A full-on hissy fit and other random thoughts
A while back I wrote about some quilts that were in trouble with me for a post called “Quilts in the Doghouse.” I just finished piecing another top, a recent UFO (which means I started it in the past year or so), and near the end of the process, I had what you might call a full-on hissy fit.
First I want to say that Hexie Framed is a great design and a well-written pattern from Emily Dennis of Quilty Love. None of this story is the pattern’s or the designer’s fault. This is all on me.
I felt frustrated during the piecing. I can never make a quilt by going step-by-step through the exact instructions because I’m too anxious to see how it’s going to look, so I cut a few, make a few, cut a few, make a few. And soon I have no idea how many I have cut or made so I cut a bunch more.
Because I’m wired to be haphazard by nature (makes my poor husband crazy), this is how it always goes. I wish I could change but I have tried and I don’t think it’s in the cards.
So, long story short, I thought I was almost done with Framed Hexies. I gleefully sewed the last rows on…
Well, dang. The quilt is wider than it is long (I put too many hexies in each row), and there isn’t nearly enough blue under the final red hexie (miscalculation, again). DANG!
Insert hissy fit.
I didn’t want to find more blue fabric!
I didn’t want to make more hexies!
I didn’t want to sew more rows!
I swore!
I thought about putting the whole thing away, letting it retain its UFO status. But I knew if I did, I would never finish it.
So I stayed the dang course and this afternoon, it is well and truly finished! It goes into my new “Round 2: Make Extraordinary Scrap Quilts” trunk show.
Could all this negativity in my head be from the ugly things going on the world?
Other random thoughts
Since I wrote the post about Craftsy/Bluprint shutting down, I’ve had several people contact me asking what they should do about Bluprint. One wasn’t even a quilter, she was a baker!
I don’t think I gave the impression that I was affiliated with Bluprint but these people seemed to think so. I told them what I know (not much) and they seemed happy enough.
Leftover patches
Each time I finish piecing a quilt, I have a pile of leftover patches and I don’t know what to do with them. I don’t want to make another quilt like this one, but I can’t throw them out.
It always seems like there should be a way to make better use of them than pitching them into the scraps bin. What do you do with your piles of patches from a project?
I haven’t decided for sure what I’ll sew next. So many possibilities.
Quilt on, my friends.
Tags: hexagons, make extraordinary scrap quilts, scrap quilts, trunk shows, UFOs
Diane
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The quilt looks fine the way you’re showing it so I’m not sure why you think it’s wider than it is long . You just have to hang it this way and no one (except you) will know the difference. As for the blue fabric, isn’t that your humility block?
Diane
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Whiskers
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Looking at your leftover supply, each blue piece looks like you could get three equilateral triangles out of them (after you rip off the white strips). Make a little hexie shaped 1000 pyramid table topper/mat, toss it on your kitchen table and park the salt, pepper and sugar bowl there. Problem solved.
Being a hexie lover, I like your ‘perseverance’ project, but I’m puzzled. When it was wider than tall, why didn’t you just rotate 90 degrees?
And yes, national events are getting to me too. Today, the weeds ‘got it’. And I have enough weeds to last until the snow flies again.
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Vivian
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Extra pieces like that get me thinking about the back of the quilt. Can what’s there be turned into a quilt label or create a sashing row in the middle of the back to split (or add more width or length to) the backing halves? Attach a light strip to the sashing and now it can be the area to write the label too. Last but not least, save those bits in an “Orphan Block” box and combine it with other random bits to make a future “Kitchen Sink” quilt ala Victoria Findlay-Wolf. Hers is my absolute favorite of that kind of quilt and I can’t wait to use my bits box to make one!
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Sandi Griepenstroh
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I would just hang it the other way and call it a day:) When I am done…I am over it, and I have had a few hissy fits myself! Lol! Isolation is getting to us all! I’ve decided to just go out and about and take my chances. 🙂
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