Just Smurfy

Back in Feb I joined a sewing group.  We all participated in the jelly roll race.  It was a fun day and a quilt top was accomplished on my end of things.

If you recall, I originally called this quilt Jelly Roll Wrong and you can read that post here.  It is fun to remember things by touch or smells or even a picture that is captured so long ago gets all the total recall in the brain going and then you remember the sounds or smells.  This jelly roll quilt has many memories already.  I can hardly believe that 8 months has passed with oodles of things preventing its progress.  If you would like to read more about my excuses/reasons just click on the following links:

• The machine went in for maintenance.
• Went to the Dallas Quilt Show
• Made a portfolio
• Free Motion foot broke
  • Car broke down
  • hit a dog
• Ran out of thread and had to choose many different colors
• Mother’s Day and Graduation with family visiting and time off from work
• I got sick and then The dryer went out
• I just hadn’t felt well in a long long time
• And started a couple more projects (tsk tsk tsk)

I had a breakthrough reading blogs here.  I had started reading the aurifil series about thread choice and I had always struggled with thread in the bobbin and the not so great backs of my quilts with more straight lines in the stitches than a nice plump stitch.  I was always told same thread in the top and bottom.  But that was referring to color I believe.  So I tried aurifil threads idea of the small weight thread in the bobbin and the thicker for the top of the quilt.  Low and behold, the problem that would never went away, finally was fixed.  And so instead of going on with the same free motion pattern randomness I had previously went OCD with, I decided to go stipple in a medium attitude to get this miss thang done.  I found some smurf colored fabric for the binding, and while battling my hives to keep my hands busy so I would not scratch, bound that sucker by hand in one day.  This was the day the meds hyped me up so much I only slept three hours and kept going normal for the following day as well.  Glad I am over this chapter in my life.  The hives are still lingering but I am managing.

So in retrospect, I have renamed this quilt SMURFY.  Remember the smurfs?  The little blue critters living amongst the mushrooms with white hats and lots of personality.  They coined the term “Just Smurfy” which can be good or you can be saying it sarcastically, or it can even mean bad.  So instead of swearing, they would proclaim it as “SMURFY!”  I wonder 10 years from now, if I remember that the dryer crapped out during the making of this quilt?  Perhaps some of these smurfy things will stick with me forever, or some will fade like the fabric.

Do you recall that my cat had babies on this quilt (which all died) while it was on the sewing machine table? I guess she was trying to be close to me while I was away at work. The stain came out!!! Lots of peroxide and shout with elbow grease goodness.

This is the back and was the extra long top that was created in the learning process of quilting. I am a make do kind of person and put this on the back to show my mistake. It is a reminder that quilting is not perfection. It is made by an imperfect person.