Amazingly Quick Quilt

 Combine a wonderful book and clearance fabric already pre-cut into blocks, add a Mom visiting for the weekend and you will have a wonderful quilt in four days! This was my first dip into Modern Quilting and I am in love...



My biggest worry about machine quilting was that I would get bunches of wrinkles and tucks and spend more time ripping out stitches than sewing. I would rather pick pills off all my sweaters before ripping stitches out of an entire quilt. So I ironed the pieced top three times, I should note as I sewed the top together in strips I ironed it so all the seams lay in one direction. I also ironed the batting and the backing, to keep it smooth!

Unfortunately or maybe it was fortune, I made this quilt during a snowstorm which meant the light in the house was just terrible for picture taking. I had to wait two days until the storm was over so I could drag my blankie around the great outdoors for a photo shoot.

Incidently I think the yellow was a great choice of color to work with during a dark and cold winter week. I just love the backing of the quilt, don't you? All the ironing did pay off, as well as a lot of pins to hold it together, although I would recommend safety pins as my hands were really scratched up and bleeding my the time I was done.

My great idea to hang the quilt from the tree branch didn't work so well as the wind kept blowing it down. I was trying to capture the look of how I placed the blocks so the gray faded into yellow on a diagonal. When I started quilting, I chose a block in the middle and sewed out from there, that way any wrinkles that came up, I could hopefully smooth them out. As far as I know, there weren't any major wrinkles, but I haven't wanted to look at the back too closely.

Into the wash it went after that ordeal, my fingers were completely numb and my face was aching from the below zero wind chill. Oh what we do for a good quilt...

 

 

Crazy Cat Placemats

Sometimes fabric just jumps out at you to be taken home, even if you don't know what you are going make. When I saw this bundle of hilarious kitty prints, I knew I needed to make something for my aunt, uncle and their family of cats.

It was also a nice small project to try out modern quilting as I was inspired by the book "Sunday Morning Quilts" by Amanda Jean Nyberg and Cherly Arkinson.

I love the color saturations she uses and the very geometric shapes, also the concept that the quilt is not made up of little blocks, its more like they are pieces of a big painting. When you quilt with this thought in mind, I think you are more able to study the fabric and work With it rather then snip it up and turn it into something different.

After feeling the inspiration build for a few weeks, I began playing with fabric and folding it into shapes that fit together, sewing as I went. I chose one fabric that I wanted as the focal point for each placemat and went from there. Yes, I did tear out some as I went but thats ok.

It didn't take long to have a placemat! I made four in all and trimmed them up to be the same size...relatively. When I put the batting and backing together with the top I then decided to be even more daring and learn about machine quilting. I am very hands on, so instead of reading up about dropping your feed-dog or adjusting the tension, I just started sewing. Since this was a small project it turned out great. I did learn later on a big quilt that it helps to make some adjustments.

Instead of adding a seperate binding, my sister suggested I simply fold the backing up and around the top of the quilt. It was a good idea since a placemat will be washed a dried a lot more than a quilt and less pieces to come apart.

Ready for dinner to be served... Fun idea, if you make some placemats you can stitch a pocket on one side to the silverware in. I like how each placemat turned out differently but they all go well together.