Christmas Lap Quilt

12/07/09

Just finished this yesterday. I bought the fabric (it's a nice, soft flannel) in Yakima while I was visiting my sister, Carrie. The pattern was fun to come up with and pretty easy to put together and hand-quilt. Unfortunately my sewing machine desperately needs a tune-up, so it was giving me fits as I was piecing it. My sewing machine is definitely going to the shop this week before I chuck it out the window in frustration. Then when it gets back in about a week I can finish up my other projects that are waiting to be done.

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Autumn Table Runner

08/24/09

Well, I ALWAYS have to have some sort of quilt project going. Even though I just finished a whole bunch for other people and then one for my own bed, I had to start something new.

This is my fall table runner for the big dining room table. It's 60"x12" and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I pieced it pretty quickly over the days I was at my mother's house earlier this month. Then I spent the last two weeks quilting it.

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Quilts I've Made This Summer

08/10/09

When Mark's brother was married in June, I offered them a queen-sized quilt, but someone was already making one for them. So I made a lap quilt instead. She chose the colors, and I chose a pattern, and tried to make it look as varied as possible to make it look interesting. I really like how it turned out and want to try something like it again.

I've been writing to my friend Darija in Croatia since I was in high school. When she was (finally!) getting married this summer I was so excited for her! I asked her if she'd like a quilt, and how she'd want it to look. Well, this didn't turn out quite like the picture she sent me, but I'm pretty happy with how it did turn out, even though it was a pain to assemble. You see, she sent the picture from an online catalog, and I couldn't find a pattern for the quilt anywhere, so had to come up with my own pattern. It worked out, fortunately. The colors work together so well, and the pattern is engaging and interesting. It was kind of hard to let it go.

This is a lap quilt I made for friends I had met online and spent a lot of time with this past winter, but have since had to part ways with. They were getting married (eventually) so I wanted to make this for them before I completely lost contact. This is a fast and easy pattern to assemble, and easy to quilt because the pattern is simple.

I've been working on the following quilt for a little over two years. When Mark and I got the king-sized bed I didn't have a quilt big enough for it, so I began this one. But it needed to be just right, so I went in search of the fight pattern, the right colors, and the right fabric. This is the result. There's a lot of hand-quilting all over the quilt, as well, which would explain more about how long it took to make than the time it took to piece it. It's a quilt for ME this time.

For a list of most of the quilts I've done over the years you can seem them here.

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Quilt Project 2: Choosing the Pattern

11/16/06

When we moved into our new house Mark and I bought a new bed, so we graduated from a queen size to a king size. We love our bed, but of course we had to buy entirely new bedding and the queen-size quilts I made just don't fit. So, I get to make a new one.

I am happy about this. I love having new quilt projects, and with Mark's blessing I've chosen the following pattern:

It's from a magazine I have a subscription to called Quilter's World. It will just have two outer borders and the colors will be blue/yellow instead of red/gold.

Oh. And a little green in there, too. Anyway. I still need to search out and buy the background fabric and figure out which of these colors I want to be the border fabric.

I'll start cutting it out soon and post progress pictures. I'm excited for this project and have plans to do some complicated hand quilting on it (which is why there will be fewer borders and more blank space).

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Quilt Project: Finished Product

08/25/06

Yes, it's finished! And just in time, too. We leave on Tuesday for the wedding. Do you think my brother and her bride-to-bel like it?

Below is the back. Since I used colored thread (white, blue, and red), the blue and red shows up on the back and I think it's kinda cool.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, but I'm glad it's finished. You can review the whole project in my quilting archive.

I'm going to make something for me, this time, though. But that's a blog for another day.

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Quilting Project: Hand Quilting

08/15/06

No, I haven't forgotten to update you since last time. I've been busy doing this for the past few months:

I'm about 80% finished with the hand quilting. As you can see, I use a hoop, it's the biggest one I could find, about 2 feet x 2.5 feet. It's a great size, big enough for your lap, but small enough to stick in a box or in a corner to tuck away until later. It's easy to get a hoop's worth done while you watch a show. I'm using different colored threads for the red, blue, and off-white.

But I'm glad to be almost done.

