Photo Challenge - Photo 29, handcrafted

For today's photo challenge I wanted to take a picture of a handmade quilt.  Specifically the green and white quilt at my parents house.  I got lucky we ended up there for dinner!  This quilt was made by my Grandma Schroeder, and hand quilted by Mom Bachman (Grandma's Mom) and friends!  I tried to get a close up so you could see the tiny stitches.  You know a lot of love went into each stitch, this quilt was a wedding present to my parents!  It's almost 40 years old (39 this year)!!!  My dad said that when Mom Bachman and her friends got together they could do a quilt a day.

Reviving an almost lost art

The year we moved to our new house we were given two beautiful quilts at Christmas.  Both quilts were made by my DH's Grandma and Mother.  Treasured pieces, heirlooms.  My parents have two quilts that were made by my father's mother.  And we still have a crocheted afghan that my mom's mother made.  I still have a picture of her making that afghan.  Handmade items are making a comeback. And I'm glad to be on that bandwagon!

The scrap that started it all

Back in May I was out with one of my neighbors getting paint for her house.  I noticed a lady using a piece of fabric to find a paint color. Even from a distance I fell in love with that scrap of fabric.  It had the colors that I have been using all over my house, and I loved the not so even stripes. Being the outgoing person that I am I went up to her to find out where she got that beautiful piece!  JoAnn Fabric of course, and being the nice person she was she gave me a piece of that scrap so I could take it with me to find it.  Upon closer inspection there was some gold sparkle woven between color stripes, and I was even more excited on what I could create with it.

I had only just recently joined the quilting group at church, and I knew I had a lot to learn.  But I was ready to try my hand at making a simple first quilt.  After consulting with the quilt guru at our group I found several patterns that were contenders, and eventually settled on trying a quilt I found on Pinterest.  The PDF is free, and I cannot link to the original site I got the pattern from.  But I did luckily download that pattern, and you can get it HERE.

My mom and I went shopping for the fabrics.  The pattern called for flannels, but you can substitute regular cotton fabrics.

Once you have everything LABELED (and trust me, you will want to label everything with a sticky note and a pin) grab your iron and carefully iron out any creases and lines. But don't smoosh it around, press it,  you don't want the fabric stretching.  Then grab your pattern, and your tools and take a deep breath, because it's time to start cutting the fabric!!!

There is a saying in construction, and it's true for sewing too.  "Measure twice, cut once"  No one can really say who uttered these words first, or a variation of them, but the phrase and meaning has been traced back to 1560 AD, but who knows if it was used even earlier.  And if that phrase has been around that long, you best believe it is sound and solid advice.  You cannot uncut fabric.  And although you do end up with extra bits and pieces, you don't want to mis-measure multiple times, otherwise you will end up having to go BACK to the store and hope they have more of the fabric you originally chose.

As I cut the pieces I added information to my labels, I wasn't sure how much time this would take and I wanted to make sure if I needed to leave the project and then come back to it I would not be confused at where I left off.  I also used a pencil to put check marks after completing a step or cut.

After getting the strips cut to size, start with step one, sew the indicated pieces together.

A good pattern will tell you which direction you need to press, and I mean PRESS the fabric.  Again, don't smoosh the fabric it will stretch it which results in a ripply quilt top, and if you are going to take the time to make a quilt, you want to do it right!

Press, don't smoosh

After the strips are sewn together then you get to cut them into the sub pieces.  Measure carefully!

It went really quickly from there, the sub cuts get sewn together into blocks, then the blocks get sewn into strips.

Once the strips are sewn together it's time for the border.  This step for some reason gave me a hard time.  You can butt the ends of the border fabrics together, or you can miter them.  I chose to miter, and the first time I sewed the pieces together realized that I sewed a right side to a wrong side, after I had already trimmed the excess...of BOTH pieces...oops...time to try again and the third time was a charm.

Double check before you cut mom!  Duh!

Sewing the border to the main part of the quilt took a lot of patience, and a lot of pins.  You don't want that thing to move while you are sewing!

Then before you know it, the top is done, and you can sandwich the quilt! It helps especially if you are a newbie like me, to have multiple helpers that know what they are doing.

