The story begins a long, long time ago in a land far, far away. About ten years ago while living in Texas. I got it in my head that I could be a quilter. I think this started when I discovered the Elm Creek Quilt series of books by Jennifer Chiaverini. I found a quilt kit and a second hand sewing machine and I was…. stuck. I had no manual and could not find one online. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to thread it as I had never threaded a machine before this.

I called in re-enforcements in the guise of my sister living an hour away. When she had time she drove over with her kids and threaded my machine for me while I watched. We made sure the machine worked. I was confident I knew what I was doing now. After an afternoon of visiting my sister went home. I started sewing up my pieces with glee and finished four blocks of nice easy straight lines on squares and rectangles when it happened. My thread broke so I needed to re-thread my machine. Of course at this point I had forgotten how to thread the machine. I tried this way and that but not the right way clearly. I couldn’t ask my sister to drive an hour each way just to thread my machine for me. My solution was to hand sew the rest.

The centre of this potholder/hot pad/mug rug was my hand sewing work. The triangles were a nightmare for me though for the life of me I don’t remember why. They were also very wonky with one a different size than the other. I can’t remember what the whole quilt was meant to look like but something spooked me and I didn’t have the confidence and quit. The machine was sold on and my finished squares when into my sewing box.Ten years later….I decided to have another go at quilting. I bought squares of fabric. I bought a new machine with a manual. I sewed together blocks of all the same shape and size. I watched some videos….promptly forgetting the most important bits. I pretty much bugged up that quilt completely but it was together. I had no fabric left and money was short. I remember I had a block I had done years ago and thought maybe I could work with it. Imagine my delight and finding I had six blocks not one. I decided on pot holders ( https://fivebeansoup.wordpress.com/2020/06/10/potholders-hotpads/ ) and a wall-hanging.

Jumping to now. My youngest bought me some cream calico and I have managed to get wadding so I starting putting it all together. I will admit that I didn’t go for precision cutting. I have the space for the cutting now but my cat was sleeping on my sewing table.

I carefully ironed my fabrics and with my quilt top on top of my calico I cut around the top . I know it was dumb and I did have to adjust a bit and my binding (fold-over) isn’t perfect but my baby was happy and that is the most important thing, right! I then cut the wadding in just about the same manner. I know the proper quilters out there might be feeling like they are having a stroke right now. Just breath through it.

After ironing the fusible wadding within my sandwich I got to the quilting. I didn’t know what I was going to do except that it would be straight lines. I did a line on one side of centre and then a second one and thought I don’t want just straight lines all the way across but I had to balance it out. That is how I got the four lines down the center. Then I decided to balance that by doing the same across the other way. It needed more so I went from corner to corner and again for an X. Still not happy I turned it into a X in each of the four original blocks.

As I mentioned above, the binding is folded over. I am still not sure how to do the mitre fold correctly but I just about had it in a couple corners. This is where the extra trimming happened to try and get the edges a bit more even. I pinned it up all the way around and then stitched it down.

The finished product is about 2ft across and down. It is simple but done. I might even add some sort of appliqué or something in the future but likely not. It is on my wall in my bedroom covering an awkward window that goes out to the hall letting too much light in when my vampires children are awake and wondering the house at night.

Hope you have enjoyed my quilting project and the epic tale of my UFO. Leave me a comment below!