In my last post I shared the most recent quilt top I had completed. I'm anxious to get it quilted. Although there is a short stack of extra wide quilt backing fabrics in my personal stash, each piece was at least 3 yards...big enough for a queen size and/or king. Cutting into any of those choices for this over sized lap quilt wasn't appealing. I needed to SHOP!
Lesson learned.....don't shop too quickly and REALLY think things through first. I found a beautiful piece immediately. Perfect?....not quite. Color?....will work nicely. Pattern?.....ummmmm, it had a large floral design that was very similar to a few of the pieces used within the quilt top. Unfold and really look at the design?....forgot to do that. Spend time thinking?....nope, not so much! Purchase?.....sure did. :)
Although I was tired last night, excitement to start preparing everything to quilt was strong. It shouldn't take too much energy just to press the new backing fabric.......
Uuummmmm.....how did all those ribbons and bows get there? Flowers I was expecting but not the ribbons and bows!!
Remember, I started out tired and I'm running out of steam at this point. There I stood trying to talk myself into believing it would work for my quilt. I sent a photo to my quilting pal and her response was "Isn't it a little fancy?" She was correct but I still wasn't ready to give in....I NEEDED this to work. :)
Why, oh why didn't I just give in to my exhaustion and go to bed!!!! Instead, silly me loaded the fabric on my longarm.
As I finished loading the backing, my daughter walked by and I asked her if she thought the fabric would be pretty backing the new quilt top. Without skipping a beat she said "NO!" She thought is was pretty but not for the quilt I had in mind.
You can probably imagine that my frustration didn't allow for a much needed, restful sleep during the night. I tossed and turned thinking about that darned quilt! I'm lazy and it takes time to load the fabric on the frame and I just didn't want to take the fabric off, go buy another fabric, load it on the frame, THEN finally get to start quilting.
When I awoke I knew I had two options....1) Make a completely new, suitable quilt top to use the fabric that was already loaded on the frame. 2) Look through my closet of "items needing to be quilted" and see if I already had something suitable. I REALLY didn't want to make a new quilt top just because I was too lazy to take the fabric off the frame and I couldn't find anything suitable handing in my quilt closet.
Ta Da......my Dad to the rescue!!! He had sent me home after our vacation a few weeks ago with a box full of quilt tops he had pieced. Do you remember reading my earlier post about teaching my dad to sew? If not, click HERE. My Dad is a unique new quilt top maker. He refuses to sew anything other than the 10" square pieces of fabrics called Layer Cakes. :)
I looked through his stack of quilt tops and found the perfect one.....
It's a Win/Win solution.....Dad gets one of his quilt tops quilted earlier than expected and I don't have to take the fabric off the longarm! :)
Just cut the batting.....
My excitement has returned. Time to get this thing done so I can go shopping again and buy a more suitable backing fabric for my own quilt, load it and get it finished also. :)
Until next time.....think things through or you might end up with an oops like me!!!!
That's my daughter, make do with what you have. LOVE W
ReplyDeletewhat you do. Lb
I learned it all from my frugal, don't waste a thing, Mom!! :) :)
DeleteI do remember the post about your Dad learning to sew! I think that's around the time I started following your blog because I thought that was so darn cute, your dad sewing :)
ReplyDeleteKathy, I feel honored that you continue to follow my blog. My Dad is a quilting monster now and keeps me on my toes trying to keep up with all of his Layer Cake quilt tops. :)
Delete