Scrappy Quilt Complete

2 years in the making this quilt is done!

Phew!

This has been my longest project, and definitely the largest in volume! 

Although I started out with much gusto, spurred on by the quick sewing of Deb and Clare who seem to whip quilts up over night, it turns out that no matter how motivated, sewing little 2.5inch squares in rows and blocks is bloody boring. 

So much cutting, so many tiny seams, so much ironing, arranging, mess.

However, over the years I've been learning perseverance, and also I must be upping my standards.

 What would have been "fine" is no longer "fine", and I found myself unpicking 24 meters of top stitching of the quilt top so that I could hand stitch it again. My machine quilting skills were below par, and after musing over it, I set about with the un-picker and spent another month unpicking and restitching by hand for a much nicer finish. 

 All that to say, even though I cursed and loathed this quilt, and went through the 5 stages of grief over it, I eventually came to love it (stockholm syndrome?), and wanted it to look its best. And, it was really great having a project handy that I could pull out whilst watching tv, or something to sew in the sunshine.

I absolutely love the binding, the backing, the bright colours, the yellow thread, the flowers, the spots, the patterns...

I might even go so far to say, I miss creating it.

But now I have a bright and happy quilt to keep our family warm, and the satisfaction of creating something that has a purpose and is of use to our family is at an all time high.

2 years ago to the day I wrote this Guest Blog Post on Debs Blog, so today I am calling it Finished! Done! 

Thank you for the box of scraps Deb, and for the endless amount of inspiration!

And here's looking at you Clare, for all those tidy rows of squares. Keep on stitching, Sister! 

READ MORE:

Posts about my Scrappy Quilt here

More Sewing here

Mindless Sewing

Welp. It appears I'm not much of a "relaxed sewer". So many of my IG friends rave about their love for sewing straight line after straight line, letting it relax them with mindless sewing. 

I've found through this scrappy quilt that I loathe mindless sewing. I find myself grinding my teeth, hunched over, trying to sew as fast as possible, and then becoming frustrated that my last hour of sewing produced only a small square for a very laaarge quilt. 

Um. Sucks. 

I do love sewing, and I feel like it generally releases tension in me (unless I'm unpicking). But I think I need instructions, steps, different lines to sew, things to piece together, garments appearing before my eyes, satifaction! Ah yes, that all sounds SO much better than teeth grinding mindless sewing.

But alas, I plod along with my scrappy quilt, its not getting any smaller so that's something to take comfort in.

I have also started a luggage weekender bag (which is an insane pattern. The most complicated thing I've ever attempted.), and am re-doing all the cushions at Kindy, so I've got plenty to help me procrastinate from this mammoth scrappy quilt! Hehe.

I'm Joining In:: Scrappy Quilt Along

The last week, thankfully, flew by as we made our way through our first school holidays with Milla home from Kindy.

It was relaxing and I felt the pressure of being out of the house by 8.20 in the morning ease, along with packed lunches and tired cranky girls after busy days.

I've been sick for the last three weeks, trying to get over pesky swollen throat glands and headaches and last week I finally found some relief in the monotony.

As a result, I missed my Stuff I've Made blog post, but I did instead get the absolute honour of guest posting on Deb's Works In Progress blog.

I wrote to her readers about joining the Scrappy Quilt Along and showed off my first blocks and a little video of the process that the hubs made for me. You can jump over to the post to see it if you want to :) :: (Scrappy Quilt A Long Sophie Slim Guest Post).

So that's what I focussed on last week, a basket of some 1000 little fabric squares that are being sewn into rows and large squares. It's time consuming, repetitive, colourful, and just what I need right now.

Peace x