Ooops

Posted on July 24, 2013 by Andrea R — Leave a comment

I guess I took a bit of a break. I actually have done quite a bit of quilting and finishing up. I was really focused on getting some projects finished and my Etsy shop up and running. I did this while on vacation too.

Meanwhile, I have diverted from quilting a bit and have gone back to making garments. Blame the sewing classes that I took while on vacation. 😀 They inspired me quite a bit and reminded me how much I love sewing in general.

To get a little crazier, I decided to make my husband and 18th Century shirt. Then I decided (must have been the heat) to hand stitch the entire thing.

Sometimes I just make more work for myself. 😀 But, I also do these things sort of on purpose, to either keep my skill level up or improve my sloppy stitches. At least it helps things from getting boring?

Starting the facing on the neck opening.

Neck gusset.

Neck gussets and facing in place.

Collar pinned to neck and gathering stitches in place. I used red thread to gather, because I can see it better and I will remove it later.

Here’s how I wrap the ends of the gathering threads around a pin, in a figure 8. This will hold better than a knot.

I’m trying to get back into a blogging habit, since I have more than one blog that needs regular updates. I will be posting the various quilting shenanigans I’ve been up to since last time.

Ayla’s quilt – all done!

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Andrea R — 8 Comments

Well that was weird – I swore I posted when I finished Ayla’s quilt a few months ago.

Ayla's quilt. Finished ages ago and it's well loved now.

Ayla's quilt back.

Ayla appliqué name

I used a variation of the Brioche and baguette pattern. On the back I inserted a wide white strip and appliqued Ayla’s name.

Panels are good practise for free motion quilting

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Andrea R — Leave a comment

My mom hits up yard sales and thrift stores for.. all kinds of things actually, but she goes often enough to get some great finds. One of them is quilt panels. Then she sends them to me to quilt.

This works out great, as I love the quilting part and I get to practise. She’s not picky and loves to hang up different panels for different seasons. And we use up the stash on backing and those weird small bits of batting.

Recently I worked on this one for her.
More panel quilted

More panel quilted

I also did this runner.

Christmas runner

Still need to bind them, but that’s another post. 😉

So don’t discount panels or “cheater” quilts! They are great practise, usually don’t cost much – especially when you pick them up at thrift stores or in clearance bins – and you can always give them away.

Colorblock quilt, all done!

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Andrea R — 7 Comments

For finish it up Friday, I got the bonding all done on this quilt. It’s now taking a spin in the wash. I always wash and dry the baby quilts then check them over for loose threads and any place where I did a lousy job seaming.

Binding all done, time for a wash!

I’m really happy with how this one turned out. I’ve been working on piecing accuracy and undoing some bad habits I picked up over the years, like pulling the fabric taut while I sew. This causes it to ripple on the edges when relaxed.

Here’s a shot of the back, upside down.
Bach

I went and bought all new fabrics for this one, from the same line. I don’t usually do that.

Colorblock quilt progress

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Andrea R — Leave a comment

I forgot to post this sooner, sorry. With the Colorblock quilt, I had a hard time deciding what to quilt. I defaulted to what the pattern samples show and what most people did, at least according to all the pics I found.

Straight lines.

Straight line quilting

It’s boring but it works. Up and down on the tall strip and back and forth on the horizontal blocks.

Funnily enough, when I did mark these, the width of my chalk was just enough to make the lines slightly over 1″ apart and a little off by the time I get to the other side of the block. But the recipient won’t care. 😉

And yes I did mark these and not use a guide or eyeball it.

Sunday Stash: out of control edition

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Andrea R — Leave a comment

This weekend I moved my sewing room to a spare beedroom in the basement. It was at the end of one of the L in the main room of the basement, but for various reason, we decided to move it to the back bedroom.

Ta da!

It’s much more efficient use of the space, a great work area, and even better – we moved my desk in from storage. That desk is big, heavy and most importantly does not bounce when I sew fast.

For the stash part, I give you this:

Yeah. That’s all fabric.

And this is not all my fabric.

*gulp*

A new way to baste quilts

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Andrea R — 2 Comments

Over the weekend – actually, on Friday, my usual day off – I set about basting as many quilts as I had ready to go that also had batting available. In one of the Craftsy classes I signed up for the awesome Leah Day showed us how to baste quilts on a table and use elastics at the corner to secure the fabric and pull it taut.

