The first project to get finished this week was an apron for the Superintendent at my Mother's school. He always does the grilling for the school's open houses and she felt that he needed a 'Gopher' apron to cook in. It was really simple and didn't take too long once I finally got started. We had an old apron that fit/ worked well that we used as a pattern. I traced the pattern on to black cotton duct that I had purchased earlier. After finishing the edges, I added Black and Gold plaid to act as the neck band and ties. I wanted the apron to have 'Gopher' spirit, but not overboard so that he might get more use out of it rather than just at school. Overall, I was really pleased with how it turned out. (Sorry the picture isn't the best) I still might add a pocket in plaid to add more color to the front, but need a model who is taller than me to figure out the proper placement of the pocket for a person of a more average height than myself.
The next project I finished has rather a long story, so I had better start at the beginning.....
When I was 10 my Grandmother helped me to start my very first quilt. She selected a simple 4-square for me. It would be an easy one to start with and I think it was also the first quilt my Great Grandmother completed when she was also 10. We both were really excited. At her house I had my own sewing machine and work area and she gathered up scraps to cut the pieces from for the quilt. After sewing quite a few blocks we realized that we were running low on precut pieces and that we would need to cut more. This is where things take a turn. Grandma had done all the cutting so far because she was worried that I would have trouble and the pieces would end up cut wrong and in different sizes. So once again, she cut more pieces for me and added them to the ones that I had before. We didn't realize at that time that the pieces we different sizes. (Notice a problem?) Finally, I have quite a stack of quilt blocks and we are ready to put it together. Grandma suggested that I frame out each block individually. I didn't love this idea and school started back up and .....well the quilt didn't get finished that summer. It wasn't until I was 13 that I really wanted to pick it up again. I decided that I would just sew all the blocks together into one top piece for the quilt. It looked nice in the strips, but when we put the strips together things didn't really go together. I don't really remember what Grandma thought, but I think I she thought my sewing was the big problem. So once again the quilt gets put away. I feel kinda bad about never finished the quilt at this point, because Gram was so proud that I was doing a quilt, because she could never get my Mother to make one. My Mom was always outside helping her Dad instead of working to develop her 'homemaking' skills. Anyway, several more years pass and I am around 22. I am determined to fix this quilt. I can't quit on something I've started. I want that sense of accomplishment. I rip apart the strips so that I have just the basic blocks in front of me. I start to wonder why Gram and I couldn't get this thing to work. It is then that I realize that not all the blocks are the exact same size. (It took how many years to realize that Gram cut squares of material from different sized pattern pieces? It a little sad; I know) Anyway, back to the story. Overall, some of the blocks were just about 1/8"-1/4" off on one or two sides. If I had been a better at sewing I probably could have just adjusted the seam allowance, but I didn't want to take any chances. I was going to get it right this time around. By this time, I was still seeking out Grandma's advice, but I was mostly flying solo to prove to her I could do it. I found the smallest block and made a pattern. With each block I lined up the center and trimmed all the edges down. Once again, this is during the summer and school starts up, so.....Yes, you guessed it! The quilt gets put away, again. Now I am almost 27 and I dig it out for the 3rd time. All the pieces are the same size! I have my work cut out for me. This time I sew 4 small blocks into 1 one large block and then frame out those blocks. I mixed my method with the one my Grandma suggested. The top piece is finally finished! It just took 17years.
In the time between I started this 1st quilt and today, I have made three other large quilts (along with my other projects.) I just have to laugh at how long this quilt project dragged out over the years. After I had so many problems with the quilt, I vowed never to do a traditional quilt again. (I would stick to just working on art quilts.) But after this summer, I don't know whether that is really true anymore. We will just have to see.
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