchwork binding and like that it adds extra color, contrast and unexpected pattern.

Planning for quilt number two is in the works.  I have a general color palette worked out and think I will attempt triangles.  I'm not good at letting Brian surprise me with birthday gifts, so I asked him for a gift card to the fabric store and will officially get going on my second quilt after I use it.  My birthday isn't until the end of the month, though, so I have a few weeks to wait.