My first Bargello

One day while sitting on the sofa with my hubby, I was looking through Pinterest at all kinds of beautiful quilts.  Isn't is amazing what you can find on Pinterest?  He happened to glance over and see one of the quilts I was admiring(pic from Pinterest, not mine!):

Here is the link to her blogpost:  bargello


He immediately said that was the quilt he wanted!  A little about my sweet hubby.  He's an old hippie. He loves tie dye, has long hair and is very easy going.  He supports me totally in my sewing/quilting/crafting hobby.  Even though with all the sewing I have done, I've never made anything for him.

I was a little intimidated by the thought of a bargello, but after looking at the instructions, I decided I would try to tackle it.  I don't push myself out of my comfort zone often enough.  I purchased the jelly rolls through Missouri Star Quilt Company   It takes two jelly rolls.

I took them to a quilting retreat and knew I could ask some of the wonderful people there for help.  I got extremely lucky and another lady was working on a bargello too!  Her's was much more complicated than mine and she had made a bargello before.  She was a lifesaver!  She showed me how to cut and label everything so I didn't get the rows mixed up.

I managed to get the top almost finished at retreat and then had to finish up at home.  Fortunately hubby works shift work, so I was able to work on it when he was working or sleeping.  When it came time to quilt it, I was stumped.  I didn't want the quilting to stand out so I ended up by lots of different colors of thread and quilting diagonally across the rows of color.  Hope that makes sense.

I finished it up in time to give it to him for Christmas.  He had no idea and was shocked when he opened it!  I was the first thing I had actually made for him!

Since I'm notoriously bad at remembering to take pics, this is the only one I have of his quilt.  It's hanging on the quilt rack in our living room.  He loves to show it off when friends come over, but he rarely uses it.  I need to remind him that quilts are made to be used and loved.

To anyone who has been too scared/nervous to try a bargello, I recommend you try.  They really are much easier than they look.  I'll definitely make another someday.

Happy Sewing,

Lori

Falling Charms

I recently had a wonderful opportunity to try out a long arm quilting machine!  Oh my I was soooooo excited.  I have a dear friend and her husband who have a long arm.  Don't ask me what kind, why I don't remember I don't know.  I think I was too excited about my finished quilt that I forgot to pay attention to important details.

Anyway, my friends Sandy and Al live about an hour away, with my busy schedule I don't get to visit them often.  One day I mentioned to Sandy that I had a quilt top I needed to quilt and she suggested I come up and Al could show me how to use their long arm.  I jumped at the chance.  We figured out a date that would work for all of us which was two weeks away.  I think I had a harder time waiting for that than I do for Christmas!  It worked out that sweet hubby was off work that day too so he was able to join us.

The quilt top I made was a falling charms pattern

The charm pack I used was Sweet Baby Girl Charm Pack by Doodlebug Designs for Riley Blake.  I think it's such a cute pattern for a little girl.  When I picked this out I didn't have anyone in mind, I just liked the fabric.

Al helped me pick out a quilting design and off we went.  He was so patient, taking the time to explain everything, sometimes several times until I understood. 

We picked this flower design, which goes perfectly with the backing fabric;

I chose the little frogs on the pink background for the binding.  I love how it looks like they are peeking over the quilt!

The finished quilt!

I had a hard time deciding what to do with this little quilt. It's the first quilt I quilted on a long arm, so it's special.  I thought about saving it until we have another granddaughter, but who knows how long that will be!  

I decided it's much better for the quilt to be loved, than to be stored in a box, so we gave it to the newborn baby daughter of one of my husband's coworkers.   They love it and were so touched that we gave them a gift from the heart.

I can't thank Sandy and Al enough for inviting us into their home and letting me play on their longarm.  I've decided a longarm is in my future, probably several years away though.  I'm starting to research them to see what I like.  As a matter of fact, the Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival is coming up later this week.  I'm planing on test driving several different longarms to see what I like.  I'll try to remember to take pics and report back.

Happy Sewing,

Lori

Car Seat Quilt

I've been tossing around an idea in my head for a while, trying to come up with a quilt for my grandson's car seat that he couldn't constantly kick off.  I got my inspiration from http://www.modabakeshop.com/2012/02/sophie-car-seat-quilt.html    After trying several different ideas, this is the final design.

 I wanted it to be warm and cozy since it was going to be used in winter.  The fabric I chose was left over from several other projects.  All the fabric is soft and cuddly and also difficult to sew.  Every time I sew with minky or any of that soft, stretchy, cuddly fabric, I swear I'm never going to sew with it again....but I always end up loving the final product and decide it wasn't so bad after all. 

 I wanted to make the quilt a quilt as you go (QAYG).  I thought it would be quicker and easier with this fabric.  I cut my backing approximately  30 inches by 35 inches since I wanted the finished quilt to be about 25x30.  I cut the batting the same 30x35.  For my strips, I cut varying widths making sure I had enough to go the length of the quilt.  I laid the first piece down and sewed across the top close to the edge.  Then I laid the next piece right sides together on the bottom edge of the first fabric, sew and fold down, repeating this process until the batting is covered.   Missouri Star Quilt Company has a great tutorial https://quiltingtutorials.com/tutorial/how-to-quilt-as-you-go

Use lots of pins with this fabric, it likes to move!

Almost done!

Last strip added and sides trimmed.

 The Moda Bakeshop tutorial used ties to attach the quilt to the car seat.  I was afraid they would come undone or take too long to tie and untie so I used velcro and made wider tabs instead.  I made the tabs about 1/12 inches wide by 5 inches long.  I measured around the handle of the car seat to get a length I felt worked.  I'm sure each car seat may be a little different.

I measured down about 13 inches and sewed the tabs close to the edge of the quilt.

 Things I learned from making this quilt:

Basting spray is your friend.

Pin, Pin, Pin.

Using a walking foot makes sewing this so much easier.

Binding with minky is no fun.


Let me know what you think of my car seat quilt

Happy sewing,

Lori

Jelly Roll Race

A couple years ago my youngest daughter made a jelly roll race quilt for me for Christmas.  I actually helped her make it thinking the whole time she was making it for herself.  Imagine my surprise when I opened my present on Christmas and it was the quilt she had worked so hard on for several months!

My son commented at the time that he really liked my quilt and several months later mentioned it again and said he would love to have me make one for him.  We actually sat down at the computer and I had him look at lots of different fabrics.  I discovered he liked the civil war type fabrics.

I picked out Georgetown by Judie Rothermel for Marcus Fabrics. I quilted it on my domestic machine, stitching in the ditch...well mostly in the ditch.  

I gave it to him for Christmas this past year and he loves it.  This is the only picture I managed to take before he whisked it away.  His bed is a queen size and this is a little small so of course I have a request to make him another quilt!

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

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