Next time: Finished Product

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Quilting Project: Pining the Layers Together

05/19/06

These are the things I need to put the quilt together: the top I pieced together, the bottom (the white blob of fabric, see below), the batting (in the bag), and the container of a kazillion safety pins. And, of course, my scissors to trim the extra batting.

I laid down the back and spread out the batting on top of it:

Then I laid the pieced top on top of the batting and pinned it together with the safety pins (can you see them? they're all over!):

Phew. I've sure done a lot since I began this months ago. And I'm on schedule, too.

Next time: The hand-stitching

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Quilting Project: Finishing the Top

05/08/06

The seven strips of six squares each:

Now with the border:

Next time: Assembling the top with the batting and the bottom to prepare it for the hand-stitching.

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Quilting Project: Sewing Together the Squares

05/01/06

Six pinwheel squares = One strip of the center. I just need six more of these, which I will then sew together, and I'll have the center part of the top done. Then I will do the borders. Phew. It's a lot of sewing, I tell you. But at least it's easy. All straight lines, and I haven't had much trouble matching up the corners (they look pretty good, eh?).

Here's my trusty sewing machine:

A 1969 cast iron Singer, with table. They don't make them like this anymore. I found it at a yard sale after my Freshman year at college and it's followed me around ever since. It's had many repairs over the years and has never worked very fast, but it's steady and gets the job done. Someday it will be retired for a newer model with fancy stitches, but in the meantime, it does its job. It's sewn many many quilts in its lifetime.

Next time: Sewing together the squares

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Quilt Project: The First Block

04/15/06

The lines match up well (in the center, where it's important), but the green color seems a little off to me (not quite the right shade?). What do you think?

Next time: Sewing the blocks together.

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Quilting Project: Cutting the Pieces

04/12/06

First I'll introduce to you some old friends of mine:

Yes, these friends are my self-healing mat and my rotary cutter. They are loyal friends and true, and any person even thinking of quilting will need to consider obtaining such friends as these. They aid in the speed of cutting out pieces:

And generally make the quilter's life much easier:

So the fabric for the squares is all cut out (I'll do the border strips when I'm finished putting all the squares together), and it only took me an hour or two.

My friends are old and worn and will eventually need to be replaced, particularly the mat, which is warped and way too small for my big projects. But they will be retired in style.

Next time: We'll actually get to see a finished square!

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Quilting Project: Shopping for Fabric

04/02/06

The funnest part of quilting is shopping for the fabric, of course! Although, I don't recommend doing it with two little boys in tow. It's rather distracting.

I started with the burgundy because that's the hardest color to match to. I found the perfect burgundy fabric then found a blue to match it since they are both the base color for the pinwheels they need to be the same darkness (the blue in the picture seems almost black, but really it's a nice dark blue). Then I found the ivory and green fabrics, choosing a lighter green. A dark green would have made the quilt too dark and the pinwheel parts hard to distinguish. You'll see what I mean when I put it together.

So, here's the results:

So now I just need to wash the fabric first. Since I'm using such dark colors, I need to make sure they're colorfast before I sew it to the lighter fabric. Wouldn't want it to bleed.

Also, since the fabric is 100% cotton, it's good to pre-shrink it, otherwise once it's quilted it will pucker after washing, and we don't want that. Once it's washed I'll iron it and then it will be ready to cut.

Next time: Cutting the pieces.

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Quilting Project: Figuring Dimensions

03/30/06

When you're figuring the dimensions of the fabric you'll be quilting there are a few standards that are part of it. A yard (36 inches) is a standard unit of measurement when buying fabric. Also, most quilting fabric comes in widths of 45 inches (sometimes 44, but 45 is an easier number for me to work with). So, when you buy 1 yard of quilting fabric, it will be 36" x 45". Keeping this in mind greatly helps when estimating amounts. Also keep in mind that the seam allowance is 1/4", so that needs to be included in all measurements when buying fabric, but it won't be in the completed quilt's measurements.

OK, so the quilt when finished is going to be about 90" x 100" which is about a king size. I find that queen size is too small, even on a queen-sized bed, because you have two bodies underneath it and, well, let's face it, if the quilt is big enough there won't be so much fighting over it.

