I have a couple of friends who sew as a hobby. They’re both always sharing cool things they’ve made for themselves, playing with fun and creative colors, and making and modifying really individual pieces of clothing. I’ve been fascinated by their skills but pretty comfortable with not joining them in picking up another hobby that requires storing textiles, having multiple pieces of hardware, and a table upon which to place them. Then yesterday Christina sent me this link to an amazing Sasquatch quilt she’s thinking of making and I knew that I was in trouble.
The thing is, afghans are something I’ve tried to do in the past. I’ve done baby blankets with success, but full adult size blankets are SUCH a soul-crushing slog, and they take literally hundreds of dollars of yarn if you are disinterested in working with acrylic yarn like I generally am. I have “owed” my husband a pixel-art afghan for more than half of our marriage. I just can’t make myself do it. Granny squares and then HOURS of joining - pure misery.
The idea of quilting some pixel art patterns seems so simple in comparison. I can sew a straight seam. I have a basic understanding of how a sewing machine works and have used (a very old) one before. I understand how a quilt is made, what “quilted” actually means, and I have quilted by hand before. Amazing the skills that you learn while being a Girl Scout!
But I’m missing some important things, too, mostly materialistically. I don’t own a sewing machine, although I believe that they’re within my compulsive purchase price range at least on the cheaper end, and both Hollie and Christina have a spare to loan me because they are apparently sewing pushers and first hit’s free. I don’t have an appropriate table to PUT a machine on, since my kitchen table is counter-height and crafting at it is really quite unpleasant. I do own an iron but I don’t own an ironing board to go with it. I would need pins, and a measuring implement besides the grid on my 2’ level, and some decent sewing scissors, and something to mark fabric with, and fabric, and and and.
Also, while I’ve done small quilted projects before, the idea of doing a large one is a little bit daunting. The woman who published the Sasquatch quilt pattern says that she does all her work without a long-armed machine, so it’s definitely do-able, and Christina also linked me some information on a quilt as you go technique. It’s still going to be a challenge.
None of this is unsurmountable, though, and it would solve the Eternally Unfinished Project issue as well as allowing me to do something new and fun. I figure I’ll spend this weekend researching a bit more, and see what I would be getting myself into. Maybe I’ll make a shopping list.vMaybe I’ll jump right into designing a square-patterned quilt for my boy. Maybe I’ll watch some youtube tutorials. Maybe I’ll fall off another hobby cliff, never to be seen again, but happy to be at the bottom, buried in scraps of fabric and thread!
PS: wouldn’t this be an amazing Hawkeye quilt, in shades of purple with maybe one grid of arrows replaced w/ a bulls-eye?
A twitter buddy of mine is committing to writing 500 words a day on some topic, and invited others to join her. Feel free to write alongside us, exercise those grammar muscles, and do a little wordsmithing. The hashtag on twitter is #500wordsAbout.