Quilting Again

So I pulled out an old project tonight that I had started about four or five years ago and stopped. The pattern is called "Evening Celestials" out of the book Batik Beauties by Laurie J. Shifren. (The pattern I used is on the front cover of the book...)

I recall the reason I had set it aside: I seem to have developed an inability to follow directions and thus do things in a simple manner. Therefore, rather than cutting patches the way the book said to do, I had decided it would make more sense, for example, to cut a square instead of the two triangles that get sewn together into a square. In order to do this, I had to draw out the pattern on graph paper and figure out the patches manually. This was all well and good until I came to the "set in" seams.  Aargh!

Yes, there are patches that extend into the next area, i.e. the squares overlapping the inner border. This means that one may not sew a straight seam, but rather, sew one edge at a time up to 1/4 inch from the end of that seam, stop, shift the fabric, and sew the next one, and when the third one is done, one hopes they all lie nice and flat and even. These were not lying all nice and flat and even. I was pretty sure I would have to rip out the offending patches, and do those over again, the way the directions said to do it in the first place. This, I was dreading, hence the 4-1/2 year delay.

So... out comes the unfinished quilt top. Looking at the offending pieces... Heyyyyy... These aren't all buckled up after all... what in the world...? Once I ironed them down, I decided any offending puckers could be "quilted out". That is, once the quilting itself is done, any weird puckers will be forced into submission. What exactly was it I was worried about!?  Clearly not much.

On with the outer border. Uh, there are triangles set into these borders too. And they want me to cut the border pieces several inches longer than necessary, cut the edges at a 45 degree angle, sew the triangle into the top part and cut off the excess?? Are they nuts?

I can't bring myself to "waste" fabric like this! Okay, I know. I'll cut them straight, then sew in the triangles, then seam up that bottom bit and voila! It'll all be good!

Uh oh. I didn't realize these cut triangles would be quite so tricky... Again, I have dodgy seams that don't lie flat and they have all these weird puckers. Aargh!

Rip out the seam. Try again. Rip it out again, reassess. Why is this so hard!? And why the heck can't I just follow the directions to begin with??

Okay... got it! And, get this - I was able to figure it out MY way.  :)

So here is the quilt top before the outer border is mitered. So, just have to miter the corners, and quilt it, and then I'll have a dandy wall hanging. I think it'll look good hanging in my office at work.

And here she thought she didn't even like quilting anymore... HA!