How to make an American quilt

Several months ago, I decided that I wanted to try my hand at making a quilt. Ryan was going to be doing quite a bit of traveling and I knew that I was going to have a lot of time on my hands. Having too much time on my hands with nothing to do is usually not a good combination for me. I needed an activity that could be spread out over several days and would take a long time to complete. Making a quilt seemed like a good choice.

I didn't want anything fancy. I also didn't want to have to follow a pattern. I didn't want a particular color scheme. I wanted something that looked homemade. Not made by a professional. (I'm pretty sure I succeeded at making it look like it was made by an amateur. ☺) To sum it up, I simply didn't want to have to make any choices. I hope that makes sense.

I wanted needed this to be an exercise in letting go. I tend to be a little bit of a control freak. I get worked up over silly, senseless details that in the end, don't amount to anything. I didn't care if this ended up looking chaotic, or ugly. I just wanted to make it and not worry about how I was going to make it.

I decided I wanted to use what I had on hand. In other words, scrap fabric. I didn't want to buy anything new to make the top. I knew that if I bought anything new, I would start worrying about things, I would come up with a color scheme or pattern and then I wouldn't end up with the crazy quilt I wanted. I had quite a bit of my own fabric, but I didn't have enough to make the size of quilt I needed. I had to get some scraps from my dad and my mother in law also. I'm glad I did. To me, it makes it feel like the quilt has more of a story. I only had to buy the batting for it and the fabric for the back. There's no rhyme or reason really as to why I chose the green flannel for the back. I simply did because it was the one that had the most on the bolt when I bought some. I thought about "quilting" the top and then I came to my senses. This thing is really big. Pretty much a king size. Quilting it would have taken forever. So, I decided to just tie it. I used yarn I had on hand and I really like the way it turned out.

Now, I don't make any claims of being a quilter. I've never done this before. I'm sure it shows. I would really hate for someone who knows what they are doing, to critique my work. I don't care if it's not done properly. I only care that it's done. I started something and I finished it. All the way to the end. I'm proud of myself.