Look, Ma, Whirligigs! (Project #2 Completed)

I started this project on 5/17/2011. I imagine four months is a long time to make a 36 block quilt. And I took my time. But, look! It's done!

If you were to go over this little throw (table topper?) with a fine-toothed comb you'd find errors. You might even be able to find the errors from this very picture. This was a learning process. The first thing I wanted to learn was to know if capital-q Quilting was something I wanted to pursue. The whole process. Looking and buying fabric and building a stash? That's the easy part. But I also found out that I liked the methodical process of cutting things out, then sewing things together, and finally building the rows. And ultimately creating things like this little throw.

Let me tell you a little bit about this part of the process: I fixed the little blip of gathered fabric from my previous post. I re-sewed that little bit. Next, I made the binding using Clover's Bias Tape Makers. (This is a miracle tool! Really, if you don't have one, get one.) After I finished machine sewing the binding, I noticed a few mistakes. I ripped some seams out and resewed it. Showing it to Dave, he noticed another section that needed to be re-sewn. Easy to fix. That's where the not-so-perfect comes in: binding cute, just less than perfect.

Somewhere along the way this summer someone asked me, almost with derision in her voice, "Why would you want to quilt?" Okay, there was derision in her voice. I've been thinking about that question and I can answer that:

I want to quilt because I've found I can express myself the most creatively with fabric. I'm not great. I won't write books about it, but I like it. Using a sewing machine inspires me to make more things. And make them pretty.

Here's a picture of the whirligig quilt's back. I find this fabric absolutely yummy.

I'm already thinking about my new project.... fabric I've collected from this shop hop I've been doing. Hopefully it won't take four months to complete -- I'm going small again.

I've been devouring quilt blogs for almost a year now and every blog entry on most blogs has the Folded Quilt Shot ... who am I to stop the tradition?