Famous Last Words....

Ugh. In my last post I said, "...it should go pretty fast. Nothing super complicated."

There is nothing but straight seams and easy cuts in this quilt. No half-square triangles, no angled cuts. If you are a beginning quilter, this would be perfect for you. Yet somehow I have had the most difficult time with this quilt and I can't blame it on anyone except me. So annoying!

 To begin, apparently I don't know what a 1/4" foot looks like.

The foot on the right is my 1/4" foot. The foot on the left is not. 

I'm not sure why, but after sewing together 5 sets of a jelly roll strip and a background strip (about 42" long) something told me my seam was too small. I got out my handy-dandy ruler and checked....YUP. Not a 1/4" seam like I thought.

That may look like a 1/4" seam....

...but it's not. It's a little short. Short is not good. 

I take out all five of the pairs I have sewed together and put on the RIGHT foot this time. I'm zooming along, sewing my pieces together and then I realize....the thread in my bobbin is out. I "sewed" the same five sets I had just taken out back together without realizing there was no bottom stitching. I'm not even sure how that's possible, but I totally did it.

Ok, re-wind my bobbin with more thread. Get ready to sew-for the third time-these lovely pieces of fabric together. 

Where's the cover to my bobbin?

Seriously--where is it? 

Earlier, a certain two-year-old son had been playing near me while I was trying to get things back together and I had seen a little hand reach up onto my sewing table--which is a big no-no in my house. 

You DO NOT touch Mama's sewing machine. 

I had also seen said two-year-old playing with something near the heating vent on the floor. 

Oh no. 

Please, please, please, please, please...don't be in the vent. 

Thankfully, it wasn't. However, it did take me about 24 hours to find it. 

When asked where it was my sweet little Bubba would say in his tiny little voice, "I don't know Mama. I find it." 

Ok. The correct foot is on the machine. The bobbin is threaded. Let's sew!

Again, I'm sewing those five sets together and don't think that maybe I should check them when I am done with each to make sure everything is going swimmingly. What else could go wrong? 

Looks like my tension is not where it should be. 

It's almost kind of pretty-like maybe I was trying to do some rouching. 

What's really sad is it didn't stop at just one. 

Happily, I finally got my act together and was able to put together the strips. I wish I could say that this was over the course of just an afternoon but I think it was more like three days-three frustrating days.

Happy little strips waiting to be cut. 

Onward and upward right? 

It can't get much worse. I mean, how many silly mistakes can I make in just one quilt? 

Uh oh......