The Quilt That Never Was

It started out like any other project. With a fire in my belly and twinkle in my eye. I wanted to make a quilt. I was tired of lusting after every rail fence and crazy quilt I came across and keeping myself awake at night mentally sorting my scrap bin by color and then by theme. I've been wanting a cozy quilt for my living room since we moved in to this house. I need a pop of color in that room, something snuggly to accompany me when I read or to protect me from imaginary ghosts and aliens that I swear I hear/see when I'm working through a DVD season of X-Files. 

I asked my family's quilting expert, Dearie, if she would be so kind as to produce a nice throw quilt in certain shades of greens and reds (not Christmas colors....deeper) to grace my sofa. She said no. Dearie taught me pretty much everything I know about sewing and she thinks that I am competent enough to make a quilt all by myself. I think she is crazy. I've barley mastered sewing straight lines and you want me to measure, cut and sew together something as beautiful and intricate as a quilt? Pardon me while laugh uncontrollably. Dearie told me to stop being a weenie, start small, and call when I ran into trouble. Tough love I tell ya....tough love.

K has been asking.....no begging.....to make a doll quilt for her dolls. She's just as much a fabric worm as I am and she's constantly rifling through my scraps oohing and ahhing over this scrap or that one. I let her choose her favorites (okay, I gently guided her to make sure she chose all cottons and all florals....but other than that it was her pick!) and I started sewing. I decided a postage stamp type quilt would be easiest to start with...lots of strip sewing and minimal cutting and use of my arch nemesis. El Rotary Cutter.

Making sure size and length would cover said dolly.

The strips sewn together

To my delight and surprise, my seams lined up (pretty much) and it didn't look half bad.I used an old receiving blanket for the batting and had my quilt sandwich ready for quilting. A quick call to Dearie and an hour of "how to machine quilt" tutorials later, I was ready to roll. I even put the quilting foot on my machine without cursing. I loaded up, peddled down and.....nothing. Well, the needle moved but for some reason the bobbin thread wasn't doing it's job and the stitches came out with a gentle pull. Rethread bobbin. Nope. Wound new bobbin. No. Poke screwdrivers and scissors in bobbin cavity to see what crap is going on. Nada....

Looks crooked in the pic but isn't, I swear!

This went on for DAYS. I consulted the manual, Dearie, my super crafty friends and no one could figure out why. Sadly, I removed the quilt that never was from my machine, folded it neatly, and placed it in the UFO basket. That's unfinished objects to you non-crafters. I whipped up two pairs of jammy pants for J, a pair of capris for K and  a receiving blanket for a friend due any day now to soothe my soul and puff up my deflated feathers a bit. I'll try to get it quilted again someday. Or maybe I'll just turn the patchwork part into a little tote bag for K. In the meantime, my living room still needs livening. Maybe some new pillows!