Last summer my dear friend gave me a ton of fabric – mostly Christmas and Fall prints. The Fall prints were all orange themed – and I’m not a fan of that color but I thought I could do something with them, because hey, the guy gives me the fabric, he loves that color so I can make him something, right? I took myself to JoAnn Fabrics and bought some plain orange fabric, some cranberry fabric and some bright yellow and the cutting commenced.
9 squares are one of the easiest patterns ever, so I happily cut and sewed with no real plan in mind except that this would become a quilt. After consulting with my friend, we decided that it would bring out the colors if I sashed each block in black. (Sashing is the strips between blocks – it’s a wonderful thing if your blocks aren’t perfect squares – and mine rarely are.)
Eventually I had sewn enough squares to figure out how to put this baby together. I spread them out on the bedroom floor and commenced to arrange them and during this process, figure out how many I needed for each row. This is a big quilt. Each block is 6 x 6 inches with a 1.5 inch strip between. It’s 11 blocks wide and 13 long It was a lot of sewing. 🙂 Half way through, I started working from the middle down because it’s a lot of fabric to handle.
Last night I was all ready to attach the last row to the bottom half and then I can sew the two halves together. Started across using my handy dandy sewing clips – I adore those little things – and got nearly to the end when I realized something was not quite right.
It’s ELEVEN blocks wide. ELEVEN. Not ten.
Oops. Somehow the last row only has 10 blocks. Well. That’s a conundrum, I looked through my orphan blocks to see if I put the extra one there. Nope (Orphan blocks are those that don’t have any friends, eventually I’ll find a way to put them all into one quilt. Or not. But I always have plans!) So the search for any unused fabric commenced. Thank goodness – found a bag full and put together another block. So today I rip out the strip of black that will now be too short and sew on a new one and then the two halves will be joined. And why does ripping take 10 times as long as sewing? It’s just cruel!
What happens next is up to my friend. I no longer have the patience for hand quilting, so if he wants that, he’ll have to do it himself – and he’s better at it than I am anyway. If he wants machine quilted, I can manage that. Pictures may appear here eventually.
In other news, Maverick has had three days of being a total shithead. A vet visit yesterday for his annual physical let me vent to the vet – who told me Maverick needs a girlfriend. Maverick is intact (not neutered) and apparently his hormones get raging now and again. I informed the vet that i will do most anything for my dog, but I draw the line there – so find him a girlfriend! (No, there will be no puppies, and if there were, they would be pure Goldens, no doodles for us!) After we got home last night, we spent a peaceful hour on the porch, and he seems to settled down. Thank goodness, cuz I’m running out of booze. (For me, not him! Geesh, people, what kind of puppy parent do you think I am?) 🙂
Suziecreamcheese Sings the Blues 
Maverick! I know a gal, but she is fixed. Would that work? I have no idea! You poor thing! These boys know how to put us through our paces.
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As long as she’s willing, he’s able!
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Oh, Maverick, you stud!
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Quilting is always a journey. My son wants me to do a quit with him, he’s way better than I am but I have the perfect quilt, well it’s actually a wall hanging and it is the epitome of an imperfect quilt but it is perfect. It’s long cabin squares with the bottom left square hanging by the binding and it looks like it’s hanging on for dear life. LOL
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I love it!!! I just realized that one of the blocks is the wrong color – and I’m not changing it!
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That makes it unique!!! A one of a kind 🙂
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My mom called those the “God block.” You had to have one mistake because only God is perfect.
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If you aren’t going to get a friend for Maverick, are you going to get him neutered?
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No – there are no real benefits to neutering, it just makes some things easier on humans.
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Would Maverick like to borrow Humpty Kitty?
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He has a humpy pillow. 😂
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These boys know what they like. 😆
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I’ve gotta ask: why isn’t Maverick neutered?! Seems like that would be better for all parties involved, LOL.
Post pics of the quilt! I want to see all the colors.
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The short version is that Golden Retrievers have a much greater chance of getting cancer if neutered early. We planned to wait till he was 2. Covid happened. Also, it quite often makes things worse instead of better – that it solves behavior problems is a myth. This might need a whole blog post. 🙂
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We want to see pictures of the quilt! I’ve made three twin bed sized quilts and all were machine quilted. It was quite an undertaking with my domestic machine but it worked. Plus none are perfect.
Well, now you know why Maverick can be out of sorts. He’s just horny!
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Maverick is most definitely a horn dog! I’m gonig to do this quilt on a domestic machine so I may need shoulder surgery after! I’ve done a couple twin size – I can do it!
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I set up a couple of large folding tables around my sewing machine to help with the weight on my arms/shoulders. Grippy gloves supposedly help you grab the quilt and maneuver it though I don’t have any.
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I don’t like feeling constricted – can barely tolerate socks – so I think the gloves are a no. The tables are a good idea, thanks!
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