Thanks, Shannon!

My friend, Shannon mentioned in her blog a new craft project that she started which I had never heard of! So I did a little online hunting and came up with a brilliant site which teaches in a very step-by-step manner how to make one! Of course, with TONS of extra fabric laying around from all my sewing projects (many curtains, unfinished re-upholstering fabric, and a skirt) I decided to give it a try. Since I ditched the upholstering after only one chair (I fell in love with a new dinette set at Pier One and ended up replacing the entire set I was reupholstering in the first place) and have the most of that, and it’s white, I’m using it in place of the muslin. And to use up a lot of this extra fabric, I’m cutting 12-inch squares instead of the popular 8-9 inch starter-squares. The nice thing about this particular fabric is, since it’s upholstering fabric, it’s thicker (like white denim, actually) and will make for a heavier “quilt” but the bad thing is that it takes more uumph to push the needle through the many folds and my index finger is a tad tender. Tomorrow I will stop by Wal*Mart and pick up a thimble.

For the centers, I am alternating two fabrics: the curtain fabric with the skirt fabric. So far, it’s working fabulously but I did have to resort to the machine stitching to start it since the thick upholstering fabric tended to fray in the corners of the folded over part. I think I will like the more consistent pattern of using only two center colors instead of random scraps, as the link above shows.

Shannon, thank you immensely for introducing me to a new project, and one that’s easy to take with you and doesn’t require a crochet hook for me to lose! Plus, I’ve always wanted to make a “quilt” but never understood how to get started. The cathedral window quilt is very simple for me to understand. Thanks again!

Now, I must eat dinner and get back to cutting squares.