Officially part of the club

I think as of today I am officially part of the serious sewers/quilters club.  Why, you ask?  Because I did something that I imagine every sewer or quilter does at least once in their lifetime.  It's like an initiation rite, I think.

What did I do?

I sewed through my finger.

Yes, I sewed through my finger.  I was happily sewing away during the baby's nap, so grateful to see what my sewing room looks like in the daytime hours, when all of a sudden, my finger got sucked in somehow. I think I was reaching to pull out a pin right before it went under the needle and my finger just got in too close.  It went right through, luckily just beyond the tip of my nail. I think it would have been much worse had I sewn through the nail. Ew.  In my state of shock I started yanking on my finger and in doing so the needle just ripped through my finger.  Kind of like when you get an earring torn out of your ear?  Yeah.  Gross.

But it must have actually punctured me twice.  Because in addition to the puncture that tore out of the end of my finger when I yanked it away, there was another entrance and exit wound with THREAD SEWN THROUGH IT.  So nasty. I sat there staring at it, thinking to myself, how the hell do I pull this thread out without killing myself with pain?  Luckily my wits returned quite quickly and so I picked up my scissors, clipped the threads close to my skin, and then closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and then yanked them out.  By this time my finger was throbbing, there was blood...I ran and rinsed it off, cleaned it with some peroxide, then bandaged it up.  While I was doing that I was literally shaking and felt like I was going to pass out.  Usually the sight of blood and stuff like that doesn't bother me but it usually isn't my blood!  But it did reaffirm my decision to go to law school instead of medical school, as I thought I might be a bit too squeamish for that, and it looks like I may have been right. :)

I'll spare you any gory pictures.  Just know that it was majorly gross.

So what was I working on when I did this?  Well, I'm piecing together the Perfect 10 quilt.  I finally got all the fabrics cut during several evenings this past week, and started piecing it together.  I think it looks awesome!

Here's where it's at now:







Please pardon the messiness of the room peeking out from the edges, especially my huge pile of trimmings from the pinwheel quilt and the christmas pajamas.

I love how this looks! It's hard to tell from the photo, but the quilt divides into three sections that you piece separately, each comprised of three mini-sections within it.  I have the top third done (it includes the top three white-sashed squares). I also have a portion of the second third done (the pinkish square on the left above two green squares above a brown square with big pink dots, as well as the white sashed turquoise square to the right of it and the three little squares atop and bottom).  Those two pieces will be sewn together and then pieced with the sections to the right of them.

It's going fairly quickly and I'm hoping to have the top finished this week.  Then it will be on to quilting!

I do have a question for anyone that cares to opine--do you all use starch when you're piecing? I'm pressing very carefully as I go but even then sometimes everything doesn't stay as flat as I'd like and I'm wondering if others use starch at this stage. I have no idea.  Let me know!

Okay, back to the piecing, being VERY careful to keep my finger out of the way!