Some People Just Shouldn't (Or Why I Will Never Make Another Bed Size Quilt)

For some reason, I always approach sewing a new project kind of like I approach life.  I always assume that things are going to go along just like I expect them to and then am so irritated when they don't.


Yesterday I began to embark on the last stage of making the quilt for my oldest son.  I had prepared the binding by cutting, sewing and ironing it long before I ever got the quilt back from the quilter. (I didn't even attempt to hand quilt this one which is what I prefer. Too big!)  I knew that since it is a large queen size quilt it would be a big deal to bind it, but I  assumed it would just take a little more time than a smaller quilt.


I was right.  And I was wrong.  


  

I began neatly enough by laying the binding on the first edge of the quilt and pinning it in place.  

Then I started the massive job of sewing it which should be simple (the sewing part).  But maneuvering that behemoth of a quilt was a daunting feat.  That's a LOT of fabric.

I rolled up one side as in the photo above and got started.  And. 

  Well, that's just a LOT of fabric.  

Things moved along slowly but all those pins in all that fabric was bound to prove dangerous for a klutz like me.  I poked myself twice in the fingers drawing blood both times.

After I got going I figured out a "system" of throwing the excess fabric over my left shoulder  to help keep from having all that bulk.  It is really a miracle that I didn't poke a pin through my jugular and bleed out on the sewing room floor.  I got poked a couple of times in the back but I could deal with it!

Then I went to get up to go pin another side after turning the corner and when I stood up I realized that my binding was caught in the wheel of my chair!

Sadly, that is just SO me.

Not once, but twice, my cutting table fell off of its risers while I was trying to work.

After the second time I did the mature thing and threw the quilt onto the bed in a ball and took a break.  (My mom will be so proud and not surprised.)

My machine started making a horrible sound at one point and I realized I probably needed to troubleshoot.

 It was not the needle as I had anticipated, rather, it was a need to clean the feed dog and the bobbin case.  I had thought about doing that before I began to sew since I am working with flannel and it is especially "linty".   But I forged ahead and caused myself to have to stop and do it in another unplanned delay.

After a much needed caffeine and lunch break I finished machine sewing the binding to the quilt!!!  Now I can spend the next several evenings in front of the TV doing something more productive whilst hand sewing the binding to the back.  

Yesterday's sewing session taught me a lot.  And I certainly learned that I needed a very important sewing notion in my new special sewing room...

My own box of band aids!