Our Summer WIP it Challenge officially kicked off last week. In our first blog post for this challenge, I talked about “Prioritizing” you quilts. You can read that post HERE. In that post I talked a little bit about letting go of your “WIP guilt”. It’s easy for me to say that, maybe/probably easier said than done. I don’t judge other quilters for all the projects in their WIP pile, but sometimes we aren’t as forgiving to ourselves as we are to others. So, for this post, I’d like to talk about Watermelon Quilt #7. Why is there so much WIP guilt attached to this one, and why am I calling it Watermelon Quilt #7 when there are clearly NO watermelons in it?
I’d love it if you join us for the Summer WIP It Challenge. Anyone who joins will get my FREE WIP Tracker, or you can just get the tracker document HERE. Sign up for the Summer WIP It Challenge HERE.
All the WIP Guilt
My WIP Guilt for this one is BIG in both quality and quantity. It’s not the WIP that’s been in the pile the longest, but it’s definitely (in my opinion) one that should have never been part of the pile in the first place.
This is one that I was making for my daughter. She wanted a Pokemon quilt. I know how to make quilts, so I told her I’d make this one for her. She chose the fabric; I bought the fabric. She chose the “pattern”; I cut the pieces and pieced the quilt. She chose the backing and told me what quilting design she wants. This is where I dropped the ball. It would probably make me feel a little better if I could say she chose a strange, rare, or super exspensive backing, and that’s the reason I stalled so long after I got the top pieced. BUT, alas this is not the case. She asked for a plain black backing. This backing is readily available, can easily be found in wide backs so that I wouldn’t even have to piece the backing, and can be purchased for cheap from big box stores. So basically, I can’t use any of those excuses. This one’s all on me.
The real reason why this quilt is still unfinished? I have been running an intense custom order schedule for almost two years now. I had every intention of pushing the custom orders aside long enough to finish this quilt for my daughter. BUT, the long list was burning a whole in my mind. I felt bad for making people who are paying me wait even longer for their quilts. I stay booked pretty far out, so most of them already waited several months. My customers are great and patient, and most of them probably would have told me to finish the quilt for my daughter. BUT, I couldn’t (or at least I didn’t) forget about that to do list long enough. I got nervous, let the stress get to me, and went back to working on my custom orders.
I keep telling myself I’ll get it finished and give this quilt to her for (insert whatever special occassion here). So, when I went to make the list of 3 WIPs for this event, I put this one first. She doesn’t follow what I do with the quiltey business. So, she has know idea her quilt made this list. I would love to finish it and have it on her bed, without saying a word to her about it, for her to find when she gets home on a random day. We shall see if I succeed.
Why am I calling it Watermelon Quilt #7
I’ve been making versions on this quilt since 2020. I didn’t use a formal pattern, and I’m not even sure if there is a formal pattern. I probably just saw a picture while scrolling and thought, “I can make that.” From quilt to quilt, I change the dimensions to fit my needs for the current project. The first time I made this design, I ended up using it to make a rag quilt. This rag quilt ended up being the first quilt I ever sold, and it had a Watermelon print in it. So, anytime I’ve made this design, I think of as a “Watermelon Quilt”. When I finish this quilt for my daugther, it will be the seventh Watermelon Quilt I’ve made. So, here’s a look at some of the Watermelon quilts I’ve made over the last 4 and a half years.
#1 – The original Watermelon Quilt
I made some quilts with my grandmother when I was in middle school and high school, but as an adult, I didn’t start sewing again and making solo projects until I was in my 30’s. My first solo project was a king size quilt that I made on a $50 machine that I borrowed from my mom. Her main machine is in a sewing cabinet, so she bought that one to be her more portable machine. I had read a few online articles that recommended starting with small projects. I completely ignored this advice. Quilting a HUGE quilt on a small machine is hard enough… I did this on my first solo project. Having done this, I can say that I don’t recommend it. All the people who advised to start with small projects were definitely onto something. That quilt is definitely a hot mess, but it’s actually on my bed so I suppose I still love it.
After that giant hot mess, I stuck with rag quilts for a while. I intended to just keep my tiny free to me machine and just make a bunch of rag quilts. Unfortunately, that didn’t go as planned. For me, the rag quilts were like gateway quilts. They got me interested in playing with pretty fabrics and now here we are.
This one is a rag quilt that I made with some super cute flannels. I LOVE flannel, and flannel is great for making rag quilts. You can see a few pictures of the original Watermelon quilt below.
Watermelon Quilt #2
This one is another rag quilt. I made this one during the time when everything was shut down at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. I loved the dinosaur print in the main squares and how everything came together with the lime green sashing and the gray and white buffalo check gingham and the bright blue fabric with the dots.
Watermelon Quilt #3
The is the first Watermelon Quilt that I made as a regular quilt instead of a rag quilt. I love blue and yellow quilts, so those were fun fabrics to play with. This one was back before my obsession with Free Motion Quilting. So, I did some straight line quilting in diagonal quadrants and a decorative stich that follows the lines of the big squares. I used painter’s tape to mark my guidelines for where to quilt.
Watermelon Quilt #4 and #5
These two were superhero themed. They had the comic book words squares in common but different super heros for the other quares. These were fun quilts to make. I ended up quilting the Spiderman one in spider webs and bats for the Batman quilt. Those were both designs I’d never done before, so it was fun playing with two new quilting designs.
Watermelon Quilt #6
This one was another fun one to make, playing with some fun fabrics. I quilted it in big loops with some free hand paw prints that I “drew”. I also traced scooby a few times so he could show up on the back of the quilt.
That’s all I’ve got for today
That’s all I have for you today. According to the survey I sent out, quilting and binding are the steps some of you want me to do some posts on. I also got some emails asking for a post on basting. Since, basting is my next step in Watermelon Quilt #7, I’ll have a basting post coming at you soon. As always, thank you for taking the time to read my blog!
I hope you enjoyed it.
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Happy quilting!
