Of course, I didn't have a sewing machine in our tiny French apartment, but when we moved back I made sure that the fat roll of boxer scraps was packed.
Then, a few weeks ago, after I finished something like my twelfth Jane Market bag, I decided I was ready to make something else. I remembered the long ago promise of a lap quilt and had the brainstorm to make David's blanket in time to surprise him for his birthday.
Too bad I didn't have this brilliant idea a week earlier, because by that point I had six days until his birthday, and two of those days were a weekend. That didn't stop me from cutting and sewing up a storm, though, and I finally delivered the blanket onto his lap three days after his birthday. It was definitely a happy surprise, and well worth the effort.
This was my first blanket, and I had doubts about such a large undertaking without Katie's guidance. But I did have the quilting handbook that she gave me, and used this to choose a pattern called Little Picture Frames in the "simple projects" chapter. The original pattern used 5" squares inside the frames, but considering the size of my scraps I took it down to 4" squares. Plus, I had a whole stack of 4" squares left over from Jane bags, so I figured I could use those if I needed extra bits.
Next came a lot of cutting. Since none of the pieces had a straight edge and most were in roughly the shape of France (and some Florida), a lot of material hit the cutting room floor as I squared up the scraps and sliced out squares and strips. There were a lot of cute medium-scale patterns - alligators, cars, giraffes, fish, and penguins - and I was happy to find that many of them were printed on a really soft material. There was also a lot of gingham, enough for me to pick out only the colors that went well with the other pieces.
After I had each block assembled and laid out, I started sewing them into rows. This was when I remembered that I was going to lose a lot of width in the seams. So I cut and sewed another seven blocks to make another column. And of course, after all of the rows were sewn together, it was obvious that I needed another row, if not two. I put together another row and decided that I didn't have enough patterned fabric to make a second. It would have to be enough.
With the colored blocks assembled, next I added a border. I had some cream broadcloth that I bought cheap at JoAnne's, so I decided to use that. One of my short-cut "half" yards of brown fabric was cut into strips for the binding, but it was a few inches short of what I needed. I needed a backing anyway, so it was time for a trip to the fabric store.
Of course a trip to JoAnne's would have been perfect, but the 40-minute drive was out of the question. So I bundled up the quilt top and binding fabric and drove to the pricey, but very close quilt shop.
The great thing about The Quilt Company is that the flock of hens who work there are always interested in what you're up to. I sought out Nancy, my favorite, and she happily tuttered around pulling out bolts of fabric to match my binding. We found a bolt of brown flannel for the back, and she was about to cut it when she found a big bolt of grizzly brown minky under the cutting table. She said, "If you use this, you wouldn't even need batting." Sold.
Back home, I taped the minky to the living room floor with painter's tape and sprayed the quilt top with a can of basting spray Nancy had talked me into. A few things I learned about basting spray compared to what I was told:
1. Statement: "You won't need to use pins"
Reality: True. I did put in a few pins just to be sure, but considering I only had a few handfuls of regular safety pins and not the curved variety, I'd say I was saved a lot of hassle. The parts of the quilt that we're sprayed held together neatly and I didn't have to worry about puckering or the minky stretching.
2. Statement: "You can do maybe 10 quilts with this one ($10) can."
Reality: False. I was about 4/5 through the quilt when the can ran dry. In hindsight, I should have sprayed the perimeter first and worked my way in, and probably should have sprayed more lightly. I should probably check with the shop on how heavily they spray before I invest in another can.
3. Statement: "It's odorless."
Reality: False. Apparently other basting sprays are knockout stinky, so I imagine this one wasn't bad in comparison, but it still had a slightly rubber cement scent to it. Considering the first thing David did when I gave it to him was put it in his face and take a big sniff, I'm glad I put the finished blanket through the wash to clear out the spray.
So, after the top and bottom were lined up, I began quilting. Nancy had suggested crossing the squares diagonally instead of "stitching in the ditch", so the first thing I had to do was draw on all those diagonal lines with a heat-erasing pen. This was by far the most mundane task of the whole project.
Quilting was as exhausting as I imagined, and two days later my forearms are still sore from the strain (weak, I know). Amazingly, I didn't have any problems, and the bobbin even ran out at a convenient time. When it was done I trimmed the edges of the minky off and set about sewing on the binding.
And then, more than halfway through the binding, I realized that I was sewing it onto the wrong side. Son. Of. A. Serious setback. The next two hours were spent on the couch with the blanket in my lap and the seam ripper going to work. I cleared out all of my shows on the DVR and watched an episode of Scrubs to boot.
Back on track, the binding went on the right side quickly enough and didn't even give me any trouble on the corners. I threw it in the wash, cleaned up the sweatshop, and unfurled it onto my husband's lap later that evening, feeling like a hero. A hero of homemade surprises.
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