"My God. That's one ugly quilt."

Hi Everyone,

Well, I've been having a very "quilty" weekend.  Papa Pea and Sweet Pea are out of town, so I've been going at it hard this weekend.  I'll have to break it up into several posts so as not to bore you too much.  :-)

I thought I'd start with my progress on the Quilt Along, hosted by Christina at A Few Scraps.  (If you are interested in learning more about the Quilt Along, please click on the button on the right sidebar on my blog.)

The first four steps have been posted, and I've got three of them done so far.

1.  Gather Supplies - Check

 

Got my batting, safety pins, slider, gloves (thanks, Lynn, for the suggestion of how much you like these), some marking pencils and a sketchbook.  I guess we're going to be drawing some designs, etc.  It was fun to finally get one just for quilting ideas.

2.  Piece together the fabrics for the top - Check

Christina gave us the dimensions and told us to piece in these stripes so we'll have some good area to practice.  The big strips were supposed to be the same fabric, but I didn't have enough of just one to do them all, so I did a little of each.

Christina suggested that we shouldn't spend too much time picking out fabric.  She said that we shouldn't pick fabric that was too pretty, because we might then be too scared to experiment and try things.  This was really good advice, and I agreed.  I wanted to choose fabrics that I didn't care about and didn't feel "responsible" for making a decent looking quilt.  Christina said that we would be successful at this step if we looked at our quilt and said, "My God.  This is one ugly quilt."

Well.....MY GOD.  THIS IS ONE UGLY QUILT!

Well, I think I was incredibly successful at this step!  I think I should win a prize for the ugliest quilt.  All these people are posting pretty quilt tops on the Flickr group, saying if they made something pretty, they'll have something when they are don.  I just don't want to feel that responsibility!

Any chance it's so ugly it's cute?

I am not sure what in the world I was thinking when I bought these fabrics.  They are pretty loud!  I was going through my fabric tub, and so many of my fabrics are things I'd really like to use in a nice quilt.  But, when I ran across these three, I thought, "Perfect!  I can get these out of my stash and use them for something purposeful.  I don't give a RIP about these fabrics!"

So, this got me to thinking.  What will I do with this atrocity when I am done with it?  I'm sure it will be even more ugly when I practice quilting on it.

Well, the cats could probably use something out in the cat box that Papa Pea is going to build outside for them for the winter.  Maybe they'll think it's pretty.

3.  Clean out bobbin case - Check

Next, we were to clean out the lint from the bobbin case.  I try to (but am not always successful at) cleaning out the lint every time I change the bobbin.  However, I had a lot of lint in there!  Glad I cleaned it!

Our next step is to pin baste.  I think I'll try to get that done tomorrow.  Let's hope this gets me on a roll with my free motion quilting.  I need it!  I would really like to get better at this skill.  I am hoping to finish some other smaller tops after this for a little more practice.

Lots more to tell you.  Catch you later!

Until next time,

Mama Pea

Comments

[terri]

Call me crazy, but I kind of like that quilt.

[terri]

I'm doing her quilt-along, too (thank you very much for directing me to it) because I've been working on a quilt for Carmen for about a year now and haven't finished it. I figure if I screw up on the FM, at least I finished the quilt. Went out and bought my batting tonight. Forgot to get the quilt pencil, but I'm going to try to FM with no sketching...brave or cocky?

[Christina]

I'm glad you don't have high lofty plans for the quilt to terrorize you. I like the happy colors and they coordinate very well. And I love being quoted.

@terri - the pencil won't be necessary for most steps. Not cocky at all.

[Maggie Szafranski]

Well, you are that much further along than I am! I guess that will be an assignment for today, amongst many others!

[Shelly]

I love your sketchbook. I almost bought one like it, then reminded myself that I have 20 others at home! Your quilt is certainly bright -- we'll have to judge the ugly factor when you're all done, but I think quilts are like dogs -- there isn't any such thing as an ugly one!

[Lynn]

I think I have some of that yellow, orange and pink stripe fabric! LOL! I'm a sucker for stripes and dots on fabric. I'm sure that is why I bought it.

I'm glad somebody is getting some sewing time this weekend! I've been baking all afternoon and am on my 4th load of laundry.