Megan is a darling, darling girl...sweet, funny, sincere, loyal, honest, smart, corny, happy...and willing to try anything - including making a quilt for herself for college. She asked yours truly for help...not her best move...she could have asked any of the true quilting experts who live around her but Megan asked me, which tells you something else about Megan, doesn't it?!? I'm not sure what but I'll leave it at that! So, fresh from my quilt meeting where I learned about making FOUR half-square triangles at one time...I told Megan I had the perfect quilt for her to make!
Above are the fabrics Megan picked...she fell in love with all of them! Megan was sent to the quilt shop with instructions to buy sixteen fabrics, 1/4 yard of each, eight light and eight dark...apparently the lighting was very bad in the quilt shop! But no worries, I happily supplemented from my stash and we went to work...oh, did I mention Megan DOES NOT SEW?!? Whoops!! Note to self: Knowledge of sewing and using a sewing machine is helpful!
Another note to self: Making FOUR half-square triangles at one time may SEAM like a good idea and I still think, in a quilting world where wavy, puckery, and a lack of matching points doesn't matter...it is. But having a NON-sewer/quilter sew with bias pieces is a crazy-stupid-demented idea! BIAS is a true FOUR LETTER WORD and fabric cut on the bias stretches more than the waistband on my pants!!!
But like the Captain of the Titanic, I assured Megan all was well and she continued to sew and sew...meanwhile, I searched for drugs...if her quilt was going to be wavy because of me I wanted a more valid reason than stupidity! After Megan left - after sewing all the pieces together, I laid out her quilt on the floor...so far, so good...no real stretching! Maybe I was going to get away with it!!!
And then my friends, I decided to sew a row together, so when Megan came back over to sew she would have an example...and after sewing just ONE row together I knew I was sunk...as in Titanic sunk...I had to be so careful and at the risk of having this post rated "R," I feel the need to tell you I had to use PINS!!! Yes, I'm sorry, another FOUR LETTER WORD!!! Godfrey! Things were going from bad to worse at a breakneck speed! (The good news is because of the bias, I was at least smart enough to NOT have Megan use the IRON...there I go again, I just can't stop with the 4 letter words!!) Now I knew I had to sew all of the pieces into rows for Megan - she not really knowing how to sew and there was no room for error...and then I thought, mistakenly, that everything would be fine and Megan could still sew the rows together...after all, SHE was wanting to MAKE her quilt herself!!! But I couldn't help myself...I had to sew two rows together to see how stretchy they would be...and again, I might as well continue with the Titanic theme...I began to gasp for air, blow bubbles and got a real sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach...Stretchy doesn't begin to describe the rows...I realized there was NO way Megan could sew them together...so row by row, I put in PINS...sticking myself literally and figuratively...until the top was completely sewn together.
I'ts not too bad! There is hardly any stretching, thanks to pins and a bit of divine intervention! Megan came over to sew her quilt...she walked in and saw it was done for her...she said she didn't mind but I detected a bit of disappointment...we talked about bindings and I assured Megan that I would NOT sew that on for her...little consolation, I know. So I gave her the top, told her to get her backing and batting and we'd talk about getting it quilted...I'm sure she can do that, right? I mean, she had no sewing experience when she started her quilt and still has none, but I'm sure she can do it...if I can just STOP myself!
