Finished in time for a start

I have been working on quite a project. Usually my projects go something like this- Meme gets an idea, rushes out to buy whatever materials are needed, stays up till sunrise to finish and ends up with a messy, not thought out piece of something that gets put in a corner and forgotten if not thrown away. This time would be different. This time I was inspired, and careful. I read lots of blogs. Lots of crafty, sewing is easy blogs. They make me drool. Because sewing for me is not. easy. I never was good at staying in the lines and sewing needs a bit of restraint and focus and well lines. I found THIS blog a while back. I'm not even sure how I found her anymore, but I enjoy her projects. And dream of living on a farm like she does. I don't. I live in suburbia in a patio home with wally world as a neighbor. I digress. On her blog she posted a quilt she was working on for her daughter and I simply couldn't resist. She made it sound so easy! Now of course I couldn't do it exactly like she did which is the traditional, correct way to make a grandmothers garden quilt. Nope. I opened one of Eagles math books, found a hexagon and traced it and then cut my own papers. But I stuck to the same idea.... just made stripes instead of flowers. It was easy! AND I loved doing it. AND I took my time. It still turned out Meme perfect.... meaning there are no straight lines and if folded over the bottom of the quilt measures a good two inches thinner than the top. oops. But my husband said it best. "the imperfections are what make it look homemade." Yup. very homemade. So here, in photographs is the story of a quilt from beginning to end. Finished just in time for the beginning of my little guys own personal homemade story. I hope his story has just as many imperfections. Just as many crooked stitches that say... I'm me. Made by God as an original.

Step one: Begin applying fabric to paper hexagons by sewing corners or edges. Sew edges together. I made stripes not flowers in the Meme version of this quilt.

Step 2: Sew hexagons into stripes and then sew stripes together.

Step 3: using my cricut machine I made iron on appliques and ironed them on :-). Then I appliqued the edges so it will last forever. Imagine a world where appliques require no iron on interfacing or pins! It does exist.

Step 4: I only used my machine on this part.. and now regret it. I cut two inch strips of each color of fabric and sewed them together to make the border. Had I done this by hand I would have added a week to my quilting time, but the stripes would have been even. Alas. At least I know they wont come apart.

Step 5: the hardest for me was adding the quilt batting and backing. I didn't take pictures. The store was out of the backing I wanted and then it took several attempts. Tip: use curved safety pins and not straight pins.
Step 6: Quilt and bind :-).

The final product. Quilted, bound and washed. Ready for snuggles!