It takes a LOT of safety pins, a lot more than you think.  After the backing, batting and top are pinned together you can start doing the quilting process.  I am doing diagonals, 3" apart over the face of the quilt.  It will give it a diamond pattern.  I am doing the quilting myself, mostly because I didn't have enough of the backing fabric to extend 6" on all sides which is what is requested when sending a quilt to a long arm quilter.  This is small enough I should be able to handle it myself.  I got some quilters tape, to mark the lines I want to sew.  Make sure you read the label, and don't sew through the tape, or leave it on your fabric for longer than 24 hours.

The final step to creating a quilt is to put the binding on, it is a multi-step process, and one of many ways to bind a quilt.  I think it is fairly easy to create a beautiful binding this way.

The final step is to hand stitch the binding to the back of the quilt.  I still have to do this final step.  I have a ton of other projects that need my attention so it may take a while to get to it, but I will eventually get it done!  I just wanted to be able to share my labor of love. I promise to share a picture once it's all the way done!

Enjoy, and go create something!

Trying something new

Every week I have several groups I attend, two knitting and crochet groups, and a quilting group.  For many years I have admired hand made quilts, never thought I could do it, but finally talked myself into joining the church quilting group.  And I think, with their help of course, I CAN make a quilt!  I just needed to find a pattern that was easy enough, with large pieces, that I loved...

Last week I was helping my neighbor pick out paint for her living room, and while we were at the store getting the paint I noticed a lady with a scrap of fabric, and they were MY colors...blue, brown, cream and green.  I had to go talk to her to find out where she got that awesome fabric.  JoAnn's of course!  On closer inspection there are little bits of metallic gold between the stripes of color. I was instantly in love with the fabric...I knew that I had to put it in my quilt.

I have been pinning quilts to my Pinterest board for over a year now.  Most of what I like are the more intricate quilts, artsy...elaborate, not beginner....at all...so I went on a search, and found one that I really did like, and it's fairly easy...if you call 13 different fabrics easy....it even needed a striped fabric...

Yes it is a baby quilt, and I do hope I need to have one of these on hand in the distant future...and there is nothing stopping me from making this, with "gender neutral" colors of course, and putting it in the closet and wait for the day that I will need this for my own little one.  This awesome quilt is a freebie that can be found at patternpile,com.  The pattern calls for flannel, but I asked, and was told that I could use cotton instead, thankfully....

Today my mom and I went to JoAnn Fabric and Craft Store.  They were having a sale on quilting fabrics, and we had a coupon for 20% off total purchase.  Made sense that we should take advantage of the sale to get started...our first task was finding the coveted striped fabric...and we did find it!!!  I did a little happy dance in the isle which got my mom laughing.  Next we started pulling fabrics that we thought would go with the stripes, matching the blues, browns and creams.  There were two fabrics that had the metallic gold accents...and of course I had to get those!!  SPARKLY!!! When we narrowed our choices to 12 fabrics we then pulled out the pattern to decide which fabric we chose would go where in the pattern.  I then decided to use the stripes in the quilt, and as the binding.  And the backing material would also be seen in the front of the quilt. 

I do love the colors and materials I chose, it is going to be a contemporary and neutral quilt.  And if need be I can always add some lace to the decor to make it a bit more feminine. Or add some more rustic things to the room to make it more masculine. Either way I will have a quilt that I made, and that makes it perfect.

Heirlooms

This time of year is so wonderful! Presents are wrapped and under the tree, stockings hung, cookies made and decorated.  Now comes the fun part!  Getting together to celebrate the reason for the season, family.



Here in Missouri we got a bit of ice, and a nice layer of snow, so we left early today to drive south to my DH's parents.  And of course I took my most recent project with me.  I got a chance to work on it a bit at their house and my oldest niece sat with me and watched me for a while.  She wants to learn how to make stuff too.  So I have a good idea what I want to get her for her next birthday!

Besides stuffing myself silly on all of the delicious food I love when it's time to give the gifts!  This year I made my oldest niece a scarf and hat, this is the second hat I have made for her, but the first that fits!

She spent the better part of the evening running around the house wearing it, so I think it's safe to say that she likes it!

My favorite gift this year so far was the two quilts we got to select from the "pile" there were several handmade quilts that my DH's Grandma and Mother made.  I have always wanted a vintage quilt to put on a bed and now we have two!  So of course as soon as we got home tonight I stripped the bed in the guest room and put the quilts on!  I love the look...and now I have an excuse to paint!  And there are pillow covers to be made!

All in all it was a wonderful day filled with love and laughter, and you just can't beat that!