Celebrate Freedom

This is a practice quilt using the Karen Charles method of quilt-as-you-go. I found it quite cumbersome to add the rows using this method, which may be why I put the third row on upside down the first time and didn't notice it until AFTER I quilted it. On my design wall, it was the bottom row but when I put it on the bottom, it was upside down. So I ripped it off, flipped it around, and put it on the top. And then it was not only upside down, but I had two rows of sashing strips next to each other.

I thought about throwing it away, or just using it unfinished as a cat bed. But after I had a few days to think about it, I decided I would cut it apart so I didn't have to rip out all the seams, and make something else. When I actually examined it again, and I hadn't quilted it this time, it looked like ripping off just that row and putting it on right would be the easiest fix. In doing that, I discovered why the row was upside down both times I sewed it on - I had put the sashing on the top of the row instead of the bottom. Once I removed the sashing and put it on the bottom where it should have been, the row went on easily.

Originally, I had made enough blocks for a fourth row, but after all this, I decided not to push my luck with a fourth row. Since I had already trimmed the edges after the second attempt to put the row on correctly, I didn't have enough backing fabric to put the row on using Karen Charles' method. So I made a strip of bias tape out of leftover fabric, sizing it so that stitching it down made the front stitching a quarter inch inside the block. So that might be the best way yet of doing quilt-as-you-go, as long as that is where I want stitching on the front.

This was the quilt I chose at the first of the month for my OMG (One Monthly Goal), and all I can say about it now is that I am so glad it is finished and I achieved my goal.

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