Finally

I finished the quilt top on Saturday and I'm about halfway through piecing the border for the back. I'm hoping to finish piecing the back tonight. Sadly, I missed the Joann fabrics coupon sale this weekend. It completely slipped my mind. So I'll have to piece together batting rather than buying a nice 2 yard piece to use. BUMMER. I knew I should have just gotten 10 yards on black friday and called it a year. Stupid. Anyway. The top came together ok. Hopefully once I put the pieces together, it'll all match up.

blocks are not my friend

After sewing all the rows, I started to piece them together. Yay! Only, somehow my perfect squares aren't all really lining up. It's not exactly terrible, but it sure isn't perfect either. I had one look really bad so I actually had to rip out two of the seams and shorten the block so that my triangle blocks would line up. Here's a shot of what it looked like before I started ripping.

I have just three more rows to attach including the top boarder. Then I need to piece and attach the side boarders. After that, it'll be done. Then I have to start piecing the back with my scraps. I have to think through exactly what I want it to look and feel like. Only 4.5 weeks until Christmas, so I have to get moving. I know I can finish it by then, but I was also hoping to complete another baby quilt by then.

I have 2 baby quilts on tap and a wedding quilt. Plus I plan on making a table runner and some place mats in the near future.

Christmas Project

Spent the whole weekend piecing this top (you can see I've only pressed the seams for about half the rows so far) this far, which is that I finished all the rows except the boarders. This was my first ever attempt at piecing triangles. I turn out not to be very good at it so far, but I do think it came out good enough considering it was a first try. I'm getting better and better at cutting squares and piecing in general. I'm trying to decide what kind of border to do. I have red Christmas fat quarters which I was going to use to put a red quilted boarder of 5x5 squares (same as the other squares). But now I'm thinking maybe I should do a non-pieced red boarded. Part of this is because I really don't want to deal with any more piecing of squares. But I really should do whatever will be the best for the design.

Also, I'm starting to contemplate what to do the to the back of the quilt. I bought a large green piece of flannel fabric. It's not big enough to be the entire back, but I have 4 fat quarters t hat are Christmas prints on blue fabric. I need to somehow cut and assemble these to make the back big enough. Hopefully I can do it in a way that's not too challenging.

I probably spent 10 hours this weekend piecing the quilt top not including having done about 3/4 of the cutting before starting the piecing process.

Quilt for Ethan

Ended up decided to give this quilt to Ethan, who is the brand new baby of one of Robert's co-workers. I did the back in a single piece of fabric. I think it turned out really nice, but the lines of the binding aren't very pretty, although I think the mitered corners turned out ok.

Made by Rae Jackpack Backpack GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Made by Rae Jackpack Backpack GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Tunic Dress

I started assembly of my tunic dress today. And here I am, about 11 hours later and I'm almost done. Today I learned the following:

• Darts
• Zig zag finishing a seam



• Facing
• Basting I considered this thoroughly and decided that my tunic is not in need of hand basting in spite of what the directions say. I might consider using a fun stitch in the back to tack down the facing to the actual dress

The facing was not really challengine to execute but it did take a sort of a long time to wrap my head around it. Actually, when I first attached the facing, I sort of blindly followed the instructions because although I knew I was reading them right, I couldn't for the life of me figure out how this was going to produce the desired finish. It did. Trust the book, I shall. I was a little doubtful that my neck was going to fit in this small hole.

All I have left is to finish facing the arm holes (is there a technical sewing term for "arm holes"?) and do the hem. I'm excited to learn how to do a hem because that's really practical information for someone short like me.

I made the tunic dress from a size small pattern and was afraid that it might not fit my hips based on the measurements given. Now I'm glad I went with the small because I could probably take the entire thing in an inch. We'll have to see the finished product, but alterations do make me a bit nervous.

Also, I was nervous about working with this fabric because feels delicate, but it's actually proven to be very easy to work with (especially after spending many days work with the knit for the next baby quilt).

Sadly, I think as it stands, it sort of looks like I'm wearing a potato sack.

Victory!

