Hat on Top, Coat Below
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Pastel Jungle Quilt
December 23, 2008
I sewed the label on this quilt last night, so now I’ve finished both the projects that had me in the doldrums earlier this month (the other one was the corn socks). As I mentioned in that earlier entry, I started this quilt back in October. I wanted to have it done before the baby it’s for turned one in early November, so I picked a simple pattern (Bundle of Joy from the book More Quilts for Baby by Ursula Reikes) and a limited color palette (because there’s less temptation to spend time playing with various arrangements when there are fewer options).
Thanks to strip piecing, I got the blocks done really quickly. It was only then that I noticed I’d messed up in the strip cutting stage and some of the animals in the focus fabric were going to be upside down if I laid the blocks out as called for in the pattern. That’s one drawback to strip piecing—a single mistake can carry over into multiple blocks. Well, that took the wind out of my sails. Because of the time factor, I didn’t want to rip out all the affected blocks to rotate the animals, so I tried rotating the blocks instead, but that disrupted the pattern in a way that didn’t please me either. Bah. I still didn’t like either of those options when I got back from vacation in early November, so the blocks just hung around on my felt wall.
I finally decided that some of the animals would just have to be upside down relative to other ones. I rationalized that the baby wouldn’t always be looking at the quilt from the same vantage point, so at any given time at least some of them would be right side up. Once I’d gotten over that mental hurdle, the rest of the process zipped right along. I barely blinked when I realized I’d flipped two rows of blocks from their original positions; it didn’t matter since the overall pattern was still intact. Straight line quilting, single fabric binding, label, boom, done. Now we’ll see if I can carry over this momentum to the next two quilts on my list, which are also overdue.
One year ago: Contented
Two years ago: Mr. Toasty & One Glove, All Alone
Three years ago: Winter Count—September
Four years ago: Snow Day
Five years ago: Rail Fence Baby Quilt
Six years ago: Quilting Outside the Lines
