The Surprising Cause Of All My Unfinished Sewing Projects
- At May 01, 2014
- By Kelly
- In Quilts, Sewing For The Kids
- 4
I have discovered the cause of all my unfinished sewing projects.
Of course, there are never enough hours in the day to get everything I want done. That is true for anything – the bathroom I want to paint, the yard that needs to be prepped for Spring planting, the laundry… But this is not so much a time problem. Well, it sort of is, because really, everything is a time problem.
But this is different.
No, really.
See, I pulled out the pieces of Jack’s quilt again. (Yes, the one I had the best intentions of finishing last winter/spring.) I see you rolling your eyes and shaking your head over there. But you know how these projects get – sometimes they just linger so long you think you will never get to them and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I went back to the photos and decided that the thin blue border and thick green border was the way to go. And then I would bind and back it in green. Ready, set, go. Oh, no. Too much blue fabric, not enough green. I had to go to the store. And of course, they did not have the same green anymore. The new one is darker.
Okay, it will be fine. I will just get enough for the whole thing and use the original green for something else. But then I realized the blue just was not quite right with this new green. I needed a new blue.
Though, looking at the photo now, perhaps the old blue was okay?
But still, that should have been the end of it.
And that is when I realized the cause of my unfinished projects. It is my notepad.
My notepad is the cause of all these things because as soon as I grab the notepad, a perfectly good project detours into all kinds of unnecessary modifications.
What if I put a zigzag on the back? I could use the blue and green and then it would be reversible. After all, I was worried that Jack was going to outgrow some of the prints in the top.
And at first it was just one zigzag, about a third of the way down, like Charlie Brown’s shirt.
Maybe it should be blue rather than green? Or maybe it should be lots of zigzags? Or????
Jack likes this one.
So this is what it must be. Now I just need to cut 44 12.5″ x 6.5″ rectangles and 8 6.5″ squares of each color. And sew them together. Perfect. Seaming three long pieces for the back would have just been too easy. Or something.
Perhaps *I* am the cause of all these projects? No, no. It is the notebook.
Well, I think it is. But, what if it’s not?
Kelly
Project in progress
- At January 18, 2013
- By Kelly
- In Quilts
- 14
Over the years, I have joined a lot of quilt square swaps. It’s fun to send off my yard of fabric cut into 30 6.5″ squares and get back 30 different squares. Unfortunately, I’ve also discovered I’m not very good at doing anything with them after they come back.
My youngest, Jack, is in first grade this year and about two months ago I realized that if I didn’t use those squares soon, I wouldn’t have anyone here who’d be interested in having such a quilt.
So, I sorted them out and Jack and I picked out 65 pairs to use on his quilt. I sewed them up and then the holidays came. The quilt top was moved out of the way so I could get other things done. But those assembled squares have been taunting me as the quilt top hung in my sewing space. I worried I might have to dust the whole thing if I didn’t do something soon.
I’d bought some marbled green and blue fabrics to use for the border, planning to sew a thin green border and a thicker blue one. I laid them out, trying to decide what the widths of each should be. Then I started procrastinating thinking. Maybe it would be better if it had a thin blue and then green for the outer?
I played with the fabrics in the living room, trying to determine which way would be better.
That didn’t help. I decided the only possible solution was to mess around in Photoshop to have whole pictures to look at instead of the small corners. Now, if you haven’t already scanned ahead, I’ll warn you – Photoshop is not on my list of skills. What you are about to look at may horrify you. I’m sorry about that. Peek anyway and help me choose please?
Here’s the blue outer –
Here’s the green outer –
Which one should I go with?
Help!
Kelly