learn to quilt

Just watched “The Namesake” last night with Annie. There’s a scene where the mom’s friend talks about following your bliss. When I closed my eyes and followed it, I was remembering taking that quilting class. That was my bliss. I keep trying to come back to it but life gets in the way. I was kind of surprised that it meant that much to me – but that’s what I experienced.

I made this mini quilt for my sister for Christmas. I made it smaller than the original but I think it turned out great. If I did it over again I’d tone down the red even more – less contrast I guess… But she really loved it.

awww… Rachie does love her quilt. She’s homesick and said she’s sleeping with it every night and makes her room feel homey. awww… I’m so glad I finished it. (even though it’s not really finished) I took John’s advice and finished it “enough” to give to her. I could go on for another 3 paragraphs about how I could have finished it that much or more at any point during the summer since it took me a whopping 1 hour to do what I did on Saturday, and beat myself up some more about that but instead i’ll just try to focus on the fact that she really liked it and it’s helping her feel cozy and protected…

Well, Rachie left for college yesterday so I HAD to ‘finish’ it. It’s actually not finished, but I quilted more of the top and ripped out some of the badness. I will have to steal it back in November when she’s home again to quilt it some more – but technically, it’s been given, it’s usable, it’s done.

YAY ME! (I think she liked it?)

Well, here’s the first pieced-together quilt top I’ve completed. JD’s is still in blocks. This one is for my niece Rachie. It’s a ‘brick’ design made of rectangles (not pieced blocks) – mostly of Heather Bailey’s “freshcut” line and a few other prints mixed in there as well. It’s a mixture of a design by Amy Butler and a couple other patterns I found. Once I had cut all the pieces 4×7” (I think? I’ve forgotten already!) I sewed them in strips then arranged the strips in sections and sewed all the sections together. Screwed up a few things but the end result is cute. Next step is sewing on a back and quilt batting and quilting it. AGH!!

I also made a matching tote bag that I already gave her with “mini bricks” – I lined it in coord. fabric, sewed a few vintage buttons on it and filled it with romantic comedy tapes to watch. (Sleepover theme…) I think she liked that so I’m pretty sure she’ll like the quilt. Gotta get it done though!

I think when I complete JD’s quilt I’ll check this one off my list. (and probably add: “learn to STOP HOARDING FABRICS!!”

Been working on a quilt for Rachie’s birthday – almost done with it. (see ‘freshcut’ fabric by Heather Bailey above) Not really, but well, the top is almost done and hopefully it won’t take too long to finish it. Also just pieced together a tote bag for her as a go-along gift and started working on a mini-for Deb – the “holly berry” quilt by renee plains. It’s SO freakin’ cute – I really think she will love it.

OK – well, that’s the update- I am still LOVING quilting – and loving hoarding fabric even more.

...and here’s the one from last night (my eyes are going going gone! – so many little pieces!) Oh, I’m going to laugh at that one later when I REALLY get into it, aren’t I ??

Anyway, this one is a 6.5” block, foundation pieced. Again, had to rip out many-a-seam, but the end result was really nice. You really have to keep things well-pressed and it helps a lot to work with straight-cut strips cut to the right size which I was not really doing before and I think that was making it a lot harder and more confusing than it needed to be. Once I started doing that I had less to re-do, so it’s worth the trouble to set it up right.

I tell ya, having learned the basics of foundation piecing, and the fact that the dear jane software lets you choose a block, change the fabric, and print out all the possible instructions for cutting or foundation piecing, I just want to start tearing into more of the blocks from the Jane Stickle quilt and start working with those Civil War repros! But one thing at a time (yea, right.) Maybe if I just let myself do one once in awhile… : )

This is the first one we learned to do with foundation piecing (I think)... pretty confusing for me, but the results turned out great (after ripping out about 5 seams!) I like the look of these and will probably make some more for JD’s quilt.

This is a 6.5” block, using Moda’s 3 sisters gingham check fabrics from 4 years ago (which I can’t find anymore!!!) & the Moda cream (“snow-something”) that I’m using as my base fabric.

Here’s another 6.5” block. This one was foundation pieced. I made a lot of mistakes on it – one big one in the front – but that’s not what I’m here to talk about, is it. Anyway, I LOVE this one because the strips are so small. A learning experience-but well worth it. The foundation piecing is not coming easily so far and I have a lot to learn, but I can really see the value of it. I’m so glad I took this class – it might have been ages til I tried some of these techniques on my own. You can basically do ANYthing with this method – any tiny little thing!!

...and here’s the other 1/2 of the rejected ‘attic window’ blocks – since I didn’t want to make the attic window block, I recreated two smaller blocks with the units and will trim them down. Here’s one of them. I really like how it turned out. I did edit the blocks slightly, but essentially this is comprised of the exact same units as the cross window below, but looks so completely different.