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Surprisingly not half-assed.

Materials: Oh, God. What didn't I have to buy for this, besides the sewing machine? Pattern is from Quilting for Dummies (Okay, I didn't buy the book, either -- it's from the library.)

Time: One month

Cost: Argh! Curse you, JoAnn Fabrics! You have put me $100 in debt for all of your overpriced notions! (I found out, after shelling out an arm and a leg for supplies, that Wal-Mart sells exactly the same stuff for much cheaper.)

So here's the thing: I have a nice sewing machine. A really nice sewing machine, because my mom can't imagine her adult daughter off in the world without one, even though she's been using her own Elna Super daily for the past 40-something years. And, since I almost never use this machine except to hem the occasional pair of pants, I've had a lot of guilt building about it sitting quietly on my craft table. So, I checked a whole lot of beginner's quilting books out of the library and decided, come hell or high water, that I would figure out how to use it and make a quilt.

I significantly underestimated the financial outlay for this endeavor. Okay, my mom spent a whole lot more money on the machine, but I nearly had a Victorian-heroine style attack of the vapors in the check-out line of JoAnn fabrics when I found out how much all of the required supplies for my chosen project -- a snowflake appliqué lap quilt -- would cost. But, I reminded myself, I would never learn to use my machine if I abandoned my cart at the register and ran home, so for the rest of the day I reminded myself that I had really spent the money on my mother. Yes.

During my quilting adventure, I learned that sewing is an extremely cat-unfriendly activity. There's the hot iron perched on a wobbly ironing board, pins everywhere, sharp scissors and other blades lying around, fast-moving needles, and lots of stray threads to be chewed by curious kitty mouths. Plus, my cats have a tendency to transform any and all stray fabrics / clothes into a bed. Consequently, I became very good at packing my stuff up and covering my machine whenever I put my supplies away for the night.

The other impetus for this project was that I gave Pete a PS2 and Guitar Hero for Christmas, and I knew that he'd want to spend the rest of vacation playing with those. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but it makes it difficult to read on the couch or knit in front of the TV when they're both otherwise occupied. As I predicted, the quilt was able to occupy me plenty.

I am not good at precision. I am the queen of "eh, good enough" with most projects, and I can measure the same thing three times and get three different measurements. So, I was more than a little concerned about the precision in cutting and sewing required by quilting. This is why I was so surprised that my finished quilt did not come out looking more half-assed than it does. In fact, I think that it looks pretty good.

Sure, there are tell-tale signs of amateurishness here -- seams that don't align properly, warping, threads poking out everywhere, and a really bad job at mitering the corners. But overall, I'm surprised by its non-suckiness.

I am also surprised that I didn't give myself a needle through the finger about 6 times while I was wrestling with the freehand stippling inside each of the appliqué squres, but I'm not exactly disappointed about that.

The verdict? For starters, there's no way that I could quilt during the school year: so many pieces to keep track of, and I just don't have enough free time. I'm also not sure about the overwhelming Americana/hominess of most quilt patterns, though I know that more contemporary styles exist (and I have books on request at the library). I do, however, have long-term ambitions of making some kind of bed covering. I think that I'll be working my way up to that slowly, however.

looks great!!

Hi there Katie,
here are some pictures of a quilt I made last year, it is a scrap quilt using denim pieces and some of that semi-quilted fabric, the pieces are just pinned down and sewn in a lap over style (super easy), then bordered with denim bias I made.
I've since made a much larger quilt in the same style.
These are really easy to put together.
Delilah

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u119/delilala/simonsbabyandmyquilt022.jpg

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u119/delilala/simonsbabyandmyquilt019.jpg

Congrats! Your quilt looks great!