Wednesday, February 20, 2013

A Quilting adventure

DSC02897

 

 

This post is very delayed…mostly because the gift-giving was delayed so I couldn’t share it until the special little-ones received their gifts.

 

 

Last summer I made pillowcase-dresses for two of my friends’ daughters. Here’s one of the finished dresses (lets call this Fabric 2012-06-15 18.11.58no.1) –>

 

I had some fabric left over from each dress and designed to make each little girl a blanket for their First Birthdays.

Let me first say I have never quilted before.

I learned how to sew the seams so that the fabric lays flat, and how to make borders…thank goodness for You Tube!  There are so many great resources on the interwebs; I’m a very visual learner so while reading a book with instructions is great, watching videos is much better for my learning style.

Here’s the quilt top to the blanket using Fabric no. 2)

2012-07-10 22.03.46

 

The quilt tops take the most time, all the cutting, piecing, arranging and then sewing. For the backing I decided to use one large piece of flannel.   I sandwiched some cotton batting (I used Warm and Natural) between the flannel and the quilt top and started to quilt the blanket.

I decided to keep the lines on a vertical/horizontal plane, and quilted in straight lines, at equidistance to each other.  My sewing machine came with a quilting guide, I was very happy to have it as I can’t cut/sew a straight line on my own to save my life.

Let’s go back to Fabric no 1 (I didn’t take any finished pictures of Fabric no. 2 blanket).

DSC02891I like the ‘crinkly’ look of quilts, so I didn’t wash the fabric before hand to preshrink it, I wanted that to happen after it was sewn.

DSC02892

Both blankets are lap-size, perfect for the car or stroller or little naps on the couch.

Overall, I`m pleased with how they turned out…I’m less intimidated by my sewing machine now, am very friendly with my seam-ripper and well…I vow to conquer the elusiveness b*tch that is binding. (I used this amazing tutorial…sewing the binding isn`t difficult, but you do have to go slow and learn to sew a straight line…hence my frustration)

These little blankets are basically warm up for my next quilting adventure…a quilt for my Queen size bed.  I bought the fabric last summer on a birthday shopping trip to Michigan and bought the Alice Quilt Pattern by Red Pepper Quilts

I don`t know when I’ll be starting, but I’ll be sure to post the process…maybe you can give me tips on sewing straight lines?

 

Happy Wednesday!

 

1 comments:

Post a Comment

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More
This Is A Do-Follow Blog