That's right people, I have conquered the baby quilt. See masterpiece below:

So, it turns out that for the better part of this week, binding was my nemesis. I can now safely say that the baby quilt in a box is definitely not for beginners. It's also not for those looking for a bargain, because even at the markdown price of $20, I could have done better on my own. It's really just for those who don't trust their own ability to put together a color scheme.

The instructions call for a binding made from the same fabric as the small pink fabric used in the quilt. I followed the instructions, but found it incredibly difficult to sew the long strips together to make one long strip. It just kept not coming out even. Frustrated, I forged ahead and started attaching the binding. Before doing so I had to check out multiple you tube videos, but eventually I thought I had it. Turns out I was wrong.

At this point I really had ruined the binding I had made (which wasn't any prize anyway) so I moved on to a store bought bias double fold quilt "tape". I went through multiple reads of the online instructions for this product and sewed it incorrectly once. Finally though, I conquered quilt tape. Having tried the make your own version, I'll definitely do the store bought again until I'm better at the general binding process.

Even once I understood it, the act was no piece of cake. You'll notice that the binding comes out at different widths all over the quilt and in one place I even manage to miss the quilt seam completely and bind the binding to itself. Luckily it's not visible. Next time though I think I'll do better although no illusions of grandeur for me yet when it comes to binding. I'm really thankful that this quilt forced me to do it, because after several attempts and fails, I genuinely considered giving up on this quilt. I just though that for future quilts, I'd do the full inside out deal and forget binding altogether. I'm glad I didn't though because I LOVE the way it looks. I hope my cousins think so too. I'm putting it in a box bound for Pennsylvania Monday but I'll visit it at Christmas when I meet Brooklyn for the first time.

These are some of the highs and lows of the binding results.

I started Elliott's quilt today as well and I'm looking forward to a smoother quilting experience this time. I am using 2 jersey knit fabrics though which are already proving to be a bit cumbersome. A challenge is good though. I really hope to be able to give Elliott's quilt a lot more quilting than Brooklyn's. I also hoping to really better the binding experience. After Elliott's quilt we have Dominic's quilt on tap which is planned to be the same quilt possibly with a different color binding. All very exciting and a lot of good practice.

Binding

Finished the quilting part last night and excitedly cut away the excess batting and backing. It looks like a real little quilt, but unfinished. I moved on to the binding.

I read the instructions.

Then I asked Robert to read the instructions.

Then I read them again.

Then I went to the computer and watched a youtube video. What did people do before youtube? Honestly, because I could have really screwed this one up. After watching the video a couple of times, I now think I know what I need to do. So I prepped the binding fabric last night by pressing it and cutting the ends at a 45 degree angle. Tonight I'll sew them together and begin the actual process of binding the edges. I'm pretty excited seeing as this is basically the last step.

I may decide to start working on my next quilt right away instead of working on that tunic dress. I figure this quilt will be about 20+ total hours of work, and since this quilt for Brooklyn and the next quilt for Elliot are baby gifts, I need to get them out into the world ASAP. Wondering how my chosen fabrics will do since I'm moving on from a quilt "kit" to fabrics of my own choosing. Should be exciting!

Happy feet

Finally armed with my new walking foot and cotton batting, I am finally back to work on Brooklyn's baby quilt. I basted the whole thing together fairly easily and with a little help from Robert to get the walking foot installed on my machine, I was off to the races. A how to video on You Tube suggested that I start quilting in the middle of the quilt and work my way out. I knew that quilting something so large on such a small machine would prove difficult, but since it was a baby quilt I didn't think it would be so bad. It's pretty tough.

As you can see in this photo, there's a lot of fabric jammed into that small space between the needle and the machine. I was able to quilt about 1/4 of the quilt before deciding to take a break examine my work.

Since I screwed up some of the measurements on the quilt squares, the lines across the quilt are not even. This means when I go to actually quilt horizontally (I've only done verticle lines so far) I'll have to cut through the quilt squares or sacfrice the perfect grid on the back of the quilt. I decided to cut through the squares and go for the perfect grid. It's easier almost than I thought except for wrangling the fabric. The end is in sight and I'm really excited to see it taking shape. I can definitely see myself becoming a regular quilter.

