Applique-my first attempt!

I don't know about you, but I love looking at Pinterest.  I drool over all the beautiful quilts I see.  I seem to go in phases.  One week I love looking at jelly roll quilts.  The next week it's quilts for the men in my life, then I'm on to baby quilts, purple quilts, vintage or modern quilts.

 Right now I'm fascinated by applique quilts. I just love the look of applique on a quilt.  It can take a boring quilt and make it shine.  One that caught my eye was a simple jelly roll quilt with a name appliqued on. 

I haven't had a reason to make one until recently when my DD mentioned a friend of hers was expecting a baby boy.  I think I've only met her friend Sarah once or twice, but hey, why not make a quilt for her precious baby boy!

Sarah told my DD they were going to do the nursery in yellow and gray.  Since DD is in Chiropractic school, she's broke so we headed to Walmart to see if we could find fabric.  I was pleasantly surprised by what we found.  Their Waverly brand actually seems to be good fabric.  This is what we picked.

The darker gray with white polka dots is going to be the backing and the stripes at the bottom are going to be the binding.

Now, I've never appliqued before but I wasn't going to let that stop me. It couldn't be that hard, could it?  We decided to put his name, Ollie on one of the larger strips.

We found a simple font and cut out the fabric on my Cameo machine.  It was surprisingly easy, it worked on the first try! I had researched and knew to use heat n bond lite.  I got it on the quilt and his name looked great!

Now came the part I wasn't so sure about...actually sewing around the letters.  I can honestly say I learned a lot in the process.  It's not perfect and if you look close you can see all my mistakes.  But...what's the saying?  From a galloping horse it looks great!

After appliqueing his name.  I realized I had a lot to learn about applique.  As luck would have it,Prairiepoint Quilt and Fabric Shop,a quilt shop near me was having a class on applique.  I was lucky enough to get one of the last spots available.  I wish I had taken the class before I did the quilt but I feel much more confident for the next time I attempt applique. 

The two most important things I learned from the class were:  1.  Use tear away stabilizer behind the applique and 2.  Have an open toe applique foot for your machine.    I didn't have the special foot when I did the quilt and it was very hard to see what I was doing, especially around the curves and corners.  I ordered one online and it was amazing how much it helped.

I quilted it with my walking foot and did wavy lines.  I learned this technique from Jacquie Gering at Craftsy.  I first talked about her class here.  I honestly think this is the best class I've taken from Craftsy.  I learned so much from Jacquie and frequently refer back to the class.

One thing Jacquie really emphasizes is using tape for registration lines so you don't veer to the left or right. 

   

I tend to just plow ahead and hope for the best, but this time I took my time to measure, use my painters tape like Jacquie shows and I think my quilting it starting to look much better.

Another first for me on this quilt is using striped binding.  I was a little nervous, what if I didn't cut it straight?  What if it look crooked on the quilt?  But, I discovered I love striped binding.  I love the way it frames the quilt. I will definitely use it again.

Here's the finished quilt:

What's a new technique you were nervous or scared to try?  I'd love to hear from you.


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!