When I started working at Pine Needles in early 2015, I had already been sewing for quite a long time. Marcia thought it was pretty handy to have a website/email gal who also knew her way around a Bernina, and I thought it was pretty handy to have a great place to work where I could just skip the paycheck entirely since I wanted to buy literally EVERYTHING IN THE SHOP.
I remember seeing Quiltworx for the first time and thinking, "What is this sorcery???" It was just magical how the colors and the patterns were so unique and breathtaking. I don't even like batiks (I know, I know, blasphemy!), but I was like I NEED ALL OF THESE.
The one that caught my eye most was Prismatic Star. I had never seen anything so beautiful, and I had to make it. We did a class here in the shop August of 2015, and I bought the pattern and fabrics to make it in June or July after I made the email showcasing the class and realized I couldn't live without this quilt.
I cut my template plastic; I gathered my materials; I read the pattern through and organized everything into labeled ziploc baggies; I cut strips and sorted.
I got so far as sewing the strips onto the papers for baggie 1's first sewing step. I was cruising along and ready to start trying the instructions for chain piecing the rest. And then...
Oh my goodness, did you take a quick nap in 2015 and realize it was 2023 already? No? Just me?
I've made a zillion and twelve things between now and then, but for some reason I never picked it back up. Into the baggies it went for a quick break, and here we are eight years later trying to remember how to do this. (There's a reason they look so magical - there's a lot to 'em!)
You will be so proud of me - I figured it back out, did baggie number 2, and then chain-pieced baggie #3 like I was some kind of foundation paper piecing superstar. We won't worry about the fact that I did one of the first section from baggie #2 with the fabrics in the wrong order. We'll call that the tax you pay on 8 years project neglect.
Also, we'll remember for next time that putting a little piece of clear scotch tape on the top of the fabric strip stack is not sufficient to alert someone that it's the top. Especially if the scotch tape in question is a couple years older than your youngest child...who is now six. My memory just is not that solid. I need clear notes and a guide.
With you all as my witness, I'm going to finish this magical quilt! My goal is to be done with the top by the time spring has sprung so I can have the summer to get it quilted in the shop and on my bed for next winter.
I'd say by Christmas, but we all know my track record now, so I'm trying to be realistic.
