The Basham Family: Quilt Quota

I have a goal to make a blanket (more specifically, a quilt) for all my kids (and nephews/nieces if I can manage it....) and I have been really stressing out about getting one done for Peanut #2.

I found this super cute baby fabric back in April at Joann's which I totally fell in love with. It's four different coordinating patterns. So cute, right?!

Then, I came up a layout which was simple enough to cut and piece together. So off I go. Very excited about my fabric choice and pattern. And here's what I put together (note: this is only complete to the inner border):

Partially Finished Quilt Top
(you can see where I started to take it apart)

Not excited anymore. Totally can't tell where one block ends and next one begins and I hate it. :( So then I spent 2 months avoiding looking at this thing and stressing out about how I have spent $40+ on fabric and two full days of cutting and sewing (and two full days are PRECIOUS to me) and I have this result that I don't love. What to do (besides march on and give it away to the next expectant mother as Jenny suggested)?

Close Up. See how busy it is??

So I think, maybe I can applique something on there to help break it up. But, do I know how to applique? Nope. Will it even make it look better? Who knows? And how much more time do I have to invest just to find out if it MIGHT make it look better? And by the time I get all that done, will I even have time to actually QUILT the thing?? Gaaaaaahhh!! You see why I was stressin'!

So one day, I'm starting to rip it apart because I feel huge guilt over wasting the fabric and time already invested and I decide I have to find a way to fix this. Joel says, wouldn't it just be faster to start over? YES! Somehow, Joel suggesting that it was ok to ~~waste~~ put this quilt on the back burner made it ok. So I did.

I completely changed techniques. I saw this "rag quilt" on Pinterest and decided I could make a rag quilt much faster than a regular quilt and it still has the word "quilt" in the name so I feel ok about cheating and not hand quilting. A rag quilt puts the seams to the outside of the quilt and then the edges fray and it looks old and neat. And what little bit of quilting it does have, can easily be done on the machine.

So I spent an hour at Joann's browsing fabrics and planning out my design so that I didn't end up with another ugly quilt. Then I took two days off of work to devote to it (while still taking Lily to the baby sitter). It took me about half a day to cut all 300 squares:

And then I spent the next day and half piecing my little quilt block sandwiches (100 of them), quilting those 100 sandwiches and piecing them together in a blanket. It was seriously the fastest quilt I have ever put together in my life.

Then it was time to "fray" the quilt. You have to make little slits in all the exposed seams about 1/4 inch apart. This took me several evenings to accomplish. Then it was time to wash it. I had read where it gives off so many threads that you don't really want to wash it in your own washing machine. So off to the laudromat I go. Did you know it costs $1.75 per load?? Holy crap!

I've washed it 3 times at the laudromat and I think the worst of the threads are off. I'll still have to wash it lots more times at home so there's no risk of loose threads with a little baby, but the worst is gone. And here's the (almost) finished product!