Monday, July 09, 2007

What I learned from this quilt

Apologies for the sporadic posting, folks. There's a lot of life getting in the way of the blog at the moment...the snotty, sneezy kind. I'm still bunged up. It seems I'm just hopping from one chronic nose drip to the next this winter. Don't know why when in the past I'm normally I'm like an ox when it comes to bugs. Its just a matter of grinning, bearing and working with it now 'cos I don't want to saturate on the drugs.


But this weekend past was quite relaxing. I've been glued to the Live Earth telecast while hand sewing what feels like endless lengths of binding on the humungous quilt. And of course, I couldn't miss the return of Crowded House to the stage. I've been a fan since their first album came out when I was in high school aaaages ago....and boy, was I bawling?! They were better than I ever remembered!


So, getting back from my digressions - let me just say that my first large quilt is now done and dusted, with lots of lessons learnt.
  1. High threadcount sheeting is hard to push a needle through. Nobody told me! There were injuries, people.
  2. Squaring the blocks is highly important...thank goodness I actually listened to advice.
  3. Those curved patches are not as easy as they look and I was dumb enough to brave them. By the time I saw the error of my ways, it was too late!
  4. I could've used thicker batting in the sandwich. Since its been freezing here, this quilt is not warm enough. But, there's always spring.
  5. Queen size quilts use a mammoth amount of fabric. Because all I had to start from was the block template I had no idea how much to initially get, so I erred on the side of spending caution. But pretty soon I was having to order more as the blocks started piling up.
  6. I have renewed admiration for other quilters...and whenever I see the price tag of a quilt on sale from now on I'm not going to guffaw. It's worth every cent!


On to a new project! Now, what shall I do next?

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Such a beautiful quilt, I love the circles and the greenness. I so need to start mine... Hope you are feeling better soon!!!

Anonymous said...

What a lovely quilt, Jade! Such beautiful colours.

Di said...

The quilt is beautiful! I have always wanted to make a quilt but never had the courage!! I can see that circles would be difficult! I think I'd even have difficulty cutting the pieces!! Congratulations on all your hard work!!

Can't wait to see what you do next!

Anonymous said...

Good job!! That's a lovely quilt :) All those lessons will stand you in good stead, too!

Kate said...

Wonderful quilt! I've just tagged you if you are interested.

Chookyblue...... said...

very pretty Jade..........so I take it you will be doing a smaller quilt without curves........

leslie said...

ooooh, so worth all the effort though - it's gorgeous!

Thimbleanna said...

Your quilt is beautiful! I love it! And not to worry that it's too thin -- MeMum has a "thin" quilt that she keeps on her bed in the summer -- it's perfect for the warmer weather. What to do next? Why, another quilt, of course! ;-)

Samantha Caffee said...

This quilt is amazing! I absolutely love it!

Anonymous said...

wow,wow,wow! Gorgeous quilt - I'm very inspired!

Anonymous said...

STUNNING. It's totally beautiful. I want to see more of it!!!

SadieandLance said...

Wow, the quilt looks fab! Can't believe you tackled this as ur first quilt. Impressive. You should post it on the Ametie group over on Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/groups/showusyourquilts/

Anonymous said...

Your quilt is lovely. Well done

marymary said...

I think this quilt is really, really pretty. I love your pattern. Can you share what block template you used? How was it cut and pieced?

Thanks!

dutchcomfort said...

Ha ha Jade, the quilt is beautiful and thanks for sharing all that went wrong, I have a simular list... I never took a class on how to quilt. I have to confess that almost anything I make for the first time has a list afterwards with all things gone wrong! Lessons learned!