It's finished!

I finished my quilt Sunday. I put the sewing machine away and cleaned up the dining room. Praise be! I was so ready to do that.

And then I finished finished it on Monday. Meaning I soaked (to get all the markings off) and washed my quilt and stitched up the little corners so they are held together completely secure.

But it was a journey to get there. I think I alluded to the binding being a booger bear in my last post. After that post, I finally just decided I hated the binding and wasn't happy with the look of it. It was not pretty and I knew I could do better.




So rip rip rip..pick pick pick.



Yes, I ripped out the binding that was about 2/3 complete. That means I ripped out thread almost all the way around my quilt TWICE. Cuz I'm fun like that. Actually it was more relaxing than sewing. I watched a movie and propped my feet up on the coffee table.

I had watched a video of an alternate method to put in binding and had just tucked that away and kind of forgotten about it. Basically instead of equal parts of binding on the front and back and trying to always catch the binding on the back when you're top stitching it on the front (see my pic above when I could not keep things in line..among other probs!), you intentionally offset it so on the back it just looks like a line of quilting that nobody will ever pay any attention to. But I had to test it out first on a scrap quilt 'sandwich'. I liked it!



So in one day I was able to just get the whole new binding put in. It was start and stop and I took some breaks, but I could do it in a day rather than working and working (and crying) and not getting anywhere with a decent result with the 'traditional method' which just is not in my wheel house.



See..offset. More color on the front (yellow) and a thinner line of red on the back (white) and that extra little line of 'quilting' right beyond it. That method is brilliant. So. much. EASIER.



And here it is all laundered and crinkly. All the heart eyes!

And just so ya know, tiny red threads are the new cat hair around here. I've swept and mopped and dusted and I still find tiny red threads from ripping out the binding. It makes me smile because instead of looking at the defeat of ripping it out, I know there was victory of actually putting in a very nice looking binding and being happy with it. Yes!

imperfections

I"m still working on my quilt. I'm about a little over half way finished with the machine quilting. I have done all the seams going across the quilt, and now I am doing all the ones going up and down. A seam on each side of the 'ditch", where pieces come together.



I have kept working for another week from the beginning of this writing and now I am half way done sewing on the binding. I have sewn it on, but then I have to fold it around to the front of the quilt and sew it down all the way around, finishing the edge and encasing all the raw edges.

Y'all.

It's been a thing.

All along the way,  all I could think about was the next project. What do I want to make next? Maybe the cat block or one called the two step. I couldn't decide.

This week I've really been pushing to get this project across the finish line. I am excited but also beginning to be burned out a little bit. This is the largest sewing project I have ever taken on (hmm except for maybe all the lined curtains in my house lo a many years ago when I felt young and fresh and crawling around on the floor measuring and pinning was no big woop).

Well friends...I think I am old. I'm ready to get my dining room back and not have decor shoved aside so I can pile sewing boxes and piles of do-dads everywhere. I'm over it.

And another thing is that the struggle is real putting on a binding. It kicked my tail when I made the class projects but I wondered if it was because the angles were wonky and there weren't any true actual 90* corners. But I am on the struggle bus again with this piece that has regular corners and it is really annoying. Three of the corners are perfect or close to perfect and the fourth one had to be messed with and picked out and resewn a smidge just to make it okay.

so. bummed.

But ya know what, it really is ok. I'm not entering it into any quilt fairs. I'm just cuddling up with it on the couch. And after it gets washed, it will be super crinkly and yummy anyway.

I hate that one corner that doesn't measure up to what I wanted it to be..which is far below what a pro would call perfect. My perfect. But I will smile and know I did my best for my first real piece and love it forever and like it for always.



My grandmother pieced this sailboat quilt,  probably when she was younger than I am now.  It was just a pieced top at the time of her passing and my aunt quilted it for me and gave it to me as a wedding gift. Do you want to know what I noticed recently? An imperfection! I have had this quilt since 1991 and noticed that one boat has upside down sails a few weeks ago.

And so my little quilt with a less than perfect mitered corner (and quite a few other little hiccups) will be just fine.