The Continuing Saga of "Not My Favorite Top"

Today would have been productive, had I not made HUGE mistakes when working with "Not My Favorite Top". I am going to be so very glad that this quilt is finished.

Anyway... I spent Zeb's nap today making the fabric leaders for my Little Gracie II. I've had the frame for nearly three months, and haven't been able to do a thing with it. The frame came with tubing for only the crib sized rails, and I put together the frame for the queen sized rails. I rarely do anything smaller than a lap quilt, thus the need for the larger size.

I did manage to find the appropriate sized tubing at Walmart - it's actually aquarium tubing. Purchased it for far less than what Grace Frames wanted for the stuff. "Woohoo" for determination.

So, I got my frame ready for use. I'll post pictures later, when I'm not so irritated beyond belief at myself.

This prompted me to prepare backing for "Not My Favorite Quilt Top". I have a beautiful Tracy Porter fabric that I just love, and decided to use it for the backer, since I couldn't imagine using it in a top. It's just such a large print. Looking at the fabric and the finished size of the top, I decided to do a pieced backing.

I have not one clue where I went wrong. Everything laid out properly on the floor. But then, I cut the fabric. Not a big deal - yet. I put together a stripe of 7" squares of the fabrics that were in the top. Awesome. That looked great. I then sewed this stripe to one half of the Tracy Porter fabric. Okay.

With this done, I laid it back on the floor to pin the other half to the opposite side of the stripe. (@$&($!!! I totally sewed the first half on backwards. #(#&%$&)@(!!!!

Fine. Whatever. Pin the other side and sew it on, then pull the first set of stitches.

The second set of stitches was finished, and for whatever reason, I decided to make sure the backer was wide enough. Yeah....

Instead of being six inches bigger all the way around, the backer is nearly the same width as the top, and nearly 18" longer. I have not one clue where I went wrong. At this point it doesn't matter though. The fabric is cut, and I like where the backer is headed. Although, I do really just want to burn this thing now, but I WILL FINISH.

Now I am very grateful I still had that extra yard of black fabric that should have gone into the top. I've cut 6" wide stripes to flank either side of the central pieced stripe. That will give me the extra width I need.

Soon, very soon, I can get this whole thing on the quilting frame. Really.