Showing posts with label quilt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quilt. Show all posts

Thursday, October 1, 2009

thoughts on projects: my first quilt.

lovelies,
hope you are having a lovely week. i am back from a quick-trip to portland. when i returned, one of the first things on my to-do list was to complete my quilt.

if you've been following my progress, you might remember that i began by cutting 5 by 5 inch squares from various fabrics in my stash, along with a few scraps from dress shirts in our goodwill pile. after that, i carefully arranged all of these squares out onto the floor in a madcap fashion, piecing them together with my Janome sewing machine. after that, i found a queen-sized vintage sheet at goodwill for the backing and bought a queen-sized cotton batting from my fabric store. after laying the whole quilt sandwich (backing, batting, top) out onto the floor in my living room, i hand quilted the whole thing at 5 inch intervals (essentially, there is a stitch in the center of each square. finally, i bound the front to the back using my sewing machine.


with the technical specifics of the project in mind, here are my reflections on the process:
i absolutely adored using fabrics that had been languishing in my stash-- there were a few fabrics that had been sitting there for years! also, i will always hunt through my goodwill piles for interesting looking squares in the future. so fun.
i NEED a rotary cutter. my hand was aching by the end of cutting out all of the squares AND the squares are a bit lacking in the precision department.

Also, i love the look of hand-quilting. i had prepared myself for this project to turn out pretty wonky-looking, but it actually looks good! i cannot wait to make my next one.




xxoo

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

inspiration tuesday.

dolls, you all must know by now that i'm smitten with quilting. this week's inspiration tuesday highlights my quilting dreams. {also, it gave me a chance to use flickr's new "gallery" function to create a repository for all of the beautiful work that is *inspiring* the heck out of me these days.} so, here are my quilting inspirations plus one beautiful whale. *)


{photo credits: 1. ready for slumber, 2. quilted but..., 3. sunlight, 4. shy, 5. stitching in the sunshine, 6. tides coming in!, 7. close up of the hexes!, 8. dresden 03, 9. finished quilt, 10. Untitled, 11. Cynthia Rowley Dress #1, 12. 090109-25, 13. Great Aunt Irma mini quilt, 14. Untitled, 15. Grandmothers Garden Quilt, 1930's, 16. Humpback breach (1 of 144)}

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Project update: my first quilt


Dears, I have been obsessively piecing the top of my first quilt together. I just love it! Here are a few more specifics about the quilt:
I made it from 5 x 5 inch squares (my mama tells me this makes it a charm quilt) of random fabrics from my stash and from a few pieces of old shirts. I did not work from a patter, so I laid the squares out on top of a bedspread I spread out on the floor (much to Brian's chagrin, I must add). In these moments, I feel so fortunate to have a mom who is in the business (she owns a quilting and yarn shop), because I had a lot of questions about piecing. She gave me excellent instructions on seam allowance, structure and the importance of pressing. The first few rows were a bit scary, but then I caught my groove and found I could quilt for hours while watching "My So-Called Life" on Hulu. YES! As you can see, this top is nearly complete. My next step is picking out what materials I will use on the back (I think a vintage sheet) and in the middle (how thick?). You know I'll report back soon.
peace. & LOVE. always.
k