Surprise: I can quilt!

Okay so here goes a long story! But it's cool because there will be a lot of pictures and a heartwarming story of triumph over skepticism and disbelief! Who doesn't love that! Like some Disney stories it starts with some sadness.

So once a upon a time my best friend was going through some serious shit... that should not be divulged to strangers on the internet! Needless to say I did not have the ability to go back home and cheer her up in person so the question was, what could I do? Being that my brain long ago decided it doesn't have boundaries it decided we were gonna make a quilt. 

Do I sew you ask.. Not really. I made a cinch bag when I was 13 in home economics (ps- it is super messy inside... I hope I never see the inside of it again. Really the only other thing I made was a set of kind of wonky short curtains. 

Why a quilt you might ask. Because I am a psycho and I like to just rain pain upon myself. Also my friend and I have a love of all things cuddly and blanketish. She loves fall colors so I went to Joanns and began a rather strange adventure. My mom had always told me how expensive sewing had become and I was determined to prove her wrong at least a little. So I found fabric quarters that were on sale and got a bunch in fall colors and figured that with them I would make the quilt top and if I needed more space I could add a border around it in a solid color. During this trip I also went to the lady who sells sewing machines inside the joanns to ask about machines and what they do. In this process she was wondering what I was gonna make and when I said quilt she looked confused and skeptical. After a lot of talking about the questionable pattern that was just in my mind she said she wanted to see it when I got the top done. 

I am pretty abnormal in everything I do ... This is me dealing with the Huge piece of batting.... sometimes you just have to have a crazy moment :D

My brain plan was to cut out long skinny rectangles like subway tiles and put them in an offset pattern just like you would actually do with subway tiles on a wall but in fall colors. Then have the back and border be a plain color fabric that would probably be green (since it is her favorite). After a week of blundering my way through the strangest quilting brain pattern this was created. 

 I am clearly too short to continue taking pictures of my quilts if they get any bigger...

 The back is stitch in the ditch method because the machine I used is old and wanted to murder me so it was about the only method other than tying it off every so often.

 I was told it needed a tag to document when I was done so I made this and then since my mom always claimed my hand sewing was horrible I let her sew it... probably not gonna do that nest time... MAHHMMM JEEZ

Its cool though I only had to stand half way up the stairs to get the whole thing in the picture...  :-(

I went back looking for the lady and she wasn't there instead I found a quite mean lady in her place who before even saying hello said "WELL you clearly don't know how to edge!" So I left rather upset and chose to look for the other lady the next week.

So I went back to show the lady at joanns and showed her what I had come up with. She was speachless for a while and then just went... um this was the one you were telling me about?! She then started yelling for people to come look including the people at the sewing counter yelling THIS IS HER FIRST QUILT PEOPLE!! This went on for quite a while being that she showed just about everyone that walked past us. Which was strange but fun. She also asked if she ever started a quilting circle or group if I would be in it...I said yes but maybe I should have shown her the picture of me in the batting and asked if she wanted to take back her offer. In the process I met a seamstress that immediately started telling me how to get discounts or to find stuff that I would need even cheaper. 

I told her I did not use a rotary cutter to make this as she was telling me where to find the blades and she looked rather confused. So I told them what I had used to make the quilt. The list was small and confusing to a seamstress and a quilter. I had used a 12 inch bendy school ruler, a pair of old unsharpened sewing shears, a marking pencil, and an old brother that was not meant to do much but sew two pieces of fabric together. At this news they were pretty floored I had no idea I was sewing in the stone age but they were more than happy to ask, comically, if I had sewn the whole thing in a cave as well.  Apparently I should not have been able to do the stitch in a ditch without a walking foot to keep the layers from crumpling up... I told them to prevent that I just Pulled REALLY HARD. They thought I was a bit nuts but hey it worked so that's all that mattered to me at the time. They gave me all sorts of information to help me and asked for pictures to be sent to them. Since then I have been able to ask the Seamstress anything and she has even invited me on some trips she takes to show her students where to find stuff. As soon as I save up some more money I will take her up on the offer! I have also since bought myself a rotary cutter, and a clear quilting ruler guide thing and dug out my old cutting mat from photo class. MOVING ON UP! to be honest given the choice I think I liked using the scissors better especially once I get them sharpened! but I have more precise pieces with the cutter... DILEMMA I think the main thing here is to know that I am terrible at holding a ruler in place long enough to roll along the edge.

Once I got the quilt almost done my mom had to help me pull the last few rows through and she started crying. Admitting that she thought it was going to be one hell of a mess and she couldn't believe I pulled it off... GREAT SUCCESS! 

Today I got a message from my best friend who got the quilt. It included these pictures. She works in a bakery so that's whats going on. Needless to say I think she is quite enjoying her new cocoon. 

TRIUMPH!!!! 

Since making this I have started a second quilt that will replace the crochet one that I had started for my other friends wedding. I asked for colors she and her fiance and she liked. She said grays, blues, teal and lime green... Don't think those colors can work together... THINK AGAIN. I DO WHAT I WANT!

This is how I make the patterns those are images of the actual fabric I got and I tinker with them in Photoshop until I have what I want. This is the mockup for the new quilt. I have been told the house is quite gray so the border and backing will either be gray or blue to try to match the best I can having never seen the place. I also am hoping to have a new machine before this one is done so It may be quilted down differently and possibly have some embroidery and wedding date type things. 

I am doing this one slower just because the wedding is next year and I know that if I get the top done I will want to quilt it down and currently I am waiting probably till around my birthday for a new machine. I nearly killed the old brother trying to push through two layers and batting it tried to protest quite a few times but I forced the issue...and won. DON"T SHOW THE MACHINE FEAR!

Tomorrow is the birthday of one of the girls I babysit from time to time. She is turning 11 and wanted a marvel super hero cake with (Deadpool, Ms. Marvel, Groot, Hulk, and Archangel) If you have ever watched a super hero movie or read anything about any of these guys you know that this team up would probably never happen... but it is what she wanted so her cake will have them all. I do them as drawings attached to skewers so they are more detailed and you can take them off if you want to keep them. She wants to do the cake saturday though so I will have to add a picture of that later. But I went out and got some marvel fabric and made her a cinch bag. I figure it could be an overnight bag. Being the first one I made years ago is such a confused mess I had to find a tutorial for the bottom of the bag since I figured out the top fine. So this is her bag and it holds the rest of the presents!

 The bag is 20.5 inches wide and 14 deep :D and much nicer inside than my last!

Jar of candy.. what kid doesn't want a jar of candy?

This is everything inside the bag and then the bag wrapped! Also a deadpool card WOO!

In the process of making these things I have met a bunch of new people which is awesome except for the few shitty ones. My aunt introduced me to a super nice and helpful lady named Corinne who has helped quite a bit already and has sent me a really nice book to help me get even farther with quilting! 

Thank you to everyone that helped or is helping me with all this stuff it is much appreciated!