Sewing is expensive

So since my triumph a week ago, I haven't done much but prepare for new projects. I checked out an awesome fabric sale at Rimmon fabrics in West LA and came home with fabrics for several new projects. Decided to start with a lovely brown tunic dress out of the sewing tutorial. I was going to do a cute small handbag which I'd already bought fabric for, but alas the book didn't come with the pattern so I'd have to buy pattern paper and make my own. Apparently this is sold NO WHERE in LA so I'd have to buy it online. Seems like a rip-off so I moved on to the tunic dress for now.

As you may recollect, I also have an unfinished baby quilt

in my sewing basket. I had to buy a walking foot for my machine to quilt the quilt. Felt like this was a good investment since I love quilts and plan to make (and finish) at least three baby quilts by year end. Ordered it online and waited. Then realized I'd need batting, again, felt like Joann's was unreasonably priced for such iffy synthetic material. Ordered that online and I continue to wait.

I cut out my pattern pieces and fabric for the tunic dress over the weekend but I can't start sewing because I need a new needle for fine fabrics. Mine broke and I'm left with one that worked wonderfully on the canvasy tote, but that would not be so good on the delicate dress fabric. Bah. Also will need safety pins to baste the quilt, so a trip to Joann's tomorrow will be a necessity.

My husband is beginning to wonder if I'm throwing our money down a hole, and I have to admit this is a more expensive hobby than I would have thought. Handmade gifts seem so thoughtful and worthwhile but I also thought it was a money saver. Nope. Bought some fabric for a baby quilt and even with great sales and using only 3 fabrics, I still spent $25 on fabric, thread, and batting. I'm not exactly sure what baby quilts run in the stores, but I'm guessing something of the quality I'm capable of would be about $19.99. Oh and I forgot to find a fabric for the border. Bah again.

Here's some photos of the fabric for the new quilt, a new iron & ironing board (the sound of my 9 year old iron crapping out sounded suspiciously like "cah ching!"), and the nearly recognizable form of a dress cut out which reminds me rather a lot of the clothes I had for paper dolls as a kid.

Fin

Finished the tote bag this morning. Robert sewed the straps, which seemed to do better with a thicker needle (which we found out only after the first needle broke). The liner went in nicely, although it somehow was a good 1/2 smaller than the outside bag, which isn't good for business. Also, the bad top seam I mentioned in my previous post turned out to be a real downer when the bag was put together. In hindsight I should have re-sewn that seam.

I think I should probably re-make this bag with new fabric. The second time around it's sure to be a bit easier and thus, nicer. Maybe I'll make one with one of my nieces in mind. I'd also like to try the larger single strap version and maybe add some buttons for accents.


Anyway, here's the finished product.

I'm off today to the fabric store to buy more STUFF. This hobby is getting pretty expensive and so far all I have to show for it is a poorly assembled handbag. On today's shopping list: walking foot, batting, pattern paper and a snap. Tomorrow there's a big sale at Rimmon fabrics in West LA, so I'm hoping to procure fabrics for another baby quilt, another tote bag, and possibly a pair of stuff elephants.

Sick day project

I've not been feeling great the last couple nights and so hadn't even looked at the baby quilt. Decided to stay home today and rest, and what's more relaxing than a day at the sewing machine. Turns out the next step in the quilt requires the batting (and my machine didn't come with a walking foot), so I moved on to my tote bag project.

I'd already cut all the pieces, but still ended up spending the better part of 5 hours sewing this project. It's not quite done but is getting close. Things moved along nicely until I didn't understand how to finish the top of the bag. So I first just folded it over and sewed. Realizing that was wrong, I used my seem ripper and then re-read the instructions and tried to follow them. It called for me to press a 1/2 inch seem and then press that in half and sew. I think I did it right the second time, but then when called up to do it a third time for the lining, I reverted.

The project went along well until I got to the handles. First, I didn't understand that the instructions wanted me to sew two pieces together because I didn't cut enough pieces. Then, after I'd already sewed them sort of halfway, I realized I had cut lining for them unnecessarily. Which turned out great, except that the handles didn't really come out uniform. This can be partly attributed to me not understanding the directions and partly to me being frustrated at this point and not taking all the care to sew everything straight.

