Quilting with Flannel

It's been about a hundred years since I've blogged. I'm back, baby! Feel free to cancel your depression. I know you really want to hear the details of every single second of those hundred years of silence, but I'll just sum it up by saying I've been kicking ass, having fun, and being amazing. Let's move on.

We had the coldest winter in the history of my life last year. I recollect there being about three months of -30 degree days. And nights. Our house is old. Vermont old. That translates as being cold pretty much all the time. The thought of getting rid of a blanket seems ridiculously ridiculous. However, my little tiny girlchild is no longer a little tiny girlchild. At ten, she has out-matured her Littlest Pet Shop comforter. Do you know the Littlest Pet Shop? Giant-headed humanized animals made of plastic that may or may not talk. She was a big fan of the franchise just a few years ago. Once I had a dream that a particular pink Littlest Pet Shop cat spoke to me and said that the Littlest Pet Shop representation of cats was demeaning to cats. It felt accurate.

We came up with a plan. Like all good plans, it started at the craft store. We bought flannel [on sale] to piece together for the top and fleece [on sale] to use for the bottom with the LPS comforter as the toasty filling. And like all good plans, we sort of half-assed it with the planning. We randomly cut up the flannel and then placed them on the fleece like a puzzle. She started at the center and worked outwardly. 

Then the girlchild did the sewing. She's gotten pretty skilled at sewing and enjoys it as long as it is going well. Things went well with the piecing. 

It was when we put the top, middle, and bottom together and tried to sew it that things went awry. It was really thick and my sewing machine was less than $100.

After two broken needles and two purposefully ripped seams, we used all the near-curse words we knew.

Like all good plans, we realized our plan was crap and we replanned.
The back of the LPS comforter was cute, mature polka dots. We decided to use the pieced flannel as the top and the back of the LPS comforter as the back. The sewing went well again, and we used non-near-curse words. 

It turned out fantastic, and I have one very proud little girl who has a new favorite blanket.

Luckily it has been cool enough to stay under it all day. Yay for fall!