Seriously, though, it has been a long time. I read all those posts about quilting without obligation, and I started to feel a little obligated myself. So, I spent time doing the things I really wanted to do all summer long. Things like go to the beach and watch baby sea turtles go out to the ocean, fly to Chicago, see my sister get married, take a class and grow professionally. You know... me stuff.
Anyway, one of my quilting obligations from this summer was a swap quilt for the Doll Quilt Swap 9. I participated in round 7 and received a beautiful quilt, and enjoyed my making experience, so I decided to go ahead and participate in round 9, too.
It turned out to be a big fat regret for me. My partner was pretty silent for the most part. She seemed nice enough, with similar taste to the rest of the blogging world, but her silence left something to be desired. So many women were participating in discussion conversations, posting sneak peaks, and talking about favorite quilts in the pool. I was hoping to observe from afar, see what she was making for her partner, and learn more about what she liked. But, since she added only half a dozen pics to her flickr for the duration and virtually never blogged, not to mention made no comments in the flickr group, I felt that I didn't know anything about her.
I put off the making of the quilt for as long as possible, hoping to catch a glimpse of my partner around the internet. No such luck. So, I went ahead with the little direction I had. My partner said that she liked "trendy" fabrics, so I chose a red and aqua color scheme, put the prints with white, and tried to make something cute. It turned out cute, alright, but it's also fairly generic.
During the sewing process I became frustrated and disillusioned with this quilt. I couldn't figure out how to properly use the blanket stitch on my machine, and couldn't even do raw-edge applique! In the end I just left the circles fused to the background without any stitching holding them down. Instead, I basted and quilted over the pieces, praying that the quilting stitches would be enough to hold the fused circles on.
I quilted a grid-- straight lines all one inch apart. The quilt is backed in an awesome red print I bought about two years ago; I think it could be a Kaffe Fasset print, but who knows. The binding is pieced with red solid and the same fabric as the backing (I think that is my favorite detail). I failed to add a label with the swap information; it doesn't really matter now because it's already in the mail.
The pictures were taken while I was in line at the post office. I think that shows exactly how I felt about this quilt.
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