I’ve finished sewing together the top for Pick & Choose – it looks much different than the original, because of the sashing substitution.
But before the big picture - imagine my surprise when pressing the top, to discover…
Who *is* that man in my quilt?!!
He must have just jumped in at the last minute ‘cause its amazing his whole self is in that triangle!
Yesterday I decided I would finish the centre of Pick and Choose. Not too much to do – just finish putting together the four patches into blocks, then piece the sashing strips.
I got the blocks put together, counted them, and came up with 18, instead of 20. Okay….there are two more somewhere that I had made up some time ago just to see how the block would look. Now, where the heck did I put them?
The sashing strips are made up of umpteen 1 1/2” by 6” strips, pieced to form long strips that come to about 75”. Two of these strips are sewn together lengthwise to end up with a 2” finished size sashing. I sewed up 9 or 10 of these, then proceeded to cut up enough of these long strips to 12 1/2” to make the short sashing strips. I grabbed my 12” ruler – cut, cut, cut – 24 pieces – sat down to sew them to my block – ack! They’re short, or my block is too big! Or….I just made the stupidest mistake ever, because 12” is not 12 1/2”!!!!! Oh my – these pieces are not exactly replaceable scraps.
By now I’m tired, and fed up, and mad as all get out. I grab a basket of cut up neutrals that were meant for another background – they were cut up to a size that might work, and they were neutrals – and started to sew those into the proper lengths. By the time I realized that what I really had to do was make all the sashings neutral – that I couldn’t get away with short neutrals and long strips of scrappy – I had to put it down for the day.
But first – I had to find those darn two missing blocks. Which were no where. For a few moments, I seriously considered making the quilt with 3 x 4 block setting, instead of 4 x 5; but forced myself to find enough leftover pieces to make 2 more blocks. I did have to stop for the day though, while my sewing room looked like something had exploded.
This morning I got right back to it, before I forgot what it was I planned to do; and before I chickened out. I did get the new sashings sewn, the new blocks sewn, the centre of the top sewn. Now just the final pieced border remains.
I’m making up a quilt from a pattern called “Pick and Choose” by Carrie Nelson (Miss Rosie Quilt Co.) published in American Patchwork & Quilting June 2009.
All I can say is thank goodness I precut *everything* for this quilt – or else I might just have given it up somewhere along the line.
There is a lot of sewing in these blocks. Each block is made of four units, each unit is made up of two four-patches and two hsts, – I’ve sewn all the units, and made about 9 of the 20 blocks (the pattern calls for a 5 x 5 setting, I’m making 4 x 5). Oops – I can see a placement mistake in one of the blocks :) Then there is a pieced sashing, and a pieced border. The fabrics are almost all 1800s repros and a variety of printed neutrals. Right now I think it looks a bit like the dog’s breakfast, but amazing things have been known to happen when quilt blocks turn into a quilt – so I’m hoping!
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