The best feeling is when you actually see that you are making progress on a project. I have been busy working on this quilt. The timeline for finishing got moved up. Unfortunately, I am not going to make it. It is 2 less days of sewing before the intended recipient arrives. My goal is to get the quilt top done at this point and I will have to worry about getting it quilt ASAP and mail it to her.
This is a lot of half triangles from completed squares again. The cutting process for all of these squares takes quite a bit of time. The sewing on the other hand, goes fairly quickly. If you want to see yourself making progress quickly, large cuts are where it is at. I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed the larger blocks. They are definitely not my normal mode of operation here at Stacey Sansom Designs.
Of course, then you have to press all the seams on all the triangles. If you sew them in groups if 10-15 or so at a time, it helps break up the tasks into smaller more endurable sections and you are not standing at the one task (ironing) you hate most. Sew. Iron. Sew. Iron. Sew. Iron. Repeat until you are done.
Once you have pressed all those triangles, you now get to make squares again.
You will end up with 50 squares when you are complete. Want to know the best part of this? You will have an extra square to help make the randomness of the quilt work if you need to.
You can go ahead and take the time to cut all the hang over from your triangles on each of the corners now if you want. I did not. I just cut them off as I was ready to sew them together. I personally thought having the little pieces sticking out was helpful for keeping me oriented and get all the squares going the right direction once I started sewing.
Then the fun began. It was time to put all the squares in some sort of random pattern on the floor. That was a bit more challenging than I thought it would be.
I thought that I would be a perfect example of how to nest seams and whatnot. Thoughts stayed thoughts after a few rows of trying to orient the squares with all the seams going in directions so that they would nest. It was not going to happen the entire quilt, at least not easily.
I made the personal executive decision that I would rather deal with a little more bulk in some of my seams than to spend much more time on my knees and crawling around on the floor than necessary.
I focused on the randomness of the pattern. I knew what I wanted in my mind as far as no two triangles of the same fabric sharing a long seam together, no complete pinwheels, etc. I just kept moving squares around until I was happy with the overall look and feel.
Then it was time to start sewing all the squares together to make rows…
It was not a perfect sewing job. Making progress is sometimes more important than absolute perfection. I ended up with a couple of places where I had some puckering in the fabric when I sewed the squares together. With a really good pressing job, they are not that noticeable and will not likely be seen by anyone but me. This will especially be the case once it is quilted.
You may even notice that this particular square did not even have a perfect match on the points of the triangles in the middle of the square. I tried my hardest to get the points to all match. I did. This is one of the reasons that triangles are not one of my favorites. They are pretty close for as many as I had to sew together though.
I point them out, because I am not perfect. I will not profess to be a perfect sewer when it comes to quilting. I am fast and efficient more than perfect. I am also not afraid to try new things from time to time.
The beauty of minor mistakes like these is that they are hard evidence that the quilt is handmade by an individual and not machine crafted somewhere. This is homemade at its finest. Even better is that the average eye is not going to notice the minor mistakes. Do not be afraid to make them.
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What are you working on?
How are you making progress on your own projects?
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If you are interested in getting your own quilt made – custom for you – be sure to drop me a line. You can contact me directly through the website or drop me an email. Be sure to check out: Quilting Services for additional information about what you can expect when having a quilt custom made.
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For more information about the pattern used in this quilt, please check out: Prairie Grass Patterns. This pattern in particular is from April Rosenthal’s book: Bedroom Style, Perfectly Pieced. This is a fabulous book. This book contains a variety of patterns that can help you in your quest for making progress on your own quilting projects. A nice array of styles and techniques.
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