Ben's Quilt

So some of you may be wondering how I turned all this stuff into something that actually looks like a blanket, It wasn't easy. It involved a lot of phone calls to my mother, a fair amount of trying not to swear (and not always succeeding), and patience.




Next item on my I want sewing list -- A ROTARY CUTTER AND MAT!!

Trying to cut out all those squares with scissors, yes they were Gingers but still hand held, means that they are only kind of square.



After you get all the rows sewn, you have to iron the seams so that they all go one direction. Don't worry, this is the only ironing picture. Though you do a lot of ironing when doing something like this. At least that's what the directions on the last one had me do.



Of course the one thing I worried about I did with the first seam. The Illini pieces are top toward each other, so no matter what I did from then on one row would be upside down.



The only place I had to spread the whole thing out to pin it was on the floor. Outside of the unwanted canine and feline help, it was ok. I'm just glad no one was here to see me on my knees trying to keep it flat and pin it. But of course, this is me, what went awry you ask, I answer- I pinned it to the carpet! I had to undo half my pins to release the stupid carpeting.




After I got it re-pinned, I go the whole kit n koboodle up on the table and then I could start sewing it all together. Just look at all that material I had to muscle around.

After a bit of hand stitching, I figured you didn't need a picture of that, I was done with only a few extra holes caused by the needle. Now I remember that thimbles are not just something old ladies collect.

I then got the pillows I made and went to Ben's bed.



Not to bad if I say so myself. Of course I realized that it doesn't look like a baby's room anymore and pouted a little.

So the big project is done and I am quite proud of myself. I'm going to have to remember to print up some pictures to send to my grandmother to share my yeah me moment.