The for-fun quilt I started last week is all assembled and I even started quilting this weekend! I'm calling this the Gray Lazy quilt because it's just the right size for lazing around the apartment. And it's my very first "just for fun" quilt - no recipient in mind at this point!
I started with a few of the nine-patch blocks I made when I did the Crazy Mom Nine-Patch Quilt-Along last November (all of the fabrics are pre-washed, pre-cut 3" squares from Stitch Simple). I got a bunch of solid fabric in gray and blue from my co-Bay-Area-Modern-Quilt-Guild friend Amy a la Mode at our last meeting, so I used some of it for sashing here (reason #854 to join a quilt guild, by the way: fabric swapping).
I did the same thing for the back of the quilt except I didn't have enough gray, so I used blue (also from Amy - thanks, Amy, for dumping your excess on us). I think I like the contrast of the gray sashing better, but it's fun to have a quilt with two slightly-different personalities.
The hand-quilting I started was the good, old faithful crosshatch. Seemed like a great idea when I started it, but realized when I was looking over my handiwork last night that my blocks on top don't exactly line up with the blocks on the back, so the stitching on the back is off-point by about 1/4". Oh, well - guess I'll keep this quilt for myself and chalk it up to a learning experience for next time.
One thing I realized assembling this quilt: I am really, really bad at estimating how long assembling things will take me. I told my husband, "I'm just going to add sashing then quilt the blocks together, so this should only take me a couple of hours total." But my extreme optimism got the best of me again. It took me three nights of intense sewing and pressing to do both sides (probably a total of about 12 hours ... not two). Am I super slow, or does it take everyone else this long for a task like this?
It's a super fun and inspiring little project though, and I'm excited to forge ahead on it and start the next thing soon.
Have you started any new projects recently? I'd love to hear what you're up to!