The pinwheel squares will be 12" squares. The 2 borders will each be 5 inches wide (makes it wide enough to quilt something nice in the border, but not too big), and since there will be two borders on each side of the quilt, that equals 20" of borders. Hence:

90" wide - 20" of borders = 70" left for squares / 12" = 5.8, so rounded up to 6 squares across. Since I want it 10" longer then there needs to be 7 squares down. This makes 42 total pinwheel squares.

Yes, I know, I like to fudge the numbers. It makes me less cranky. You'll have to deal. Plus rounding up when buying fabric allows for mistakes, which are inevitable. But here comes the hard part, figuring the yards you want to buy. Hang in there, this is important.

So the blue border is 5" wide (add 1/2" for seam allowance--1/4" for each side) and 100" long on 2 sides and 90" long on two sides. Hence:

100 (x2) + 90 (x2) = 380" of the blue border strip / 45" width of fabric = 8.45 strips that are 5.5 inches wide = 46.45" of fabric OR 1 1/3 yards blue fabric for strip border

100 (x2) + 90 (x2) = 380" of the red border strip / 45" width of fabric = 8.45 strips that are 8 inches wide (adding 2.5 inches for sewing the binding) = 67.6" of fabric OR 2 yards red fabric for strip border

There are four colors for the pinwheels: red, blue, green, ivory. The pinwheel pattern gives some measurements for the squares needed.

Red and blue both need one 13 3/4" x 6 7/8" strip for each pinwheel. Rounding up makes a 14 x 7 strip. You can fit 6 of these on each width of quilt fabric. Hence:

42 squares / 6 strips per width = 7 strips that are 14" wide = 98" OR 2 2/3 yards total making it 1 1/2 yards each of red and blue since each pinwheel needs 1/2 blue and 1/2 red.

Green and white are done using a 7 1/4 " square. You can fit 6 squares on each width of fabric. Hence:

42 squares / 6 strips per width = 7 strips that are 7 1/4" wide = 51" OR 1 1/2 yards each green and ivory

The back piece will need to be 90" x 100". 45 (width of quilt fabric) x 2 strips running vertical down the back = 90" wide. This means you need a piece of fabric 100" long x 2 strips = 200" OR 6 yards of ivory for background fabric (this includes a little extra to make up for the seam allowance).

This makes the totals:

7 1/2 yards ivory

3 1/2 yards red

2 2/3 yards blue

1 1/2 yards green

Plus batting for a king-size quilt and ivory quilting thread. Are your eyes completely glazed over yet? (I know my eyes glaze over when it comes to math.) Don't worry, next time will actually be fun!

Next time: Shopping for fabric! Yay! Save up your coupons, this is going to be pricey.

Edit: I should have bought 1 3/4 yards green. I was short enough fabric for one freaking square! I have to go back to the fabric store and get another 1/4 yard. *Grumble*

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Quilting Project: Choosing the Pattern

03/28/06

Had a cool (at least I hope you think it's cool) idea today. I am beginning a new quilt project and I thought I'd let y'all tag along and see how the process works. You will be experiencing it in 'real time' as it progresses: from choosing the pattern, figuring the dimensions, shopping for fabric, sewing it together, and etc. The goal is to be finished by mid-August. It will be fun. I hope.

So today, class, we will determine how to choose a pattern! The pattern, in this case, is beyond my control because it's a wedding present, and my sister-in-law-to-be told me she wanted it to be a 'pinwheel' pattern. Now there are a ton of pinwheel square patterns out there, some complex, some simple, but this is the one (from the list I gave her of possibilities) that she liked best:

http://www.quilterscache.com/P_R/PinwheelBlock.html

Then she told me she wanted the colors to be green and burgundy. I expressed concern that it would look too "Christmasy", so she added blue and ivory to the mix. But before I could even come up with a pattern on my own, she sketched out a pattern for me (isn't she clever?):

This makes my life so much easier. Of course, it's not as easy as finding one in a book that tells you how much fabric to buy and exactly how to cut and assemble everything. Fortunately, I'm not a beginner at this, and know what to do.

Next time: Figuring out how much fabric to buy. Math was not my strongest subject in school, so if I can do this, so can you!

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