In Which She Cuts the Lawn With Pair of Scissors

The Steward shook his head and looked incredulous and slightly amused. Goldberry had just begun to show him the extent of her latest project: a queen-sized double wedding ring quilt. Let alone that she's not ever made a full-sized quilt, nor ever finished the doll-sized one she attempted when she was a child. And then there's the fact of all those pieces. She had just finished cutting out all the little pieces she would need to put together into an "arc," which would then have to be fit next to "melons" and "stars" in the grand scheme of the quilt top. 8 yards of quilter's cotton later, and she had over 2000 little squares with which to begin. Showing her precious box of neatly-stacked pieces to the Steward, she saw the amused, unable to completely fathom, look in his eyes as she explained her plan for those little pieces.

"Wife, that's like me going out to cut grass with a pair of scissors."

Our yard takes about 3 hours to cut with the commercial-sized mower. But I've been bitten by some extraordinary bug! The toxin must be keeping me from realizing how tedious this project really is - and I don't want the antidote! I've always wanted to quilt, and seeing as I'm 3 months away from having baby #2 and we're about to purchase and move into a bigger house in the next 2-3 months, I felt as though this is the perfect time to begin. I'm being facetious, of course. This is a horrible time to begin a long, tedious project. But that's the beauty of it! I'm filling my time with something worthwhile, whilst taking my mind off the approaching life-changing events.

And practically speaking though, this quilt is my anti-shopping device. My nicotine patch. My decaf coffee. My rehab. My tool for weaning myself from the weekly (or daily!) shopping trips to spend lots of money I can't afford to spend on things my family doesn't really need. I'm being practical here. The veritable fact is this: I spend money if I have it and if I have it, I go out to spend it. This quilt is the brake to the this vicious cycle: instead of spending money or even thinking about spending money, I remember that I can't possibly leave the house - I want to work on my quilt!

And I've got a powerful itch to at least finish the quilt top piecing before #2 arrives.

It's so pretty! The fabric came from the local quilt shop. The colored stuff is called Blueberry Crumb Cake. I added a Moda fabric called "Aged Muslin" for a light-but-not-white background. Following my rule of never sewing (for myself/family) with fabric I don't like, I got something I could definitely stand to look at day after day. A few decades, even, which is the point. I'm working on this so that not only can I enjoy a lovely handmade quilt; my daughters and hopefully their daughters can, too. The whole color scheme reminds me of something you might find at a bed & breakfast in Amish country, and it is lovely.

It would be overwhelming (to anyone but me) to see a description of what pains I took trying to get the design right - it took four days! - but I have some pictures to show you what I'm working on right now:

These are my templates for what is calling "foundation piecing."
There's over 250 in that stack, all cut by hand from ordinary printer paper.

These are my little squares, 6 per "arc." There is a brown set,
a blue set, and a brown/blue combination set.

This is one of those paper templates being pieced into an arc.
I'll have to do another post sometime about how this works, because
it's rather fascinating. At least I think so. :P

My tally card! I need 84 brown arcs, 85 blue arcs, and 85 combination arcs
for a total of 254 to complete a queen-size design.

And this is what a section of a fully pieced star, melon, and arcs looks like. 

I sew what I can, usually a good hour or two in the morning while the baby entertains himself among his toys and after I've washed dishes and tidied up. I'm just working on the arcs now, I still have to cut the rest of my star and melon templates (and the joining squares) from the background fabric - but I can wait until the arcs are done for that. Less pieces floating around, too, which will be good in case I have to move my sewing room in the next couple of months!

What has gotten into me? I ought to be downright terrified to start such an advanced design. It just hasn't hit me yet. I'm not afraid of piecing - I take particular delight in making cotton stretch and bend and submit to my design - it's the quilting that's got me scared. If I can find the right scraps in my stash, I'm planning on making a small play quilt or changing pad so I can get used to finishing a quilt before I attempt anything on my heirloom beauty. :P Lattice quilts look simple and easy. Just squares and strips and straight seams. But first to finish the arcs!

Finished, it should look something like this (but different, because I designed my own layout!)

Courtesy of Google Images

(Btw, did anyone catch that pun about cutting the "lawn" in the post title?! Ah, I amuse myself. :P )