Making Amends

I'm going to jump right in and give you the story.  I started this quilt back when I was only 16 years old, and had only made one full size quilt and two baby blanket-sized quilts under the supervision and guidance of my gracious and talented sewing teacher Mrs. Steele.  If you haven't read my bio, I'll tell you here that after my first quilting class I was hooked.  Sadly though, right after my first class was summer break, and I couldn't stand the thought of going the whole summer without quilting.

That's where this lovely comes in.  My mum took me to the local fabric store and let me pick out these fabrics that were unlike any colour palette I had yet to dare try.  I was all cool colours with various shades of grey and black at that point in my life, but these fabrics called to my very soul.  

I spent a good portion of my summer carefully piecing together all of the parts, and doing my best to remember every single tiny detail that Mrs. Steele provided about making a quilt.  Everything was grand until it came to the actual machine quilting.  I was working on my mum's hardy old Sears sewing machine, and despite it being able to take the wear and tear of years of use, it was nothing like the machine I had worked on in class, nor did it have the various feet I would require for such a project.  

The other force working against me was that due to my minimal experience I did not get enough tension on all of the layers to prevent folds and pinched up bits.  So, with my total lack of experience, I machine quilted the entire top and attempted the free-motion for the border, but of course the botched attempt at quilting the top made the free motion look as if my machine was trying to eat the quilt- and the machine was definitely allergic.  

Needless to say it was infuriating - so I boxed it up and put it in the corner so it could think about what it had done.  It sat there month after month, and then year after year. My mum would ask when I planned to finish it since she too had fallen in love with the fabrics I chose. She also watched me make well over 20 different quilts with no problem, even without the instruction of Mrs. Steele.  

Eventually though, I stopped being mad.  I stopped feeling like I couldn't do it.  I asked my mum to ship it to me (as it remained at my folks' place), and as soon as I got it I set to work.

There was a fair amount of unpicking that needed to be done.  It would be foolish to have put off finishing it for all these years, only to commit to the quality that made me walk away from it in the first place.  I knew that would only leave me feeling further frustration and sadness.  It was time to finish it, and it was time to do it right.

This quilt, and any quilt in my care, deserves that much - to be made to a caliber that I can be proud of for years to come, even if it's hard.

After all of that unpicking I followed up with all of the places I took my seam ripper to, ironed out all of the creases, and proceeded to go over them again, this time with no bumps or tucks.

Lucky for me, all of the mistakes were quick fixes that just required a mind that knew more.  Within a day all of the quilting was redone, and the free motion was stitched.  All I had left was to sew the binding that had already been cut.

Binding always feels oddly reflective.  I get to enjoy all of the work I've done while also finalizing it in a simple way.  

It's a nice bit of closure for a quilt (pun always intended), and even though it takes hours to do well, it never feels that long because it's the home-stretch.  It's the last piece necessary for all of the hard work to become worthwhile.   

The only downside is that sometimes with the way I pin binding, I stab myself repeatedly with these pins (which is actually how this quilt got that lovely shade of scarlet).  They don't call hard work blood, sweat, and tears for nothing, right?

After finishing the quilt I washed it as per tradition, and hung it up to dry.  However, that beautiful and radiant red you see before you was devious.  It bled, and it bled bad (like my fingers after the pinning is complete).  

The cream coloured fabric with the red accents was muddied into a dingy red after I pulled it out of the wash. Much to my lament I had been foolish enough to wash the quilt warm/cold.  It took 8 washes with heavy-duty, colour-safe stain remover to restore the cream to its former glory.  I wish I had the foresight to take a before and after, but honestly I was far too panic-stricken to even think about it.  After all of these years of waiting I just wanted this to be right.

Now here I am, with the quilt that had always been a bit of a dream project, finished and happy.  

I suppose that's what I'm doing here though, making my dreams come true - one beautiful project at a time.

Thanks for helping me share my dreams.

Stay sweet, stay crafty, and stay tuned.