So, I have been working on the cars quilt. I sewed all the strips together over the last couple of nights. Now since this was more like a scrappy type quilt, I did not plan out the lengths of all the stripes. Last night was the time to cut the excess off to make the quilt a solid rectangle. Easy, right? I was pulling my hair out last night and snippy at everyone. I actually told my son last night, "Do you see Mommy is upset? I'm not upset with you but that can change very quickly. Please make good choices." My problem was, I could not get my line to cut the fabric straight and once you cut, it's over. You have cut the fabric and no turning back. I measured one side of the quilt 72 inches. Then I measured the other side 72 inches. And yet, it was clear that they were a good 2 inches or so off of each other. We could not figure it out. Fabric stretches and gets wonky as a friend use to tell me. The only solution to get it done right was to seam rip ALL the stripes apart, cut them each to 72 inches and then repin and sew. That was going to set me back days! Finally, my math man for a hubby suggested I measure the diagonals. If it is really rectangular (or the goal) the diagonals should be the same. He did the math. I assume he used a^2 + b^2 = c^2 as that comes back to me from hs. Anyway, we marked where the corners should be and ta-da it was pretty much on. We used a very large level from the garage to be the guide for my rotary cutter and it seems to have worked beautifully. Wow. That was a lot of stress! Next time, I will have a goal in the length I want the strips to be and take care of it before I sew them all together.
Then I had to decide if I wanted a boarder. I was thinking no but the hubby was suggesting yes. I had purchased 4 yrds (at $3/yrd) of blue fabric to be the stripes between the colorful stripes (which I never used). So, I figured how much of that could I use for the backing of this quilt. I figured out that I would use all but 24 inches of the 4 yards. So, I then had a 40 x 24 piece of blue fabric left over. I figured how many 40 inch strips I would need to create a boarder and then did the math to see how big those strips would be. They came out to 7 3.25 inch strips. Perfect. With that math, I was able to use up ALL 4 yrds without waist and got both the boarder and backing for $12. Good price. I will still need to get to the store to buy more blue for the binding but will only need 14 inches of it.
I have also decided that I can take the parts that I labored over cutting off and make them into a baby quilt. There is just enough. Now I have to get the 8 stripes that are differing lengths to be 5 stripes with the length of 45 inches. Will buy some more blue for the backing and binding for that quilt as well. It will be a surprise baby quilt for the recipient (if she doesn't read this before she gets it). I did most the work already and she has already paid for the materials. I may as well make a matching baby quilt with the left overs.
I will post pictures in a day or two... maybe in a few hours if I get some more time to sewing. I am so close to getting this on the quilt frame and finishing it up. That will feel SO good. Once I get it on the frame, it should take about a week to finish given the life interuptions.