Drunkards Path Woes

I was really excited when I found a quilt pattern that had goldfish on it! I thought it would be a great quilt for my friend who isn't finding out the sex of her first baby. I also thought it wouldn't be to hard. WRONG! It uses a drunkards path template. That template is the most elusive template in all of quilting! On top of not being able to find it, most people that I have talked to have avoided making any quilts with it!

So I had to make my own template.

The print out of the template that came with the pattern was incorrect. So I had to draw my own. I thought I did it right. And I cut over 200 pieces of fabric by hand. 

The Sewing Asylum taught me how to sew the curved seam. Which turns out to be the least frustrating part of this quilt!

As you can see my "inside" piece is too small! Now I have to make a new template and cut all new "inside" pieces. Luckily I have extra fabric, but I am not looking forward to it. 

Keep your fingers crossed that next time I post the pieces all fit together properly!

Finally Sewing Again!

When I moved down to Phoenix for the summer I made the horrible decision NOT to bring my sewing machine. I assumed that with fire season I would not have the time to sew. WRONG! After weeks of searching I finally found the Sewing Asylum. They are the only place in Phoenix who let me come sew on one of their machines!

A good friend of mine is having her first baby this summer. The quilt pattern I picked turned out to be very, very hard! So my chances of finishing it this summer (during fire season) are minimal at best.

 I decided to make her Burp Rags, so at least she gets a present from me before the baby is due.

The fabrics are from the Free Spirit collection. 

For the back I used a white chenille. It is super soft!

They really were easy to make. I need more friends to have babies!

Hi Everyone!

This is my first blog post and I am very excited. I have learned how to sew and quilt mostly through bloggers tutorials (and some amazing quilting stores who have rescued me in moments of utter panic!). I have recently finished my T-shirt quilt. This was only my second quilt and I had read a lot of blogs that said it was an easy project. Well not true! So I thought I would share some of the tips that I learned while making this quilt.

First a look at the finished product.

OK so I admit, I really hated this quilt once i started. But now i really, really love it!

My first pieced back. The center stripe is the same fabric as the border on the front.

My embroidered label! Thanks to Needle and Thread  for the amazing how to videos for embroidery!

The Things I Learned!

1) This quilt is hard because you have to make a lot of decisions. I was not experienced enough to know what size blanket I'd like to make. Let alone, do the math to choose what size square i should use for my T-shirts.

2) There are not many sizes of large square cutting templates. And using cardboard as a template does not work with a rotary cutter!! So I went to the hardware store and they cut me a plexi glass square in the size i wanted!! So i got a 13 x 13" square for $5!! yes, i kid you not! And they cut me a 5" x 5" for the bottom border. That cost me a whopping 75 cents!!! 

3) You MUST interface your t-shirts. 

4) It is really hard to match a border fabric when you have so many colors in the T-shirts. This is why i chose not to do sashing. It would have been way to challenging to pick a fabric. 

5) I would not suggest doing a T-shirt quilt until you know what you are doing quilting. Or if you have some knowledgeable quilter friends.

6) DO NOT GIVE UP! I am so happy with the finished product! It seems so hard to believe how hard it was when it seems so easy at the end!