Category: quilting

Onto the next

Yep, I’m firmly in the quilting camp now! I ordered a big cutting mat, new rotary cutting blades, a big ruler and other tidbits. Now I’m ready for some quilting on a larger scale.

Last night I practiced cutting 10″ squares on some remnant fabric, then moved onto my “real” fabric. Cowboy colours chosen by my beloved, for his chevron quilt.

Yep, I’m hand piecing. I thought about going down to the workroom and using a machine to make things faster, but I do really love the hand sewing – plus I was just too impatient and wanted to start right away. The HSTs are going pretty quickly, though I’m sure once I get onto the longer seams I might change my tune!

So fun.

June 27, 2013
Done and done

My quilt is all done, including its inaugural trip through the washing machine. I’ll be honest, I was expecting a seam or two to come undone, but it seems to be intact!

It isn’t the most photogenic quilt, but it feels great. Finished dimensions are about 40″ x 76″ / 102 x 193cm – so it’s narrow, but that’s what I was going for.

Front fabric is from the workroom (I don’t remember what line it’s from though, oops), as well as the cotton batting. Back fabric is an old duvet cover from Ikea, and the binding is cotton from the Textile museum sale. It was a really nice project to do, though the large pieces of fabric are certainly trickier to wrangle than my knitting!

I’m really pleased with this one and I think for my next step I’m going to try some half square triangles.

June 21, 2013
Nearing the Finish

First off, thank you for all the kind comments and notes on the passing of my grandfather.

I’ve been trying to power through some projects both as a distraction and to clear things out of my workspace, and my quilt is nearly done. I just finished attaching the binding (some areas had to be re-done, and I screwed up the corners pretty royally the first time) so now I just need to sew down the binding to the back.

The binding fabric is a remnant piece that I got at the Textile museum sale, and I think it goes quite nicely with the muted tones of the other fabrics. I’ve made a LOT of mistakes with this project and sticklers for quilting perfection would be horrified! But I really loved the process, and I’m totally fine with a quilt full of learning experiences as long as I can put it on my bed!

That said, I would like to make my next one better! What are your favourite quilting resources? Books, blogs, websites, inspiring quilts, anything really. I don’t have a sewing machine so I’m doing everything by hand. I’d love to check out some examples of great work!

June 11, 2013