Lessons Learned

One of the quilts on my wish list has always been an Irish Chain.  Once I really got to looking into how it was made, I realized it wasn't that difficult and decided to jump in and get started.  A couple of things we need to remember 1.  I'm a relatively new quilter and 2.  I've not work with a lot of precuts.

I picked  a bright happy jelly roll.  I thought it would make a great Irish Chain.  I decided it would be perfect for a little girl.  I figured I would start with a small quilt, maybe a crib size.  I can't remember the name of the line or who designed it.

My strip sets

When I started sewing the strip sets together I realized printed fabric had pinked edges and the white I had cut from yardage of course did not.  Now most people may know how to match them up but I didn't.  Instead of doing the smart thing and googling it, I just forged ahead.  I chose to line up the white edge with the inside edge of the pinked fabric which made the little points stick out past the white.  I didn't think it would make that much difference...I was wrong!

I think I've created a mess and not sure how to correct it.  So it's going into my UFO pile for now.  Maybe someday I'll pull it out and figure out how to fix it. As long as I learn from my mistakes I figure I'm good!

Happy Sewing!

Lori

Car Seat Covers

Last week I showed the fish quilt I finished for my DGS.  I mentioned in that post that we originally planned on making a crib skirt, curtains and the quilt.  Oh,  I think she wants a pillow too. Anyway after talking about it more, DD decided against the crib skirt.  Which I'm very glad for because after looking at the pattern, I did not want to make it.  It looked way too complicated!

Since we had so much leftover fabric I decided to make a car seat cover for the summer.  I had made one out of flannel and minky for winter.  I'll try to find a picture of that one, it was red minky and a flannel fish fabric.

I used a pattern my sister found on the internet.

I think it looks rather plain since I used the same fabric for the whole thing except for the placket.  I do love the fish buttons I found!

I like this one better that I made for my best friend's daughter. This one is from Simplicity pattern 1177. 

I am proud of myself for making the white bows.  I found a you tube video that explained how to do it.  Turns out it's very easy.

Next I want to try one made with the new double gauze I've seen in stores.  It looks like it would be perfect a summer cover.

Happy sewing,

Lori

Latest Finish!

My grandson was born over 9 months ago and I just now finished his crib quilt.  To be honest, I wasn't in a hurry since it ended up being a little big for a crib quilt.  I know he'll use it for many years and trust me, he's not hurting in needing anything!

My son in law is an avid fisherman so they decided to decorate his room with fish.  It had to be realistic fish, not any of that cartoony stuff!  My DD and I looked all over for fabric until she finally found this that she loved.   The original goal was to make a crib skirt, curtains and a quilt.  I purchased a Simplicity pattern that had the crib skirt and a quilt, but after looking at the pattern I didn't like the quilt at all.  So I decided to go with the disappearing nine patch. I still consider myself a new quilter and this is the first time I've made this pattern.  I was very nervous cutting up the nine patches but once I saw how easy it went together, I'll definitely make it again.

I made my initial squares for the nine patch 7 inches.  I wanted to make them large to show off the fish fabric. This made my nine patch blocks about 20 inches square!

During the sandwiching process.

I was nervous for the quilting part.  The only quilting I had done was stitch in the ditch and I wanted to do something more this time.  I talked with my friend and fellow blogger Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts.  She assured me I could do it and encouraged me to take a Craftsy class called Creative Quilting with your Walking Foot.  The instructor is Jacquie Gering.  Here's the link Creative Quilting with your Walking Foot

I took my time and watched all the classes and practiced and what do you know?  I could do it!  It's not perfect, but I don't think my grandson will notice.

I've been told to always label my quilts.  I struggled with this and tried several different ideas.  The one suggestion that stuck with me was to use my handwriting for my labels.  And that got me to thinking.  I love seeing my mothers handwriting and I only have one or two things with her handwriting.  I really, really dislike my handwriting.  I'm a lefty and never was able to master pretty writing in printing or cursive.  So I had to force myself to try and it's definitely not pretty, but it is MY handwriting and I know this is something that will help make the quilt special, long after I'm gone. 

Here's the finished quilt!

The coloring doesn't do it justice.  I'm still learning how to take good pictures for my blog.  Maybe I should take a class for that!

I Spy!

It took over six months, but I finally got the I Spy quilt done for my grandson.  I gave the unfinished quilt to him for Christmas and told him I would get it finished as soon as I could. I had the quilt top done and sandwiched.  How to quilt it was my biggest obstacle.

I tried to quilt it on my DSM which sets on a table.  Since this is a full size quilt, it pulled really bad.  I got frustrated so I decided to hand quilt it.   Oh my, does hand quilting take a long, long time.  Every time I looked at it, I felt so guilty for not working on it.  I had visions of loving hand quilting...well, I don't.

So one day  I was watching a Man Sewing video Man Sewing , I can't remember which one.  Rob showed that he used an extension table for his sewing machine.   So that got me to thinking, would that help me?  I went to Sew Vac Direct and found extension tables that are custom made for each machine.  I ordered the biggest one I could.

I have to say was was impressed Sew Vac Direct's customer service.  I ordered late on a Sunday evening.  First thing Monday morning I had an email wanting clarification on my order.  We discussed what I needed and they got my order processed quickly.  Since it was custom made I expected it to take a couple of weeks.  I think I received it in just over a week.

Once I had my extension table I had no excuse not to finish the quilt.  I was nervous, but took my time, rolled the quilt and went slow.  For my first big quilt, I am happy with it.  I used my walking foot and stitched in the ditch (well, mostly). I was able to get it quilted and bound in one weekend.

The extension table worked wonders!  It made it so much easier to maneuver the quilt.  I'm not ready to free motion quilt yet, but I'll get there.  For now I'm happy with quilting with the walking foot.

I was able to give it to my grandson on Tuesday and he loved it!  We had a fun time playing I Spy all evening.  I think he already has a lot of the squares memorized. 

I had fun collecting all the different fabrics.  I bought way too much and probably have enough fabric to make two more quilts! 

Happy Sewing!

Lori 

Time Flies!

Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted since August.  Life has a funny way of getting in the way of computer time!  Oh well, life is much more important. One of the reasons I haven't posted much was I think it's important to have pictures showing what I'm doing and unfortunately I haven't had a camera and my cell phone was in terrible shape.  I've finally gotten that issue resolved and am trying to take pictures as I go of my projects.  So hopefully I'll be blogging more often now.

I've finished a rag quilt for my son's birthday, a baby quilt and several other small projects.  I'll post pics soon of those.  Right now I have several projects in the works, let me see if I can list them all:

an Irish Chain quilt
a periwinkle quilt
a baby crib set
hooded towels
car seat cover
a couple of fabric books


I'm sure there are more, I just can't think of them at the moment.

Happy sewing!

Lori