Well I tried this and it worked so well I am in love with it! Of course I modified it slighty for my table and the quilts I was basting, but LOOK at the stack of quilts I got basted!

I even ran out of safety pins. And when I started I realized my mom had my Quick Klip tool, but I managed.

Even though my table is a nice sturdy wood table, I didn’t worry about scratching it with pins as it is already dinged and painted and stained and watermarked and just generally lived on.

I can also report that my back did not feel like I was eighty years old when I was done either. I did two baby quilts, two Christmas panels and a Christmas runner for my mom AND I did the markings on another larger quilt. I also watched three episodes of season three of Dr Who. So I accomplished quite a bit.

This quilt I am quilting a large Mariner’s Compass / Compass Rose on it. Can’t wait to see how it turns out, as long as I keep my eye on the right lines.

p.s – am I the only one who never has enough batting? Or the piece I have leftover is never quite big enough for the tops I have that need batting?

Cowboy quilt update

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Andrea R — 2 Comments

I did finish the whole top, and calculated it took 6 hours to get this far.

Now to layer with the backing and batting, baste and quilt.

It’s the “quilt as desired” that gets me.

Edit: this quilt is for sale in my etsy shop

Colorblock Quilt top

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Andrea R — 6 Comments

For this quilt, I purchased the PDF Colorblock Quilt pattern from www.bijoulovelydesigns.com. The pattern is really well written and super easy to follow, with loads of clear diagrams. Perfect for beginners, a breeze for more experienced quilters.

I also went to two different Etsy shops to get the right fabric – Mod Tod by Riley Blake, purchased from Fiber Textiles and 44th St Fabric. Both shops were fabulous and extremely helpful, and my orders (to Canada from the US arrived within two weeks and a day apart. I was impressed with both places. So impressed, I now read Bev’s blog from 44th St. Heh. (Hi Bev!)

I had to piece one of my fabric for the long strip, but I did it carefully in the print and you hardly notice. The piecing and cutting was done in maybe 3.5 hours, while I watched episodes of Dr. Who on Netflix. About half the time was ironing, because I did follow the advice the iron seams open. The white I used for sashing is poly cotton, so somewhat sheer and I knew the seams from the darker fabric would show.

The only issue I had is something I consistently have with long strips – running out of strip at the end of the seam. However much I pin, the fabric still shifts. I could have used my walking foot, but it’s so noisy and goes slower. I guess I’ll know for next time.

One short sashing piece wound up just short enough it pulled out of the seam so I do have to make a small repair by removing the strip and sewing it back in.

Overall, I’m really happy with the pattern and the fabric – even if I did wind up getting the blocks reversed. The recipient will never know or care, it’s still a gorgeous quilt!

I’m not sure how I’ll quilt it yet, but I am open to suggestions. I’m thinking of leaving the narrow sashing unquilted. They wind up only 1″ wide. I’ll be using Hobb’s Warm and Natural cotton for the batting.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday.

Cowboy quilt

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Andrea R — 1 Comment

Or maybe “The Sheriff is in town”. I bought the fabric for this quilt a few years ago in a thrift store. 3 yards of each grey print, just sitting there. I maybe paid a buck a yard, not a thing wrong with it.

Ever since I got the fabric, I had an idea that I would have to do a quilt with bright solid stars, so I drew it up and roughed in some measurements and finally started it this month. Well, February but you knew what I meant. 😉 I did want a bit of a modern spin on it, so that will probably happen with the quilting itself.

I wanted to see how long a typical quilt will take me, so I’m going to try and track my time. I spent 50 mins getting these sashing pieces sewn and pressed today.

Before that, I figure I spent 2 hours planning and drawing, and cutting the pieces. That’s probably a conservative guesstimate there.

Once the sashing strips were done, it only took twenty minutes to do the first row.

uh-oh. I looked at the sashing pieces I had, said “That can’t be right” and realized I mis counted somewhere.

I have a grey stack of strips without the triangles on the corners, but couldn’t remember if I’d cut too many pieces or not. I opent get rotary-happy when cutting and cut out waaayyy too many pieces!

Do you think this would be a good free tutorial to write up? It’s just large enough that the backing can be done with one piece of fabric, and will be a nice baby quilt size.

Edit: I did manage to get half the top pieced today. Hoping to do the rest tonight.