Learning curves...

When I was last here, I was chomping at the bit to finish a baby quilt I was helping a friend with. My friend picked out fabric to bind the quilt with, and I did my best to calculate how much would be needed.  I felt so sure I was bringing home a sufficient amount of fabric - actually a smidge more than needed because you know...  you just never know...  

With fabric cut and bought, I thought I'd get the quilt done lickety split.

Now might be a good time to mention, if I haven't already, that I've never made an actual quilt before, and I had never actually properly bound anything before.  My previous lick-and-a-prayer hot pad bindings became kind of embarrassing as I watched video tutorials of quilt makers working their magic to make beautiful mitered corners, and niftily joined binding strips.   

Another thing I might mention is that while I can be meticulous when it comes to details of many things, and I'm a big "measure twice (actually thrice) and cut once" sort of gal, it might surprise some that math is no where near my favorite thing to do. 

I confess... my eyes glazed when watching videos as quilt makers rattled off the math used to figure how much fabric is needed to make binding.  "Way too complicated", I thought.  The formulas seemed unnecessarily confusing, and I just couldn't summon the mental energy to try to understand what was being explained.

 
Knowing I had brought home a smidge more fabric than I thought I would need, I was confident there would be plenty.

After watching numerous videos, I began to appreciate things like... the amount of fabric that is lost when stitching strips together to create the entire length of binding, how much fabric is folded into a mitered corner, the seam allowance that is required when sewing the binding on, and nevermind that I knew I'd have to iron the binding folded over double - it just didn't dawn on me, that I needed to cut each strip of binding twice the width of what would actually show, and I had to take the seam into account twice - even though I was only making one seam. If that last bit confused you, I understand. 

By the time I had watched half a dozen videos and felt confident about proceeding, I realized I was going to need more fabric.  

Since Hobby Lobby puts their fabric on sale every other week, and there is no hurry to finish this blanket, it has been on hold until I can get in there this week and purchase what is needed to get this project finished already.  I only need to buy a smidge more.  😄

 

The learning curve in making this simple baby quilt has been steeper than I imagined, but it's been worth it.  I almost feel like I could go back and tolerate watching the math of calculating binding and understand it now.  Some of us just learn better hands-on, you know.

And I've not been twiddling my thumbs.  As I watched numerous videos on how to create and sew on binding, I remembered that I had some potholders I started making a year ago for gifts, but hadn't finished.  

You know what they needed to be finished?  

Binding. 

 
So, with a video at the ready on my phone beside my sewing machine, I set to work - perfecting mitered corners, and joining the ends of the binding.  

One of these days, I'll show the fun potholders I've made, but that will be after they've been given away.  My guess is the potholder recipients don't bother themselves with the fact that I have this blog, but on the off chance they do...  I'm keeping the pictures to myself for now.

In addition to binding the potholders that had been languishing in the "finish-it-already" basket, I made a binding and attached it to the colorful Manx square hotpad I showed in my last post.

It's not perfect - as a close-up of the back exposes, 🠋 but putting it aside and after not staring at the stitching for a day or so, I've concluded the person I give this to (and hopefully, I'll manage a second one) will love it simply because I made it for her.

While all this sewing has been going on, in the quiet, usually late hours, I often knit dishcloths.  I've made a dozen or more since turning my attention to autumn colored yarns, and these were given to youngest son for his birthday a week ago:

For anyone who might want to know, the dish towel was purchased at Hobby Lobby.  I knew son would love the dapper doggies.

And lastly, my fun fox got some stitching love recently, and I'm feeling the draw again to (hopefully) complete the pillow I want to turn him into.  We'll see how long that draw holds...

Sometimes it seems ridiculous to have multiple unfinished projects waiting in the wings, but then I have experiences like with the quilt binding, and I realize it's nice to have other things to easily put my hands to when plans don't go as I expect them to. 

Are you a one-project sort of person?  Or do you have multiple hobbies and projects started at any given time?