Who Says We're Not Domestic!

In order to refine ourselves, enhance our skills and do something productive with our time, Alyssa and I decided we wanted to make a quilt together. Alyssa's sister, Bethany, had some fabric she bought a few years ago, which she left at their mom's house in Arizona. So when Alyssa went home, she retrieved the fabric and we decided to surpise Bethany and make the quilt for her birthday, which was this last Saturday. It was perfect since she is now married with 2 small kids and not only had forgotten about the fabric, but would never have time to make a quilt.

So one evening, Alyssa and I planned out a pattern - it took us forever to come up with one, but we did it... when you look at the quilt it seems like it would be a no brainer... but Alyssa and I have recently discovered that when we are together, we seem to have less smarts. Two brains are not always better than one. Anyway, we drew up this pattern and then went to work on a Saturday ironing the fabric, tracing out 8x8 inch squares, and cutting out all 187 squares (while watching Raiders of the Lost Ark).

The next Saturday we headed to Jenna's house (another of Alyssa's sisters), and sewed the squares together by rows. 17 squares per row, 11 rows. It took us quite a while. I'm pretty sure Jenna was unimpressed with our lack of sewing ability (her face said it all, hahaha) but oh well, we did it! Then on Tuesday, Alyssa was at Jenna's again and started sewing the rows together (I was at work). On Wednesday, we went over and finished sewing the rows together and then found that the quilt was really big, and we didn't have enough fabric for the back. So we cut off about a foot or so from each end, and it looked better shorter anyway. So it became 13 squares per row, and still 11 rows. On Thursday, Alyssa borrowed the Cox's quilting frame and set up the quilt and it's insides (while I was at work and then visiting teaching), and started tying the quilt. I contributed 3 ties. Then we went to work pinning the edges getting ready for the final sew. We were going to blind stitch it by hand on Friday evening but then I was emergency called into work and Alyssa got lazy - ok fine, she actually had other things to do and Jenna convinced her that sewing it would be faster and sturdier (I agree). So Saturday morning, Alyssa headed to Jenna's to complete our project and turn it right over to Bethany that afternoon as her birthday gift. Thanks to Jenna for letting us invade her house and use her machine all week!

And that is the story of our quilting abilities. I think we are going to make another one sometime. I was impressed with us when we were finished. Isn't it preeeeeetty!