Squaring up a VERY WONKY quilt

Although I didn't have solid plans for yesterday - there was a quilt to trim, applique to cut, etc. —I got none of that done. 

Instead, I was repaying a favor, and someone came to use the long arm, so I spent the day helping with that. WAIT—that was the easy part. She also brought a wonky quilt that we attempted to square up. Hmm—that was quite the mental exercise, and before we knew it, it also turned into a physical one. 

I will say (and I told her) that I disagreed with the construction method, and something strange happened in this instance. When you take one strip of fabric, add a second strip of fabric, and then continue in that fashion, the result (after adding MANY strips of fabric) is that the end is usually longer than the beginning. Not so with this one - the end was much shorter (or narrower by at least 11 inches) if you want. And it had quite the bow in it! 

The task of the day was to try to salvage the quilt. Of anything I've been asked to do, this one stumped me. 

We started by clearing off one work table to see if we could square it up. Hmm—that wasn't working well, so we tried folding the quilt in the opposite direction, parallel to the seams. Then, one side of the quilt was trimmed. We tried using that edge as a guide to cut the other edge. 

To our horror, that first cut did NOT look good at all. One half of the side was straight, and then at the fold, it took a crazy angle. 

So we laid it out again and tried to square it up—again with it folded in half, but in the opposite orientation. But NOT before I gave the darn thing a good press with steam. This is what it looked like. 

Trimming a quilt by folding it

You can see how the end on the bottom was significantly longer than the top edge, and it had significant bows in it (I wish I had taken a picture), which resulted from sewing row after row in the same orientation. I believe this was a tutorial online! Sigh.....

That wasn't working, so I moved more furniture so we could lay the quilt top out flat. Oh boy—this is pretty wonky. What to do? 

Then, I decided to use a floorboard as a guide. So we lined up one side with a floorboard. Then I took MANY rulers to continue that straight edge on the quilt top. Once I was happy with that, I marked the line with chalk. The ends aren't going to be square—the ends of the strips, that is, as some of them have a bit of an angle. But the edge of the quilt was STRAIGHT. The mat went on the floor, and she trimmed it along the chalk line. Ignore the pink tape measure - it makes the side look wonky, but it was just lying there at this moment. 

Trying to get a straight edge

We used THREE long tape measures in our journey, as well as many rulers. NO—the quilt sides are not 90 degrees to the top and bottom, and I'm hoping that can be fixed when it gets quilted. 

It took a lot of finagling to get the other side parallel to the first. Do not ask me why this wasn't a simple task, but it wasn't. I think the curved seams gave off an optical vibe that was very distracting to work with. 

Attempting to square the other edge

However, we persevered, and the second side is now parallel (more or less) to the first one. This quilt ended up being 73 inches wide or somewhere in that range, and it's much longer than the width, so it was a challenge to deal with, not just the wonky seams but the optical illusion from the curved seams and the size. 

But here it is - more or less trimmed and ready to be quilted. 

The quilt is salvaged

So here's some good advice - just because someone posts a video on how to make a quilt - don't believe it! If someone thinks they have a better method for making a jelly roll quilt, don't believe them. While I think this was to emulate a jelly roll quilt, with the goal of making it larger, there are better ways to make a larger jelly roll quilt. Speaking of jelly roll quilts - the construction method dictates that the quilt is a specific size. You can mess with that to some extent, but you will run into significant issues if you're not careful. It's a simple mathematical formula to resize a jelly roll quilt. I should explain it one day. 

The second thing is NEVER just take one strip of fabric and, without measuring it, add it to another piece of fabric and then repeat that process. The lengths will NEVER be the same, and they will skew, as happened here. I'll equate EACH new strip in this quilt as a border, and one should NEVER just sew the border onto a quilt. It needs to be measured, cut to the appropriate length, and PINNED. 

How would I have done this? I could have measured the first strip, and then I would have cut the next strip to the EXACT SAME length, and I would have sewn a pair of strips together after pinning them. Then I would have sewn the next two pairs and so on. Then, when I had a pile of pairs, I would have started to join (always pinning) the pairs. Continuing to sew to the first row (column) means that the strip gets handled a LOT, so it tends to stretch, while the final row was handled once and didn't stretch. 

By sewing in pairs, each strip is handled the SAME number of times - zero stretching! 

I want to find the instructions to see if this was, in fact, how the instructor said to sew this quilt because EVERYTHING about the construction, as I understand it, is WRONG!!! This is from a YouTube instructor, where I saw in a short video this morning, earns about $8K monthly from her videos. I hope the others are better than this one. I'm missing out on making a lot of money! But I do NOT want to be tied to making videos. I have better things to do! I could make videos on decluttering! That would be entertaining. 

Happily, the quilt on the long arm turned out beautifully. 

The quilt turned out amazing! 

I did accomplish a few things. I sorted through two of the boxes of novelty prints and removed FOUR large pieces that can be used for quilt backings. They were measured and moved to the quilt backing area. 

Four quilt backings are measured and on the shelf

I removed a couple of fruit fabrics as I have a separate storage area for them. 

Fruit fabrics

And those new plastic bins hold much more fabric than the cardboard boxes. It was a fun trip down memory lane as I went through all those prints. Gosh, I seem to have everything on fabric. Do you see the matches?

A bin of novelty fabrics

The next quilt is loaded on the long arm and ready to go today. I have some applique to do, and it's Monday Sewing, so it'll be the perfect day for that. 

Here are some photos of what's in bloom in the backyard. Two lilies have appeared in the pond. 

The first two lilies in the pond

Oh dear -- I need to find out what this flowering shrub is. Gardening was never my strong point. Where are the bees? This one is also quite fragrant and beside the gazebo, but it has been a few days since I've been there. No time!

Another flowering shrub

My one peony is starting to bloom. I had a better picture than this, and I think I should plant a few more plants (bushes) behind this one. It seems to thrive in that area, and there's a lot of empty space there. OK—where do I get peonies? I want colors that are different from the fuchsia I have. 

My peony

After our water issues were resolved, I could get the pump to the pond going, and Miss Murphy was again fascinated by the waterfalls. Oh, and you can see the remains of our irises. We have yellow ones. I'm surprised they are still living because they are right where Murphy likes to tramp. 

MOM -- there's water flowing!

Meanwhile, Lexi just watches. She's so calm compared to Murphy. She's my "hero" and will save the world. Do you see the resemblance? 

MOM -- I'm on watch duty!

On that note, I have a ton of follow-up emails to complete today. I'm a tad behind in that, but I also have stuff to do in Studio B since I didn't get much of my stuff completed yesterday. And I was OK with that. I'm glad I could help with those two quilts, and now she can move forward on completing them. 

And I'm off to spin class and want to find those instructions! Just because you can doesn't mean you should! 

I managed to get a bit more put away in the kitchen, and the spice drawer is almost finished. Why is it taking so long? I have to wash the little funnel after every use, and rather than take the time to dry it, I let it air dry. When I have a minute or two or just pass by, I grab the funnel and fill another jar. I thought of a great idea to store the excess spices. If I had ripped through the process, I wouldn't have time to mull over the ideas, so slow and steady is how I work because I'm problem-solving as I go. 

This method has worked for me for years - I will NOT change it, despite all your "protests" that I move faster. 

I hope you are all tackling your drawers or some areas of your house. It doesn't need to take hours - a few minutes well spent in any area can start to make a difference!! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!