Tedium

I finally finished sewing Xs into my sandwiches but found I had no more black fabric to cut from (if you remember I had run out of fabric/batting squares and had to cut more) so I had to improvise. 

Instead I have this beautiful yellow fabric with stars all over it and I decided it was Halloween-y enough. So I cut 5 squares which was what I had remaining of the charm packs, and I thought of a way to have them make sense rather than being 5 random squares. The idea I came up with was adorable and involved appliqué ghosts drawn freehand using fabric marker (the kind that washes out mind you) and fabric paint markers (the kind you draw on and then heat set with an iron or dryer). The ghosts were made using leftover muslin and I used the fabric paints to make black eyes for them. They are adorable! I then decided to write my kids' names next to each ghost and the rest of the yellow star squares would just be writing. 

The process of arranging these squares was tedious and painful on my back. Plus my children wanted to help or feel the fabric themselves ... It took some time. Here is the stack I was up against --

Curious George oversaw the operation as did my daughter's pink glasses ... When I had the rows of eight squares all lined up (ten of them FYI), I stacked them together and made sure they stayed in order (and took a picture in case I got loopy) --

Then, I started working on sewing these bad boys together. I messed up and got the first row slightly out of order. 

Then, I screwed up in sewing each piece together. Normally you sew them together with the right side of the fabric facing each other, and I am a creature of habit, so I made a few mistakes in the first two rows alone. I didn't sew them with the wrong sides facing and had to seam rip them c a r e f u l l y and sew them back together. I h a t e  seam ripping. The reason my quilts are not nearly perfect is my severe hatred of this act. Just ... I don't do it. I accept mistakes and move on. 

Ok it's more like denial. Serious, irreversible denial. I just pretend to not care and shrug off these mistakes as "oh well, it's just proof I am human!" No, it drives me nuts. 

I digress. 

I decided to get the full effect of this blanket, and to do it properly, I had to fix my mistakes this time. By George, I am turning a new leaf! 

I will finish tomorrow and you will see photos of it in all it's PERFECT glory. Rather, imperfect glory. And the close up photos of the special squares will be included. I'm very proud of my little ghosties. Reminds me of my two favorite Halloween cartoons, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (I got a rock ... ), and Garfield's Halloween (when he's trying to prove the one thing he's not is a scaredy cat with the little ghosts).

HAPPY OCTOBER EVE!!!!!! 31 days until Halloween!!