the {real} quilt story

The last time I was here with Leila and Rosie I showed this quilt I was working on, and I received some very kind compliments. But I'm here today to tell the {real} story - the reason being that I am just a schlepper in the quilting sphere, and you can do this, too - most likely far better than I!

 The quilt top was made by someone else and I got it on ebay. It's worn in places, and the fabric has thinned. I chose it for the colors, and didn't realize the condition it was in.

When I put the layers together, I didn't bother to tape down the backing, thinking I'd smoothed it out sufficiently; so when I started machine quilting it, I found I had to keep unpinning and smoothing it out again as I went along.  Oh, well!

I wanted to machine-stitch it, so first I stitched in the ditches, then decided to do some parallel stitching across the whole thing, one way. Partly because of my carelessness in not smoothing it out enough initially, and partly because it wasn't put together evenly in places, there were areas where it didn't lay flat - it kind of puffed out between the stitching I had done. I decided to just topstitch it down and at that point I began to realize that it was not going to be a beautiful quilt. That's okay - I hope I'm at least somewhat adaptable!

Another terrible mess occurred on the back - I think I was zipping along too fast with the machine and there appeared some bunching, which I had no intention of ripping out (too much trouble)!  I was dismayed  and had a brief temptation to give it up - but I told myself to just cover it up somehow later. Ah, well!

But that isn't all.  I'd gone on youtube to find a video on making mitred corners, and thought I did pretty well with them. But, when I was cutting around the edge to trim off  the seam allowances, I cut into a couple of the corners and ruined them!  By this time you can imagine that foolish mistakes were almost de rigueur - what, another mess-up? What else?

To "fix" the bunching in the back I cut a rectangle of the binding fabric and, with a double strand of embroidery floss, whipstitched around the edge of it in a very obvious way, with a big Natalie Chanin style knot showing. If you're not a perfectionist, it's not use trying to pretend you are - believe me!  I have some yellow and white striped fabric, and I think I'm going to patch up the offending corners with it. Then it will look more presentable.

My point in telling all this is to prove that I really don't know what I'm doing, (but I want to do it anyway!), and to show all those who complimented me so sweetly that if you shed your concerns about having to do it perfectly, you are bound to do much better than I, and if you don't - it's fun anyway!

I learned a few things from this:
I need to tape the backing to the floor next time.
Stitching in the ditch is a pain.
I need to be more careful when trimming off the excess batting - and maybe employ a different method of cutting around the corners!

I also learned some other, positive things:
What a transformation is caused by the quilting process - how amazingly different it all looks afterward; even a cheap, vintage five dollar quilt top.
And, how the right binding around the edge can also do beautiful things to the whole piece.

Try it yourself - what have you got to lose but your hesitancy? Now, I have another covering in the house, and it matches. It's warm. It's cute. I won't mind throwing it on the floor or on the grass.

I will be more careful next time.

It cost me less than ten bucks.

Thanks to Rosie and Leila!     And, by the way - I realize this post may also be considered a {funny} by those who are expert in the quilting world, so I give you full permission to laugh.  :)