If it could go wrong...
It did! Saturday, I woke up planning on spending the day finishing my Wonky Star sample for Sew Original. I got everything out. And I realized that all the blocks that I had sewn last week needed to ripped out. I had sewn in haste so I could take it to the $5 block meeting and they weren't up to my standards:( So I ripped out about 30 seams...I was a bit over it at this point so I wanted to finish something!! My sketchbook needed a cover...I've been plotting it in my head for months.
I pulled out lots of my favorites! The pieces that I've hoarded. Treasured snippets from swaps. All pieces I love. And I started sewing...
And tragedy struck! I had one lone complete Heather Ross chihuahua on blue. And I accidentally cut him in half. Sob.
I love the HR chihuahua because my dog Mack was could have been the model. Here's Mackie wearing his Halloween costume (he was a dog being eaten by a shark)...I had trouble finding a picture where he was awake:) You can see the resemblance and his cuteness!
And here's more sewing...including a fix for the tragedy!
I was sewing along and everything was going great!
There is a fish named Heather! Sarah got Heather Ross to sign a fish for me when she took a class from her in NYC.
And a fish named Malcolm!! My dear friend Jo-Sue Malcolm was with me when I bought this sketchbook. She is one of my artsiest friends and has supported all my creative endeavors! We spent a day going to all the art museums in DFW and I bought this sketchbook at The Dallas Museum of Art. It was the perfect day. Malcolm is there in honor of Jo-Sue:)
I also had an autographed selvage of Tufted Tweets from Laurie Wisbrun herself via my friend Monica (more on that later...). I sewed it all together!
And started to quilt. Obviously, the bobbin had to run out with two lines to go! And next to the earlier tragedy!! &$@#!
I pressed on. I put all the pieces together. I was plotting a pencil holder/closure, so I needed seams along the edge of both the front and back.
But it was too short! $&@%!!
I added some Neptune to the spine. I was annoyed it was too small, but happy to add the Neptune that I hadn't put in yet! It couldn't be all my favorites without some Neptune:)
Still too small! Grrr!!! So I had to nix the pencil closure:( I used a decorative stitch to sew the pieces together flush. It worked!
Finally, I was on my way! Then it was too small the other way!! &@$%!!!!! I tried to fix it with sewing an 1/8" seam and covering it with binding. Just not big enough:( Not working...
I didn't want to lose any of my precious fabrics, so I opted for the decorative top stitch again. Success!!
I finally finished late Sunday. That's right, it took TWO DAYS to make a book cover. I've made whole quilts faster. What's crazy is that I did measure and added 1/2" seam allowances. It just shrank much more than expected. And I probably should have made a test out of less precious fabrics. BUT I'm thrilled with it! Has anyone ever made something like this? Any tips?Here are pictures of all the sides...
And now my sketchbook is much happier! I'm in love:)xo LC