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I started a new quilt a couple months ago, but along the way I decided to stop and re-think it. While I’m re-thinking my quilt, I think I’ll admire these others which I am currently loving.
1. Happy Campers Pinwheel quilt, 2. pinwheel quilt, 3. Lonestar, 4. Design Wall, 5. the big orange wall quilt, 6. Baby Elliot’s quilt, 7. Against Traffic closer, 8. Finished Swoon Horse Quilt, 9. Bright Circles Topper, 10. Calico Quilt., 11. Broken Dishes Quilt, 12. Equilateral Triangles
A while back I started making a quilt for my cousin who was expecting her first baby in May. I absolutely loved this quilt and used it as inspiration for my cousin’s. In the beginning, everything went as smoothly as I could have hoped…I loved the mix of fabrics I had chosen and I had each little 4.5” square sewn together into one lovely quilt top. Problems ensued, however, nearly every step thereafter. For example, half way through quilting it, I was disappointed with the amount of puckering, so I picked out all of the stitching and re-pinned. Quilted again….more puckering. It was only after Suz commented on my post that I considered picking up a walking foot. Thank you so much, Suz, for that wonderful suggestion! I have no idea why I waited so long. So, I happily quilted it for the third time with much greater success and was pleased as punch with the results. I finished the quilt the day before my cousin’s baby shower and washed it that night. DISASTER! I pulled the quilt out of the wash only to discover that the beautiful blue plaid backing and binding fabric had bled alllllll over the creamy neutrals that made the quilt so sweet to begin with. After several more washes I deemed the quilt a failure and resigned to make her another one.
At least with this attempt I had the walking foot from the beginning. If you do straight line quilt without one I would really like to encourage you to try one out. Such a difference!
I had to retire my blue plaid backing and binding fabric and find a replacement, which was disappointing. It had so many lovely shades of blue and complemented the quilt beautifully….Sigh…
Are you a prewasher? I know there are some who always do and some who never do. I’m in the middle, and it usually just depends on how much time I have and what I’m using the fabric for. With clothes I usually try to prewash to account for any shrinking. I’m thinking now it’s probably worth the extra time just to go ahead and zig-zag those edges and toss it in the wash.
I am happy to say that quilt and baby are now together in their new home. May they spend many happy moments together over the years to come.
Taking a little break before diving into quilting this thing. This is my second attempt at pinning. After my first go, I tried running my machine over the layers only to make a big puckery mess. I then removed all the pins, ripped out about four lines of quilting, starched and pressed the top and bottom, and re-pinned the layers together again. I’m hoping better preparation of the layers will help cut down on the puckering, but I think it’s only part of the problem. The other part of the problem would be the backing I chose. It’s all lose and shifty no matter how many pins I jab into it, but I’m too far into it at this point to pick something else. Drat.
Annabelle, the 4-year-old, has really taken to caring for her “babies” as of late. In the past, I think she was always satisfied with role-playing Mom and Baby with her little sister, but now that Charlotte is 3, perhaps the game has lost some of its appeal? Anywho, Annabelle is much the doting caretaker to her various baby dolls and stuffed animals. She carries them carefully and is eager to share her food with them (as evident by the chocolate stains on the baby’s mouth). At times, she concerns herself with finding a suitable bed for her dear ones and will not be content until everyone has a suitable place to sleep. Most of the time she’ll arrange the dolls strategically around her in bed, but occasionally she just really needs a separate bed for somebody.
Thankfully, I stumbled across this post a couple years ago and have kept it handy in my mind ever since! Not only did the author present a very useful idea for an empty box of clementines, but she also introduced me to the wonders of this delicious variety of citrus. Are you familiar? They’re delicious. They’re small and juicy and sweet. They peel easily and most of them are seedless. They are truly a treat and now we go through at least 2 boxes every December/January.
Of course, if one has a bed, one must also have a blanket….or quilt. I’ll take any excuse to make a small quilt. I had some recently acquired pinks and was happy to cut into them, plus I reeeeaaallly need to practice my mitered corners on quilt bindings, so this doll-sized quilt came in quite handy for that.
Now the girl has the doll and the doll has a bed and the bed has a quilt and Mama has oranges and everybody’s happy. The end. :)
Usually, the weeks leading up to Christmas are filled with the stress of trying to make a slew of thoughtful, well-crafted gifts for friends and family. This year was different. Instead, I focused on just one thoughtful handmade gift for my mom. Good ol’ Mom. Over the years I’ve spent countless hours making gifts for friends, friends’ children, and of course my own children, with very good intentions on making my mom a quilt “when I had time.” Unfortunately, it took the passing of my father this past year to remind me that often, Time has its own plans.
So, instead of the usual frenzy of last minute gift-making, I spent three weeks in December carving out time to make this one for Mom. I used the string quilt tutorial from FITF and the paper piecing worked beautifully. My absolute favorite part of the quilt is that it uses just about every single piece of fabric I own, including scraps from previous projects. As I examined the piece afterwards, I could point out the fabrics that I used for jammies for the girls, the skirt that I made for Annabelle’s banana party, the apron that Charlotte wore as part of her Little Red Riding Hood costume, and many other sentimental projects (most of which were for my kids). I love that the quilt has a bit of nostalgia built into it.
I encouraged my girls to help me as much as their little attentions spans could handle, and I was very pleased that they were each able to complete a square each. They picked out the fabrics, piece by piece, and alternated between “steering” the fabric and using the pedal to stitch their strips together. I was so happy to be able to present the quilt to my mom Christmas morning and I know that it is something she will cherish forever.
(Special thanks to the hubby for being my “quilt –holder” for pics.)
