A Tale of Epic Failure

I'm sorely disappointed and embarrassed by the mistakes I've made tonight working on my projects, but this blog is to chronicle learning how to quilt, including mistakes. I think I would have been better off lying in bed with Sir William, reading a zombie book, than to start working on quilting projects.

I began by making the backing for the Man Quilt. I measured and apparently cut one side shorter than the other so it barely matches the ends of the border. I will refrain from repeating the colorful narrative used tonight with each failure but I assure you it sounded like a house of obscentities tonight - even if it was mostly said in my head. Then I laid the backing, batting, and quilt top together on the floor in my bedroom, the only room where I can close the door and escape from my pets. William is a brat about attacking quilts on the floor, burrowing under them, and using his claws to grab at the fabric as it's floating through the air. I began to baste the layers together and felt pretty good about what I was doing. And then I realized I was basting the layers to the plastic table cloth (to protect them from the critter prowled-upon carpet) beneath them. Yes, first obscene word muttered out loud. There wasn't really enough space for me to work on the quilt so I tried using the safety pins. The same problem occurred, catching the stupid table cloth beneath. I tried lifting the layers enough to not catch the table cloth and it seemed to work.

I didn't have enough safety pins to do a proper job, but I hoped it would hold. I brought my prize into the sewing room to begin handquilting. OMG I want a long arm quilting machine! Actually, once I got situated and into a groove, I was doing okay. I realized there's no way I'll finish this quilt before my brother's birthday, so I thought I'd try using my sewing machine to quilt. NOTE: I was only doing straight stitching along lines, nothing fancy. I thought it would be easy. It might have been, but my sewing machine caught twice, something about the bobbin thread knotting, and that was it. I gave up for the day. I folded the Man Quilt and placed it on top of the bookshelf so William won't nap on it. It looks more quilt-like now, fluffy with substance, since it's been snadwiched. I know William would be sleeping on it right now if I'd left it on the table.



I still love this quilt. It just won't be completed by the deadline.

I was peeved and frustrated, but wasn't going to let the Quilting gods laugh at me. So I decided to work on more Maple Leaves since the fabric was already cut and I was in the mood to quilt. I was moving along, working in a production method, making all 5 leaves at once. I pinned the pieces together and took them to the sewing machine to chain piece them to save time. This is what I did:

Another choice word was uttered when I noticed this "doh" mistake.

For those nonquilters who don't see the mistake, I was supposed to sew two lines diagonally across each side of this fabric. Not down the center (where I was just supposed to separate the pieces after sewing the half triangles together). Not down the middle of the two correct diagonal lines. And I chain pieced this mistake times 5! Actually, I caught it before I messed up that badly. I sewed down the center of each one, and made the three diagnal line mistake 3 times!! I almost cleaned up and gave up for the night, but I decided I'd be tenacious. I got my seam ripper and spent quality time removing unnecessary stitches. The angrier I am, the more determined I am to do something right. I eventually got everything correct and ended up with the material for 5 new Maple Leaves:

And after getting that far, I had to go another step and assemble the stem pieces. I knew I wouldn't be up late enough to sew each block complately together, but I do have them all ready to be assembled tomorrow... after I sleep in to make up for staying up ridiculously late.

I did not square each block, and the stem part especially is not square but ask me if I care tonight... this morning, it's too late to be awake fretting over mistakes I made on a quilt!


What an adventure it's been! I'm going to bed now.