For reasons that are really beyond my comprehension, I decided to sign up for a four-week class to learn how to make a Blooming Nine Patch quilt. This sucker may look tremendously cool when finished, but trust me when I say that it is a PAIN IN MY ASS.
At 72x82inches, this puppy has 2,016 teeny, tiny, itsy, bitsy squares made of up 1.75x1.75 inch bits of fabric. Yup. You read that right: 2,016. Then there's the 195 larger squares and the 60 triangles that are also in it.
If you're doing the mental math, that means this quilt has nearly 2,300 pieces of fabric seamed together, all of which I will have cut and sewn by the time I finish. Put simply, this quilt is drudgery at its absolute worst.
To make matters worse, I'm not exactly what you would call laid back about the project. That's because my totally screwed up, sadistic inner voice has turned it into a competitive sewing adventure, and I'm trying to finish before everyone else. (I told you, I live to screw up the curve.)
This combination of insanely annoying project + inhuman urge to kick ass means that I am logging long, disgruntled, profanity-filled hours on the sewing machine. It also explains this:
4 comments:
You're right: great to look at, pain in the ass to make. If you've got the pieces cut, could you break it up into smaller groups and work on something easier in between to take your mind off the fact that if you don't find a way to deal with it you'll be plagued by guilt for the rest of your days? Sometimes that works.
Since I am currently obsessed with 9 patches I had thought about making the Blooming 9 patch, too. However, after seeing this post, I think I'll change my mind. I can hardly wait to see yours finished, however.
Didn't you say that you wanted a challenge?
A thousand little pieces can make the journey long--but isn't the final destination worth it?
I can hardly wait to see the finished patchwork top. Pictures please!!!!
Oh, how I hope you are strip piecing this!!! And that you have a 1/4 seam quilting foot!!! I feel your pain.
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