Perpetually-in-Progress Cars Quilt (Finished Back…Maybe?)

So after an hour or so of slicing, dicing, measuring, pinning and sewing, I finished the back of the quilt. I mean, so you would think, using all those precise measurements and such from last week.

But this is the PiP Cars Quilt for a reason! And the reason, apparently, is because even the best laid plans somehow get way off track.

It’s 54×46 inches. It was supposed to be 50×42.

Yeah, I don’t know where I went wrong, either. You’d think simply adding a 3″ border all around would be easy! I guess I was supposed to add 3″ total? But still, there’s over an inch extra.

But, other than the minor squaring up I need to do, the back looks nice. And it would be nice to declare SOMETHING finished on this thing…

So in other words, I’ll be re-working the front plan. Again!

Yeah, this thing is gonna look like a mess. Current plan involves weird things like the red McQueens on the bottom, black and red alternating on the top, adding red to the sides of the alternating ones because I just don’t have quite enough… Good thing the Wee One isn’t a critic!

And now I’ve got some seam ripping to do…

The Perpetually-In-Progress Cars Quilt

I’ve mentioned this one before, but never really shared exactly how big of a disaster this quilt is. It’s so bad, even Wedge gets in on the cat-butt action.

Basically, since the movie Cars came out and the Wee One became obsessed, I bought all the Cars fabric I could find. Which includes a giant panel (which is not one yard – more like 35×43.) Lots and lots of the brown above – my mother bought some as well. A tiny bit of black that was only at Walmart – and of course, my Walmart shut down the fabric department!

Bad decisions have been made on this one. Originally, the back had black and red as well as the brown and blue. Looked very bad together – the red with McQueen all over it was too much, the black just didn’t go. Seam-ripping ensued. Sewed random pieces together randomly, without checking if anything fit right or would be the right side in the end. So it’s been put aside out of frustration, many times. Which makes the Wee One frustrated!

So yesterday, I brought out all the fabric and bits and pieces and measured and PLANNED.

Not to be outdone by Wedge, Tycho helps me plan.

The front:

(Yes, I know about the cat feet. He attacked me when I tried to make him move.)

The big panel can be bought at Hobby Lobby. I got it at the Fabric Depot in Portland. Love that place. Miss that place! I have no idea where the red McQueens was from; the black, as previously mentioned, was from Walmart. I need to make the top and bottom squares on the sides a little bigger, and cutting down the red McQueens to 3″.

(Really shouldn’t have looked up the Fabric Depot. They have even more Cars fabrics! No! I need to stop!)

The back:

The back is just alternating blocks of the blue and brown. I don’t remember where I got the blue and I can’t get more – argh! So to add enough to make it work with the front, I’m adding 3″ of border all around. The red is from JoAnn’s, and I know there’s another complimentary blue at Hobby Lobby.

So I have my list of things to trim, cut, seam rip, sew and resew. And then I’ll have a 50×42 quilt to hand-bind. *sigh* Not looking forward to that one! But eventually, the PiP Cars Quilt might be done.