The Part I Hate

So I love quilting... Okay let's back up a moment. Until recently I loved piecing quilt tops. Now that I have a finish under my belt I feel a little better about saying I love quilting. But what I don't enjoy so much is cutting. I just don't feel this sense of satisfaction that I hear some of my bloggy friends talk about when cutting into a stack of beautiful fabrics. Lucky for me my dad is an expert cutter. See he has the whole system down with duel cutting mats, homemade rulers, a straight edge and the whole bit. My mom is patient and holds the rulers and when I can't reach even cuts for me. So taking advantage of their help while also getting to visit and have a home cooked meal just makes for an all around great day. I have a lot of quilts that I want to be working on but I've been putting off for a while because well I just didn't want to cut them out.

As soon as I saw this quilt I knew I had to have one of my own. About that same time Joel Dewberry was releasing Modern Meadow so I ordered a fat quarter bundled in the Pond colorway from Hawthorne Threads along with one orange print for that extra pop of color. I decided to use the same gray Kona that I have used for a few other projects as the "grout" or space in between the postcards. So those "postcards" all got cut on Saturday and now I am once again excited to put this quilt together.

Remember Amanda Jean's quilt a long? Yes I know she is already done and I am just getting started. I had sewn together the strips of Freshcuts (Thanks again L!) and a jelly roll of Snow. But then it was time to sub cut all of those strips into those little pieces. So slowly I had been doing a few here and a few there but not really getting very far. And those strips to go inbetween, well forget about it. Lucky for me my dad is a math whiz. He made a plan and the strips were cut. In between laundry, dishes, and the general house cleaning chores on Sunday I managed to make a little progress on this quilt. This is what my Freshcut Square Dance looks like to date. And yes I just made up that name but I like it so I think it's going to stick. I see now what everyone meant about this one being a little tricky. All of those pieces sewn together tend to get a little wonky but I found that a little best press and a hot dry iron works really well for me.

Last but not least I managed to get most of my pieces cut for a Blueberry Chocolate Squares quilt. I am making mine a little larger and actually don't want to end up with triplets of any prints so I am going to need to pick up 2 fat quarters of pure to cut the last few pieces. But there is plenty of work to do on that quilt in the mean time. All of those half square triangles are just sitting there ready to be put together. That one is a Christmas present so there is a hard deadline. Unlike last year I have no intentions of sewing binding on a quilt on Christmas Eve. Okay well I'm not ruling it out completely but I would prefer it to be one I am working on just for fun and not one that needs to be wrapped and under the tree before the next morning. How about you, is there any part of the quilting process you just wish someone else would do for you?