Projects! Mostly, My First Quilt!

Welcome, everyone, to my first post! I am still in the process of getting this whole blog set up nice and pretty, but until then I just wanted to get a post (or two!) up and ready. So... Let me jump in!

My ~FIRST QUILT~

The very first quilt I ever made (and it was quite recent) was...

This poorly photographed beauty! Ahh the memories. I used a non-jelly roll-branded jr jelly roll, plus some random fabric strips I found that kind of matched. The sashing is in Kona cotton in a color I do not remember. It is such luscious feeling fabric! The difference between that and my rando wal-mart fabric was pretty big, which surprised me more than it should have. Half the reason I splurge on fancy/designer/nice/not-poor-quality fabric is because it feels SO NICE. I have some fabric I just cut into for practicing curves (an invention of demons they are! curse you curved piecing!) and drunkard's path ish blocks and it's so buttery smooth and magnificent! I have the super weird impulse to rub it against my cheek! I question why I ever cut into it, because now there will be less and less of it! Quilting is a super expensive hobby (lucky I already had a sewing machine or yikes), so I try to keep myself in check and balance accordingly. Though sometimes I go mad and make impulse purchases that make me rethink everything in the cold light of day the following morning. Ahh well. JE NE REGRETTE RIEN!  (The universe works in my favor sometimes on impulse buys - I once ordered a pair of vegan leather leggings from Anthropologie that - though I loved - I did not need. Luckily they ran out of stock before my order was processed because I don't know when I would've worn them.)

At any rate! Back to the quilt. I used a tutorial for it. Specifically, I used this tutorial from the Moda Bake Shop for the "Modern Bargello Quilt."  That was very useful and I'm glad I found it! Sewing the tube and cutting strips from that made things so much easier than piecing each tiny square. I am a horror when it comes to seam allowances, so the fact that I kept this relatively even and had everything match up decently is ~*~beautiful~*~ to me. I just did a straight line 'V' pattern, nothing fancy. I bound it using the method in the tutorial which I will NEVER DO AGAIN. It was all machine binding, which I though would be easier. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha... (Spoilers: It was not.) All hand binding for me, at least for the foreseeable future. 

A little corner shot there for ya. 

Things I Learned

-Machine quilting is for the birds! And by birds I mean people more skilled than me!

-THE TUBE

-I got to a point near the end where I just wanted to be DONE. Patience is key, I discovered, because trying to finishing quickly (especially just for the sake of being finished, which was a point I got to for a little bit) just leads to mistakes and more work in the long run when you have to go back and fix something.

-In addition to not rushing, THINK. And maybe don't use gray thread only because you happen to have a lot of it on hand and you don't want to venture out and buy more. 

(Example of questionable thread color. The bad lighting softens it a bit, ha.)

-Do not say "stitch-in-the-ditch" in front of your boyfriend because he will think it is hilarious and say it every time you get in front of your sewing machine.

-Do not put in regular straight pins to baste and then forget to take them out when you get safety pins. You will hurt yourself. (Luckily no blood, despite my blog's title.)

I will have more of my exciting adventures  up soon!