The handles were my first experience with turning something so narrow inside out. I ended up doing ok without any gadgets to help me along. I'm pleased with how the handles turned out because the black side of the handles will really help to break up that white background of the main fabric.

I started to attach the handles, which seems to be far trickier than the instructions in my little book would have you think. I'm experiencing some sort of trouble with the combination of wanting a shorter stitch length and having to go through three layers of fabric. I tried different tensions (on the advice of my mom who says that my previous similar issue was tension related) but to no avail. I had to quit or risk stressing myself into another sick day. See the "mock up" of my finished bag below.

Baby Quilt Part 2

We made a lot of progress tonight on the quilt and if I buy batting, I could probably finish it tomorrow. You can't really tell from the photo but there are definitely some abnormalities about it including some square being a little...puckered? The ones that didn't sew perfectly square don't really lay flat. I got a little frustrated, but honestly I'm sure it'll look fine when it's done. Made with love, right? That's the point of this little project. Unfortunately, baby Brooklyn has a lot of really crafty family members so she's probably going to have some nicer stuff than this, but at least it's soft and photographs pretty well.

Finished cutting the pattern pieces for my tote bag, so I hope to start that Wednesday. I'm less thrilled with my fabric choices now that I see the way it's come together. I'm drawn to fabrics on light backgrounds, but find that they don't seem to do well for bags. I steered clear of this for the other bag I bought fabric for (which, by the way, my sewing tutorial says not to buy for more than one project at a time, and this is probably why - learning curve). Still, it'll probably be nice. And if not, I'll send it to my niece. She likes anything new and has a real thing for handbags.

Tote bag from Sew It Workshop

I also started this project on Sunday. I picked out a lovely toile fabric because I couldn't find any canvas in all of Joann fabric. This is a heavy 100% cotton fabric, so I think it'll work out just fine. The cutting was fairly simply and I thought it would be good practice at measuring and cutting. I'm no good at it, so still hoping it becomes easier with time and practice. Also makes me want to stick to square shaped projects for now. I'm clearly not ready for curves.

Hope to start sewing it this weekend once the baby quilt is done.

Brooklyn's Baby Quilt

Started Brooklyn's baby quilt on Saturday after a lengthy first trip to the fabric store. I had to get all my "beginner" sewing supplies and choose some fabrics for a couple other beginner projects. I thought the quilt would be a good first project because #1 all the lines are straight and #2 it's hard to screw up; quilts don't have to look perfect to keep you warm. My baby cousin Brooklyn is a few weeks old so she's the perfect target for my first project as a hobby sewist.

When I bought the quilt kit, I thought the pieces would all be cut. Not so. So I went back to Joann's on Sunday morning to acquire a rotary tool and cutting mat (so far the cost of this quilt is somewhere around $350 if you include the cost of the sewing machine). The rotary tool did make it easier, but I'm still having trouble cutting straight lines. I have always had this trouble, and I'm not sure if it is a skill that will develop with time or if I'm SOL like I am with most physical skills like bowling and walking while chewing gum.

I started out really good, pinning and sewing, but eventually gave up on pinning the small pieces (3x3 squares). It was at this point that my husband came along and started sewing together the larger blocks (4 of the 3x3 squares and then one of those with a 5.5 x 5.5 square) while I mostly pressed seems and cut fabric for my next project. We got about 1/3 of all the sewing done when the machine started to rebel against me.

If anyone reads this and knows what I'm doing wrong, please let me. Sometimes the machine seems to pull the thread from the top into the bobbin. The result of this seems to be a tangled mess of thread, plus the fabric gets pulled down in the machine toward the bobbin. I think this is symptomatic of sewing with the foot up, but the foot is not up. It doesn't happen every time, but it happens enough to make me wonder what I'm doing to it. My husband got pretty frustrated about the whole thing and gave up. So we still have another afternoon or so worth of sewing to finish it up. I also have to buy some batting, which will inevitably raise the cost of this quilt to an even $500. Just kidding, but barely.