The Quilt That Ate My Living Room

This one will be a short post.  I'm beat.

So . . . as I mentioned in my "About Me" post, I started quilting over the summer.  I found a really cool bead pattern on Pinterest.  See?

It's from kandipatterns.com.  Cool, right?  Why wouldn't it make a great quilt?  Over the summer, I cut out the squares and sewed them all together.  The top has been finished for a little while.  I had been putting off the next part, because this quilt is huge.  The squares are 5 inches, so it's a king size quilt (roughly).  We have a queen size bed, so I was obviously not anticipating the consequences of my choices.  On many levels.

I finally moved the living room furniture so I could lay the quilt back, batting, and top on the floor.  It was very difficult to get it to smooth out.  I got an iron and an extension cord and just started in the middle.  I worked my way out, ironing and pinning for about two and a half hours.  380 pins.  My knees and my back hate me right now, and I don't even have bad knees.  Or a bad back.  Yet.

Here's a picture of it after I was done pinning!

I'm going to machine quilt it, stitching about 1/4 inch off of "in the ditch".  I even got one line done, lengthwise through the middle.  I did a second line and then I realized my machine was skipping stitches in that line, so I'm going to have to rip the whole second line out.  Some other day.  Not today.

Anyway, if you decide to take up quilting, here are some things that I've learned about how to start:

1.  Use a quilting pattern.  Not a perler bead pattern.  Even if it's really cool.

2.  Make a quilt for a baby.  If you don't have a baby, find a baby that needs a quilt and make them one.

3.  If there's no room to put the quilt flat on the floor anywhere in your house, it's too big.  Especially if it's your first quilt.

I think that's it.  It's really been fun, but today was . . . work.  Thanks for reading!  :)