Hello Sunshine!

I have been working on a quilt I call "Hello Sunshine!" for a few months... more like a year, but that is a few months, right?

I LOVE the colors I am working with.  Soon I will have to get out of my "bright and beautiful" themes and start working outside of my comfort zone, but for now, 'bright and beautiful' is my happy place.

Here is "Hello Sunshine!" 

I even made cornerstones for it.  If you look real close, you can see them.  The seams matched perfectly - and for me that was no easy feat.


Here is a closer look at the colors in "Hello Sunshine!"

I know, not ironed, but I have tossed this baby aside so many times from aggravation that I gave up on keeping it gorgeous.  I had sooo many goofs in making this blanket!  I am so new to quilting that I didn't know many of the 'rules' and I probably broke them all making this quilt.

First of all, I didn't know your seams have to be EXACTLY 1/4".  So a little off here and a little off there doesn't matter... right?

Secondly, I don't know how I did it, but my squares did not end up being 6.5"x6.5".  It couldn't have been my 'little off here and little off there', could it?  

*tossed it aside*

So I trimmed them down to 6"x6".  No big deal right?  

Not until you realize all of your white strips between blocks were cut to 6.5"x2.5".  

*tossed it aside*

All of those had to be trimmed back to 6".  Once I did that, I was back on track!

I sewed my squares this way, flipped that way, sewed this way and looked.  I missed that this one was supposed to be that way, so I had three that way instead of one this way, one that way and one this way.  If you don't get it, you are not a quilter, but believe me, it was wrong.  

*tossed it aside*  - every stinking time I made that mistake!

I finally got that puppy done except the border.  I sewed the blue border on first.  All went well.

It must have taken me a month to think through (remember, my thinking is affected by my ICL) how to sew the corner stones on.  Finally figured that out and I sewed the entire white border on, laid it out and realized it was wavy on the sides.  Something wasn't right.  Those dang pieces were too long apparently.  

*tossed it aside*

Finally got up the nerve to rip the seams out and remeasured.  It was then that I realized I must have measured the outside of the quilt (you are supposed to measure the centers and work the outside border into or out to the center measurements).  I trimmed it and sewed it back on. 

After working so long and hard on the quilt, excitedly I put it on the bed to take a gander at how wonderful it was going to look.  

Imagine my surprise when

It was TOO SMALL!!

*SLUNG it aside!*


So yesterday, I finally pulled the sucker out again, got my quilting friends advice, put it all in thought, went shopping, ran it through some more quilting friends and decided this is what I am going to add to the *next* border:

I looks kinda busy, but I think it will be ok.  We shall see.  And yes, I am going to add more cornerstones.

Guess what I am NOT TOSSING aside today?

"Hello Sunshine!"