I finished sewing my first quilt last week. I feel like the word should have an asterisk… It is a rag rug, officially a ‘quilt as you go’ project, rather than a proper quilt. A bunch of pairs of fabric squares, each sewn through in an X with a piece of slightly smaller batting in between to make a ‘quilt sandwich’, and then all of those sandwiches joined in rows, and finally the rows joined to make a rectangle, and bound. It was pleasing to make – not technically difficult, which means I felt free to enjoy the cutting and the sewing and the playing with colour.
I realised in the making of this quilt* that one of the reasons I hate shopping (and I do, in general) is because I don’t like any of the options available for sale. The sheer amount of pleasure this quilt* has brought me, in the making alone, is far greater than probably all the non-book shopping experiences of my life. I know I would walk into any shop here in Brisbane selling only quilts, and struggle to find something I want in my house. THIS quilt*, on the other hand, is, in my humble opinion, so colourful and wonderful that I can’t believe I made it.
A confession needs to be made, perhaps, that I haven’t even officially finished it – although the sewing is all done, the rag rug side of it needs to be snipped in approximately a million places, to make it chenille-y and raggy, but those plans will have to wait…
An old thumb injury is back to haunt me, after carrying things that were too heavy a couple of weeks ago. I have a definite hot, sore lump where my wrist joins my hand that I’m trying to rest, and watch dispassionately rather than imagining that I’ll never have full use of my dominant hand again. I’ll let you know how I go with that.
I did bind it yesterday, sewing a strip of blue fabric all around the edges. I machine sewed the binding on both front and back – hand sewing would be another option, and one I think I’ll explore next time I’m binding something. While the first side of stitches looks perfect (as it should) the other side is anything but: I had a terrible time aligning things, so there is visible stitching all over the place. No close ups, please.
But who needs close ups? I have this on my couch, and I’m happy, asterisks and all. Any unsuspecting visitors in the next few weeks may or may not be asked to do a little snipping. You’ve been warned.
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*not actually a proper quilt.
Happiness is Handmade 