Remember back in MAY when I said I was gunna make
quilts?
I procrastinated.
Remember how I said they had to be in America by
September?
It is September.
Now, these fuckers have 1200 pieces per top. I'm gunna blame
my procrastination on the fact that my laptop was in a truly terrible state*,
and noone wants to try designing on something that takes 5 minutes to open a
file in photoshop. I’d designed the first one, and got a top made, but the
other two just weren’t working (though I ordered some fabrics based the
requirements of a design I didn’t love, in a fit of misguided optimism) and I
slogged through attempts with about 6 different reference pictures to no avail.
But then I got a new laptop, and I could use photoshop again, and make the designs
work. I ordered more fabrics, and some spoonflower labels before that, and
waited.
When the labels didn’t arrive on their due date (the 26th
of last month), I worried. Then a couple of days before the solids were due to
arrive (I was hoping for the 5th), with the labels still nowhere to
be seen, I discovered I had my due date wrong. Not only was the post office not
giving me what I needed, but I’d fucked up all on my own too. They needed the
quilts by the 19th, not the 26th.
On the one hand, I accepted my fate. Got over it. It wasn’t
possible. No more worry. I agreed to work an extra shift that weekend after
all. I made plans to go out and get drunk afterwards.
On the other hand, the universe had had my back on this one
thing – Spotlight happening to have the one exact shade I had incorrectly ordered.
So it came down to: if the solids got here by that Friday, and I could organise
some kind of express courier to get them halfway around the world in a week, it
would be possible. Not necessarily a
good idea, but a doable thing. A thing that I could do. Possibly.
The fabric came that Friday. I still had a full quilt top and
a half to do, as well as making the backings and doing the actual quilting for
all 3. I timed my steps along the way:
Cutting: 3 hours
Sorting: 4 hours
Chaining: 4 hours
Pressing: 2 hours
Pinning: 2 hours
Sewing Rows: 4 hours
Pressing blocks: 1 hour
Assembling: 1 hours
Backing: 2 hours
Basting: .5 hours
Quilting: 4 hours
Binding: 3 hours
And even considering what I already had done, I worked on
these for over 60 hours in the past 10 days. I cancelled on the going out and
getting drunk thing, but I still worked 36 hours too. Oh, and uni, though I
gotta confess I did the summaries I had to and ignored the rest. And...
Tomorrow I need to get up really early and call the DHL
people and find out who I need to drop the box off to so that they can send it
for me. Like, 7am early. The kind of early I’ve been going to sleep at (cause
you don’t do secret projects in the middle of the day).
The nice man on the phone when I rang to check on Friday said
that if they got it Monday afternoon, it would get to Dallas by Thursday. That’s
the goal.
*To be fair, I spilled hot chocolate on it.
