EXTREMELY rewarding finish - and an end to the "procrastination situation"

Little Asa's baby quilt is done!!  Mostly hand-pieced/appliqued (except for two skinny outer borders) and hand quilted.  I washed it to remove any residual Elmer's glue stick and cat hair (my sister is very allergic - to cats, not glue).  The washing gave it a nice, soft, slightly puckered patina.  I think I will call it Perpetual Motion...if Asa is anything like his Dad, he will be active.   :o)

He recently turned 6 months old...not quite yet in college, but still I am embarrassed about how long it took me to get my rear in gear to get this done.

I got the idea and initial method from Kellie at Don't Look Now.  You should check her site out and see what other's are doing with this quilt-along.  I made mine smaller than most people.  The first steps were easy and fun for me, and I just zoomed right along. 

When it came to connecting all my little circles to make a continuous pattern, I got bogged down and had to put it away for a while.  I have had so much quilt guilt over this thing!

 

After singing several rounds of "I am woman, hear me roar..." (any Helen Reddy fans out there?!?), I decided to jump back in and just get it done.  As things usually happen in these procrastination situations, it wasn't near as bad as I thought it was going to be...I had let my perfectionism problem get in my way.  When I finally decided to (in Ola's words) "just let 'er rip," it went together fine.

What's the worst that could of happened?  I mean, if it stunk, I could have lumped it all in the rubbish bin and made a clean start with another project.  I wasted several months sitting and stewing over it, and by the time I did approach the boxed project again, I could have made and hand quilted multiple baby quilts.

We quilters are our own worst enemies sometimes.  Maybe this is why we have so many U.F.O.'s (unfinished objects), P.I.G.S. (projects in grocery sacks), and D.P.B.'s (dusty project boxes) on our shelves, hidden under beds and buried in closets...self doubt and lack of confidence.

Maybe we worry too much about how perfect something is going to turn out and put it away, afraid that it may hurt whatever quilt reputation we may have or not live up to what we had envisioned in our heads in the first place.

Quilting is supposed to BE my therapy, not make me NEED therapy, for Pete's sake!!

(and who WAS "Pete," anyway?)

Sorry it took so long to finish, Lainie (and little Asa)!!

In stitches,

Teresa  :o)

Not quite done...

Wow...two posts from me in one day...it's either feast or famine lately, huh...

I talked earlier (today) about trying to finish this baby quilt for my nephew.  I still want to put a skinny light blue border on, followed by another narrow white one, then bind it in white.

What you see was all hand-pieced and hand-appliqued.  Once I figured out how to connect all my little circles (that were on square backgrounds...go figure), I ended up appliqueing the whole mess on white borders.

Thanks to Kellie at Don't Look Now for this "adventure" in quilting.  Her tutorials were great...I'm just an idiot.  I like the name of her blog...I will think of it every time I think about the messy back of this quilt top (as in, "oooo, 'don't look now'...at this messy back side of the top...). 

When I get the other little borders on the top, I will show you the back side before I layer it all for the hand-quilting (and hide it all away forever and ever, amen).  Now THAT will be a humbling experience for me!  I always try so hard to press carefully so the back of my work doesn't look like a train wreck, but joining these round blocks on square backgrounds...let's just say it was like putting a square peg in a round hole.

The important thing is that I pushed through my mental block about this quilt and I will have it finished, layered, quilted, and sent on it's way to little Asa in no time!

In stitches,

Teresa  :o)

Going around in circles...

Oh my.  Is anyone else doing this fabulous Joseph's Coat Quilt-Along from Kellie at  Don't Look Now???  I have been at this for a while as a baby quilt for my new nephew (now 6 months old...oh my...).

I have to admit it has not been an easy project for me.  First of all, I broke my rule and let my sister see it in progress in February.  Sometimes it takes all the wind out of my sails when I do a partial reveal.  Then the cat turned over my tea cup and I ended up having to re-make a few circles (since I glue my edges under, I couldn't plunge the pieces under the water to get the tea stain out of the bright white background).  Then I bled on one and didn't realize it until it was too late for my spit to remove the stain...had to re-do that one too.

Somehow I managed to finish all the little whole and half circle blocks...now to put them together so that the pattern is continuous.  I don't have a picture of that for you yet as it looks like A COMPLETE MESS!!!  I'm following the tutorials, but it is awkward folding the excess background out of the way in order to connect the circles in a continuous pattern...bulky, bulky, bulky. 

I think it is going to work eventually, but I am very clumsy trying to do the hand applique with the weight of all that excess, folded-out-of-the-way background fabric...especially when trying to get those 6 little points to meet PERFECTLY.  I may need to do some pre-mature trimming...

I got really spoiled by the ease of hand-appliqueing all the little circle blocks...la-tee-da!  Then I hit the wall, which I will push over...at some point.  I'm feeling the pressure of Asa possibly being in second grade before he gets this quilt!!

I will show progress on how it is going together next time...until then, off to work at the quilt shop!

In stitches,

Teresa  :o)