A tale of woe

Do you ever have an idea in your mind and when you start making it the project just isn't coming together like you'd like?  This is my failed project!

I have a charity quilt to quilt so I started working on that.  I had to make a backing and prep the quilt for the quilting frame so I did that and as I was about to put the top on the frame I realised that it's Erin's 21st birthday next month!  So the charity quilt was put aside very quickly! I went wrong several times.  It was so wrong I should have listened to that voice in the back of my head crying "Nooooo! Don't do it!!!"  But I persevered.  

Mistake number 1 was deciding to make a quilt for Erin but make it Jâc friendly so it actually gets used.  It's a quilt for Erin for goodness sake!  Anyway, I know Erin's favourite colour is yellow and I thought that if I make a yellow quilt modern enough it'll work for both of them.  

I leafed through my British Love Patchwork and Quilting magazines because the designs in those magazines are fairly modern and contemporary.  I found four potential quilts and here comes mistake number 2.  I asked my husband which one he liked best.  Oops!

After telling him Erin's favourite colour he decided on this quilt. 

 

It's from this issue of the magazine.

I loved that quilt!  Then I looked at it and I liked that quilt.  I knew I'd love that quilt if I redesigned it.  So I did.

I made it square and I tried to avoid having the points or tails of the arrows next to each other which is ridiculous because I love how the designer has done it!  

Mistake number 3 is that I couldn't get any yellow ombré fabric.  No, that's not entirely true.  I needed the fabric RIGHT NOW so didn't want to order any.  And then I didn't want to pay the price they were asking for it!  I was so desperate at this point I considered dyeing my own!  And I've never dyed fabric before! 

So I went shopping.  I figured I could buy enough plain yellows to make my own "ombré" look.  Mistake number 4.

I cut my strips 2 1/2 inches and I started sewing them together.  I didn't think they looked too bad.  Was that mistake number 5??

In the meantime I decided that while I was cutting strips I'd cut the binding and the sashing.  I made the binding.  This might be mistake number 6 but that's a story for another day.  Mistake 5.1 was only cutting five WOFs and expecting it to be long enough to bind an 82 inch square quilt.  Maths was never my strong point. Or English, French, science, art...

Roll on to the following morning when I am sat on the loo thinking.  OMG!  I have cut my fabric strips 2 1/2 inches and yet my blocks are divisible by 3!  Whilst writing this I have discovered that my math can't be that bad if I've worked that out AND autocorrect wanted me to change divisible to something weird so my English can't be that bad either!  Anyway, mistake number 7.

So what do I do now??  I redesigned the quilt of course!  I made it so that the blocks were even numbers.  Sorted.  If only I knew someone with an electric quilt program...

Mistakes number 8,9 and 10 probably happen while I'm trying to work out how to do a flying geese block.  I know they're easy but these measurements were weird.  What idiot (re)designed this quilt?!

So I drew my markings on the fabric.  It worked out well.

Then I tried making a foundation pieced template for where the points meet the points.  Mistake number 11, 12, 13...

So I just added two flying geese sets.  Getting the points right was mistake 14. 15, 16, 17, 18...

I think you get the idea!  Anyway I put a finished block on the wall and added sashing and...I hate it!  With a passion!  

So, back to the drawing board.  The quilt is for Erin.  She'll be 21 and loves yellow!  So for goodness sake (anyone who knows me will know I won't be saying goodness sake!) make a yellow quilt for Erin and ONLY for Erin!

So I went to Lincraft.  Mistake number 19.  Sorry Lincraft but your quilting fabric sucks. Then I went to my local quilt shop Sew Together  and purchased a huge Tilda Fat Quarter bundle.  For myself.  Oops.  Then I went to Spotlight and was only able to buy 4.6 metres of the yellow I liked.  Will this be enough or will this be mistake number...Uh...what are we up to?

So here is my view as I sew my new quilt together.  That arrow quilt will be fantastic with the right fabrics...

I'm off to a good start!