Round About Schnibble for March

Let me tell right here and now that this quilt has the perfect name…Roundabout.  I feel like this little Schnibble has thrown me roundabout. 

Initially when the March Schnibble was reveiled, I thought…oh looks quick and easy….not a lot of laying out.  Great.  A perfect quilt for my BUSY March.  

I knew I wanted to use Moda’s Oz fabric line…but for a background color I was confused.  Hubby finally picked the yellow and I am happy with it…but several of the charm pieces had quite a bit of yellow and I debated whether they would show with a yellow background so I pulled out as many as I could and set them aside.

Then I almost panicked when I sewed all of the diagonals the wrong way.  I thought I would have to rip all of it out….but then I figured out that my blocks would all turn left handed instead of right handed…(read more about that here)

Then I went to lay out the blocks and I was four blocks short.  Was it a pattern error?  Did I miss place the blocks? (in my sewing room, that is easily possible)  What happened to them?  Well I reread the pattern and no pattern error.  I couldn’t find them ANYWHERE so I cut out and made four blocks…but I had to dig into the yellow charms I was trying to avoid.

Then we had company so I picked the blocks up off the floor.  I went to lay it out the next day and amazingly I now had four blocks more than I needed….(I told you roundabout was the right name for this quilt)  Sewing the blocks was a headache.  I ripped out several because the seams didn’t match the best for me….but admittedly, I was in a hurry and we all know late night hurried sewing is never good.

Then(yes there is a then), I figured out that I cut all of the border strips to 2.25 instead of the 2.5.  UGH!  Now what.  I decided to just go with it and that it probably wouldn’t be noticeable.  I would just take in or let out the seams as needed to meet the size needs.

Then(yes, there is another then), I wanted to make it bigger so I could use it as a baby quilt.  These bright colors are too busy to hang in my house…so giving it away is a great idea….more contemplation on how to do that.  Wait.  I had those four extra blocks.  They’ll be the cornerstones with some border fabric.

Well by adding the extra, it was now too big to use 45″ fabric as a backing so now I had to piece a backing together.  There were enough charm squares left so I added them to the backing fabric and wa-la…I had a back.

Into the quilt frame and you guessed it.  No yellow thread.  To town.  Home.  Quilt design…at this point…simple and fast.  Anything to get finished and onto a more enjoyable project….more decisions…I ended with a dark varigated thread.  I know that the flowers might look like a harder design to some but I just freehanded them in place…very relaxing, very stress free which is what I needed at this point.

When I had 6″ left along the bottom row, the ratchet that holds the backing material on my Grand Quilter BROKE!  Yes, broke.  This is the second ratchet that I have broken on it.  My son gratiously came in and held the quilt in place while I finished quilting….that last six inches isn’t the best quilting I have done but desperate times call for desperate measures….my son says, “Mom, you’re the only who knows.”

Amazingly….absolutely no problem was had when binding it. 

Of course, when it’s time for me to get photos taken so that I get them submitted for the Schnibble Parade, NE Iowa was in a wind advisory….the pictures turned out pretty good considering the wind whipped the quilt off the line three times during my quick photo shoot.  So there it is FINSIHED.  Can you believe that when I initially got the pattern, I thought about making it into a lapsize quilt….that would have been four times the headache.  I am so glad this is finished…and I am finished making left handed Roundabout turns. 

I do have to admit that the little thing has grown on me….I LOVE the Oz fabric line and the yellow looks great with it.  I would have loved to have this little quilt for one of my girls. 

Raise a glass to the Roundabout, March Schnibble of the Year…and hope that April’s Schnibble is much more relaxing.  If you want to see other versions of Roundabout check out tomorrow’s Schnibble parade hosted by A Quilting Life and Pink Pinchusion.

…phew…now it’s really finished because I am done blogging about it too.