More pictures from my work in progress:

Here's the blocks actually sewn together (in the picture in the post below, in case you can't tell, nothing was actually assembled yet, just laid out. I like picking fabrics, designing, and cutting out. I don't really like sewing because it's Hard.)


Doesn't it remind you of peppermint candy? Here's a close-up of the fabrics:

(For some reason the pattern on the red fabric is a little blurry...? And the white looks a little pink? Oh well.)

So the original plan had been to sew on all the "leaves" by hand, a kind of cheating-applique in which I sew the pieces flat on the blocks (i.e. instead of folding the edges under) but with some decorative trim to protect (and hide) the raw edges. I started this a few days before Christmas.

I have a four month old. It took me an entire day to sew on one leaf.

There are 100 leaves!

So I got Frustrated and considered back-up plans. My sewing machine...? Can do lots of fancy stitches...? I carefully read through the manual, found a stitch that would be appropriate for sewing on the leaves and decorative trim, and got a scrap of fabric to test my abilities to machine sew a curved seam.

That plan was quickly abandoned. Apparently, my machine sewing skills are like my ice skating skills- I can pretty much only go in a straight line, forward.*

At this point, I rather Despaired, and started thinking what most Lazy/Immature/Unskilled/Inexperienced/Impatient quilters think at this point-

"Can't I just GLUE these things together...?!?!?"

So then, my mother-in-law came to visit us. You have to understand, my mother-in-law is An Excellent Seamstress. She makes clothes. She knits. She does embroidery. You get the idea. She does things The Right Way. Her craft items have all the corners meeting up perfectly, unlike mine, which seem to mysteriously lose an inch (OR TWO?!?) somehow in the creative process. So I was king of hesitant about asking her about my options... but in the end I was glad I did, because she introduced me to the miracle of:

(*trumpet fanfare, drumroll*)

FUSIBLE WEBBING!!!!!

It's all about the TWO-SIDED-STICKY FUSIBLE WEBBING, my friends! Among the greatest inventions of the 20th century! Ranks right up there with putting people on the moon and general anesthetic!!

The answer is, Why, YES! YES YOU CAN GLUE YOUR QUILT TOGETHER!! And this was the result:


Here I'm showing it to you "on point," because the patterns that show up all look kind of different from this perspective. (Plus, my Inner Fractal Quilter [does everyone have an Inner Fractal Quilter??] totally wants to take this design, shrink it down to a 12x12 block, and lay out a bunch of blocks on point, or make them into a border for the main design, or make them into some kind of Great Circle pattern or Irish Chain or something.)

A few more notes: this design is essentially a block pattern called "Winding Ways," which is a variation on the more traditional Drunkard's Path. If anyone's interested in using it for anything, you can find template instructions by googling "Winding Ways."

I think it is probably the Height of Literary Pretention (but it is also True) to tell you that this quilt makes me think about The Great Dance in Perelandra.

To Mary, who, in the comments below, was "in awe": remember: I don't cook. I rarely clean my house. I can't really sew, either. I GLUED this baby together. ;-) It's not my fault that Jesus made the world with beautiful, exquisite geometry.

Love to all, and I hope you all had a marvelous Christmas. :-)
Neb

PS Apologies to any readers of this blog who aren't Crafty. You can totally post some oversized piece (replete with pictures) of how you Rebuilt your Engine or Defragmented your Hard Drive or something.

*This isn't technically true. I can turn on ice skates, which is a useful skill when skating around an elliptical rink. I just can't go backwards. Still, ice skating is what came to mind for this metaphor, and it makes me happy and seems winter-appropriate, so I'll leave it in. I need more Coffee now.