Little Blessings

Fabric hanging to dry in anticipation of being cut and made into a baby quilt for our new little cousin.

It's all in greens, yellows and lilac/purple so it can fit both a boy and a girl without being glaringly unisex.

Meandering

I have a feeler out for a lady who may be able to do free-motion quilting of my Isabel-quilt!

I've wanted the meandering look but my machine can't do that. So I simply asked the lady at the quilt store if she knew of anyone and she's asking around.

I had decided I'd quilt it myself using only straight lines, but then she replied yesterday and my mom decided to come visit us last night so I never even started. Good thing.

Fingers crossed.

Strawberry lemonade

I'm making a blanket for my girls' new cousin who is due on September 2nd.

I have some white cotton waffle weaved fabric that I plan to use as a combined backing and batting.

The front will be wide stripes, I'm thinking 4" or 4.5" so it won't take too long to get ready.
The backing fabric is 27" by 39" so it won't be a big blanket, but more than adequate to use in the stroller this fall or in the crib all year round.

The left over fabric will become a burp cloth and maybe a bib if I can stretch it. I just need terry cloth for that.

I'm planning on using Strawberry Lemonade from Me and My Sister Design.
I have 6 FQs from that series. 3 pink and 3 blue, so I'll wait until Cousin is born to make it.
I don't think 3 FQs will be enough to make a blanket, burp cloth and bib.

I guess I'll just have to suck it up and go shopping again.

Oh woe be me.

Quilt top done and basted

My friends ask me how I find the time to craft as much as I do, which btw isn't as much as some craft bloggers out there.
I work full time and I have two kids, but I also have a husband who share my life and he does as much at home as I do, or maybe more - not counting laundry.



I have basted Isabel's quilt. This is the back view. I think it turned out quite nice. I wasn't gonna add the white stripe but when the scrappy stripe was added it looked too busy without the divider.

I sewed the scrappy stripe onto one of the selvage edges and tehn the white stripe to the scrappy stripe. I then folded it all down the middle and sewed the other selvage edge to the white stripe creating a tube.
After that it's quite easy to just shift the tube around and get the stripe slightly off center if you want.
Place a new crease where you want to cut the tube open and iron it down. Then place as long a ruler as you can find and cut very close to the folded edge.



Now I have to decide on how to quilt the thing. It's quite huge and I'm not sure I can manouver it very well.
I would like to do some kind of wavy lines across, but I don't think it will be good.

If I had infinite amounts of time I would hand quilt it around the flowers on the back. That would be lovely.
As it is I think I'll do some kind of diamond pattern in the blocks.

I got the same green swirly fabric as I used for Sofia's quilt, but I don't think I'll have enough, so I'm thinking I'll make a scrappy binding with the green swirls and the purple flower fabric I have left over.
I had planned on using the purple fabric for something else, so I think I'll measure the green and see if I can't make it fit.

Trouble and plans

On Monday I started work again after 5 weeks of summer vacations.

Near my office is my local pusher quilt shop and i popped in during my lunch break to buy backing for Isabel's quilt.

They have batting there as well and I bought two packs of Heirloom cotton batting.

Now that I added the white sashing to the outer edges of the quilt top the batting is too small. I'm not really sure what to do.
I could rip out the edging on the sides or I could make it narrower because it's only about 1" that's the problem.

Quilt top done?

Isabel's quilt top is finished. Or is it? I'm thinking I need to put some of the white sashing as borders around it to make the binding really pop?

The blocks were so much fun to make and when I looked at some other projects with the Disappearing 9-patch pattern I discovered lots of other ways to cut and re-sew the blocks.

I bought backing and binding and I had to get two packets of batting to make it fit the width and length of the top.
I will also have to cut and add a length of patches to the backing since it will be too narrow if I add the white sashing around the outer edges of the top.

When I cut the 5" squares for the top I accidentally cut too much a few time and had to make a pile of 4" and 4.5" squares. I'll sew these into a long line and add them to the backing.

I'm not sure on how to quilt it though. I love the meandering style, but I dont' ahve the right sewing machine for that. There is no darning foot to attach to my machine. So I'll have to make straight lines or the occasional wavy line might work.

I have a prior engagement for tonight so I can't get started on it today, it's knit night and the second to last episode of "The State Within" that I have been following.

[FO] Needle roll for me

I've been needing a needle roll for my straight needles for a while now. I've planned on making one but other things always got in the way.

I had decided on the outer fabric but the inner fabric was still missing and I wasn't sure how to divide it.

Then at last, last week I managed to get my butt into gear and actually do it. I found a pretty, pink fabric in my stash with white dots on it, that I was probably planning on using for a dress or something for one of the girls but it matched the outer fabric so well I had to use it.



The outer fabric is a fat quarter of an Alexander Henry print I bought from a friend in the UK.
I only had to trim the edges, otherwise it fit perfectly for this project.

I added some padding to the outer fabric and quilted around some of the larger features in the print.
Then I just started to make dividing seams for the needles.

I have a quilter's ruler for my machine that attaches behind the presser foot and it made the whole process a lot easier.

I made a few 1,5 inch slots, some more 1 inch slots and finally some half inch slots. Then I grew bored and decided I didn't need any more slots for needles.
So I fashioned some pockets for stitch markers and other notions before I sewed the inside to the outside using the birthing method.
It's my prefered method because it doesn't involve binding.

I'm getting better at binding though so maybe I'll try that next time.



It looks quite neat all rolled up!

I finished my first ever quilt yesterday

Well that wasn't exactly true. I made one for my big girl in 2004 but I made that not really knowing anything about quilting. It's made from blocks of fabrics peiced together, but it's not quilted and it's made with the birthing method because I hate bias binding. Or binding of any kind.

But then I googled something and found creative little daisy and saw a few quilts she had made. Via her I found other blogs and realised there are loads of sewing blogs out there - not just food and knitting.

I blog jumped and found a whole host of blogs and flickr groups with quilters and seamstresses. It made me want to try it myself.

So I googled some more and found tutorials for basing, quilting and binding quilts.

I bought fabric and got started.



Originally I planned to make a windmill type design. I like the look of it and the geometry of it appeals to me.
I quickly decided against it when I recalled the difficulties I had with Isabel's quilt.
So I sketched and designed and then this design was the one I decided on.



I had bought a jelly roll from Fat Quarter Shop with only white fabric.
I know a waste of money, but oh so time saving.

I bought 6 FQs of Me and My Sister Design's Spring Fling from a local quilt shop and cut it up in 5"x5" squares
I sewed the squares to the jelly roll strips, cut them and sewed strips of 5 squares together then attached that to another strip. Repeat as needed. Easy peasy.

I added a white strip on top because the proportions were all off.



The backing is also from the same fabric series.

For batting I used a thin cotton batting because Sofia will be using the quilt at preschool for naptime and it doesn't have to be very warm.

I sort of quilted it, but I can't find a presser foot for my machine that I can free motion quilt with so I had to improvise. It turned out ok I guess.

I managed to get the binding done. It's not perfect but it's good enough for a first attempt. Maybe next time I'll get it even better.

My next quilt will be for Isabel. And then I'm planning on making one for my SIL who is having a baby in September. They don't know the sex of the baby so I can't get started just yet.
But I plan on making a basic quilt and maybe a bib and a burp cloth too - it will be a bit more unorthodox though. No batting for the quilt but a thick cotton blanket fabric instead. I'm doing the binding anyway though.