Catching the Quilting Bug Part 1

This past weekend I invited all the girls over to my house for our first “stitch n bitch”.  I had been wanting to do this for some time now.  I thought it would be a lot of fun to have some friends over and hang out, have a few drinks, a few laughs and work on one of the many projects that I have started and have never completed.  Well, that was exactly how it went down… all except I found myself taking on another project.

I thought it would be fun to use my little girls old baby clothes to make a little quilt.  Of course I have never made a quilt before, but I am never one to back down from a challenge.  Especially a crafting challenge.  The only problem I have seems to be completing these crafts.  I usually get an idea like this and run to the store, buy up all my supplies, work on it for an afternoon or two then it sits in a box or bag somewhere crying out my name every time I go into the basement.  I won’t bore you with the details of the countless crafts I have started, or relive my shame in not having come close to finishing any of these ideas.  Now I am on to something new (yet again)

I have been doing some small little hexagon patches for this baby quilt that I think will look amazing.  I am all geared up to do it on the weekend and I ask my MIL for some advice because she is an amazing quilter.  When I go over to her house she shows me all kinds of extra material I can choose from, all these beautiful patterns that I can make.  She fills my head with ideas and inspiration.  Armed with a jelly roll, some packets of fabric and a giant cutting board I am off on a new quest to make a new project.  It’s a larger quilt made up of little frames.  Looks easy enough, just follow the pattern, cut the material and sew it, right?

The pattern is calling for me to use 1 jelly roll, and a few pack of charms.  I don’t know what these charms things are but I have tons of fabric, and my MIL said I can use the fabric and cut it to the dimensions of the charms they are asking for.  5 1/2 inches squared.  Perfect. So that is just what I do.  Only when I begin to sew the pieces together things are not matching up the way they look on the pattern.  I can’t wrap my head around it. For two days.

I keep at this, because It is something that I am refusing to give up.  Finally I figure out that a “charm” is a 5 inch square and there is a misprint with the pattern I am using.  incredibly frustrating.  I am glad that I did not give up hope though.

I put all my little squares up on a fleece blanket in the basement so I can see what my pattern would look like.

Fleece blanket allowed the squares to stick like magic.

I then began to sew all the frames around the squares.  I scrapped the idea of using the fleece blanket and i just looked at the picture on my phone to see where everything goes.  Two reasons.  I like to do things as I go, and I was done with going up and down the stairs every time I needed a new block to work on.

after I started to get going, sewing these frames around these squares was pretty easy.

Then all I have to do is just sew the squares in a strip, ensuring that I match up the center charm on each and there we will have it.

frames quilt that I started for stitch n bitch

This is where I am at now, once I am done I will post a follow-up.  I am hoping that by posting this blog it will give me some extra accountability for actually finishing this project.  I am sure it will.  I have already talked about my next 3 quilts I plan on making.

♥