Quilting: Part 2

In that very long list of things that we’re attempting to juggle and complete as semi-sane parents, there is a tiny, and often pushed-to-the side item called “quilting”.

If you know me well, you’ve probably noticed that the older I’ve gotten, the more perseverance I’ve developed and stubborn I’ve become. As a result, there are very few things I give up on. I muster through, I teach myself, I find two more hours in the night when its already 2 am. I just do these things. Its sort of like self-inflicted psychosis, but that’s just me, I guess.

Anyway, one of the products of these neuroses is my inability to let the quilt get off my radar. Its always there enough to make me feel guilty (because originally it was intended for Owen’s birth). I age it with Owen- so the quilt project has been going on for a little over 2 years probably.

The thing is, I actually like the art of top quilting- the part where you sew the pieces together. Its just all the stupid logistics that get in the way. The pre-work is pretty awful too. All that cutting, prepping, basting etc. I totally bit off more than I could chew when I took this on, but I’m learning.

So, as I mentioned, I’m at the stage where you actually sew the pieces together. You might remember that I chose to do a hexagon quilt, which are beautiful, but NOT smart for a first time quilt. Each piece has six sides, with six unique angles that have to match up to other pieces in the quilt. NOT EASY TO DO.

So, once I was in over my head, with no reasonable way to turn back (remember, I have these neurotic tendencies to push through and keep with things), I decided to try to find the method that would be easiest.

I did find a nice tutorial for sewing together hexies once you piece them on their sides. The woman in the video makes it look like she’s eating a chocolate bar with one hand and sewing, effortlessly with the other. It looks that easy. So I thought- YES. This is the way I will do it. (you can see that video if you search quilting part 1 in my blog).

As it turns out though, that woman is VERY talented. I like give her a medal talented.

Here’s how my version went.

After all my hexies were perfectly pressed, my design organized, and ready, I assembled them together on the vertical axes. I made a nice long row of 24 hexies together. It was very pretty. I left room to attach the off-side angles and was pleasantly surprised with the ease of it all and very pleased. The wax paper (see part 1) made for a great guide and I had nice rows. My vertical lines will always look very nice in the first four rows of my quilt.

You might ask then, well, whats the trouble? Why only the first four rows of your quilt.

Well, the trouble arises, when you have two beautiful rows of 24 and you try to attach them on the off angles. The idea is that each will line up perfectly with the other and you can easily sew perfect 35 degree lines. But, my hexies, beautiful individually, were not made with a machine. I ironed each one with a template. And even with a template, I could have never been perfect with each on 100% of the time. So, when I laid them together they lined up for the most part, but NOT perfectly. Hmmm. I sensed conflict in my future.

I brushed it aside. A little give and take is fine in a quilt. I wasn’t submitting this thing to the state fair. I just wanted something to give Owen before he gets married or something.

I started sewing, and found now my little wax paper guides were useless and even burdensome. The lines that they created (via my iron, previously identified as the line to sew on) were wrong. Incorrect. The folds needed to be adjusted to make up for my “give and take” so that the pieces would align. Ugh.

 

(These are rows 1-4- some of them don't even look like hexagons! Others you can see clearly the pulls (check out the blue ones in the first photo and the green ones in the second. Also, sorry for the yellow cast, I didn't check the white balance on the camera before taking these photos).

But, the worst kicker of the whole situation was that instead of piecing the hexagons one and a time and only having to deal with three sides lining up, I had 24 hexies with two open sides each that need to line up. So I had to make sure that each tiny needle strong lined up perfectly or all 48 sides would be off.

This was a NIGHTMARE.

There is a lot of puckering in my lovely first four rows. There are some hexagons that don’t look like hexagons anymore. There are some interesting angles and some pulled fabrics that were ironed flat to preserve my sanity.

Quilting, my friends, is HARD!

But, alas, if you squinted at it from far away, it sort of looked pretty. I had made it to four rows, I didn’t want to stop now. And who cares! It will be a great story for Owen- “Dear Owen, this was my very first quilt. Its horrible. But I wanted to make it so badly for you that I couldn’t give up.”

See, doesn’t that sound sweet and endearing?

Well, okay. It probably doesn’t. Just pretend along with me for a few more minutes.

I reasoned though that people make quilts all the time an that there had to be a better way for novices to do hexies.

And its true there is a much better way: one at a time.

 

(These are the next two rows. Much better! Enjoy the open seams on the sides- those will be connected to other hexies).

On the fifth row I lined up it with the six and didn’t sew any sides. I just laid out the pattern and then started sewing one to each other. This was great. There weren’t 48 ridiculous sides screaming to align with each other, and the three I had to deal with were totally manageable. On top of that, the wax paper returned to its former glory of being a fantastic guide, so I could easily line up the edges, sew and rip out the paper. Perfection.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I still have some puckering here and there (corners are hard to line up!) and sometimes I sew the wrong pieces together and have to pull the seams and start over, but overall, its much much much better. I’m actually even looking forward to rows 7 and 8.  Pretty soon I’ll be halfway there, at 12!

So, for all you quilting newbies out there looking for advice: I sagely recommend to learn from an expert. Do not go it alone and NEVER start with a hexagon quilt.