Side tracked yet again.

Pin Basting away

Oops!  We have a problem

Adding another strip of backing 

I should have left off  some pins

Finishing the center seam

All better

Ready to pin baste the last section

Somehow the easiest things are always way more complicated than they need to be.  I have blogged on that before here.   So last week I was going to charge ahead and get a t-shirt quilt made for my nephew.  Well, I couldn't find my fusible interfacing that I knew I had on hand.  Rather than wasting a long time looking for it I chose to go the store and buy more.  So of course when I started to work on the project I found the old interfacing.  Right underneath the 2 large cuts of fabric that I was using for the t-shirt quilt!  I got two blocks made and then I got side tracked.  Again.

I decided that I needed to make a quilt for my Dad for his birthday on the 27th.  Since it is such a short time line, I needed to go with some quilt top that I had "in stock".  I had made this plaid 9-patch that is a large lap size.  And I had a backing purchased as well. I also had a chunk of batting that I had intended for the t-shirt quilt that is large enough.  Perfect, let's go.

Well I forgot that I hadn't pressed any of the seams during the process of putting all the blocks together.  That took much longer than I expected.  I folded the unpressed, pre-washed  backing in half lengthwise to make sure it was long enough.  Pretty close, I think it will work.  So I clipped the selvage and tore it into two pieces.  Sewed them together.  Wow, there is almost a 3 inch gap.  Oh, I am sure it will be fine.  NOT.  I got most of the top pin basted and realized that where the gap was it was about an inch short.  I was not willing to take out all the pins and start over, so I spliced in a strip (after having to straighten the cut edge, which was about 2 inches off grain, UGH) and of course it was tricky because I didn't leave enough unpinned area to work easily.  Heaven forbid I take a few pins out.  Spliced and finished pin basting.  

I was able to get about a fourth of the quilting done.  I am just doing cross hatched wiggle lines.  But the first direction takes longer because I have to remove the pins as I am sewing along.  I hope to get more quilting done today.  

This is my Design Wall Monday post.  Check out what everyone else is doing at Judy's blog.