Although anyone reading my blog probably loves to make quilts, we all know that there are certain parts of the process we HATE. I hate to “unsew!” Whenever I mess something up, I am tempted to just throw it in the trash rather than pick out the stitches and try to fix it.
My latest mess-up is the quilt I started at the Atlanta Quilt Festival in a class taught by Sarah Bond. She taught the class how to make her Diamond Stair Step quilt. It’s not a particularly difficult quilt so I felt quite comfortable following along in class. It wasn’t a quilt most people could could finish in one day, but I got far enough along that I felt comfortable finishing it at home.
I did in fact continue working on the quilt at home and finished the top. However, when I sewed all the rows together, the quilt could not be squared up without cutting off the points. Also, there seemed to be a place in the middle of the quilt that would not lay flat. I was almost in tears. I thought about throwing the whole thing in the trash, but I knew I could not. After all, it was my trophy quilt for taking a class from a national teacher.
After getting control of my emotions and closely examining the quilt, I decided the best solution was to turn it into two quilts. (I think sewing the quilt on two different sewing machines may have contributed to the problem, or maybe I stretched it while ironing it). I “unsewed” the middle row. I added borders to the top half of the quilt and delivered it to my long arm quilter Maxine Moore. Maxine is a genius at fixing sick quilts, so I am expecting a miracle. I named this quilt Take the First Step.
Meanwhile, I still have the bottom half of the quilt that is waiting for my creativity to kick in. Stay tuned.
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