Tuesday, September 23, 2008

What I've been doing instead of blogging


This is the quilt I made for my mother-in-law. It should have been a simple project that took about a week to complete (with kids and dogs and husband around). I had a few problems with my new sewing machine and it took a wee bit longer than that. My SIL Pam and Chris helped with the tying. It's not a total work of art or anything, but I made do with what I had instead of buying new material and I am pleased with it (although I would have chosen aqua instead of yellow if I'd had the option to buy new). I was told a long time ago that the motto of quilting is, "Use it up, wear it out, make do or do without." Depression era quilters would certainly have been amazed that quilters now have the option of buying jelly rolls and layer cakes of fabric that's already cut to speed up the quilt making process.

4 comments:

Mrs. B. Roth said...

Holy Cow! Wow - I think it is beautiful and amazing. You MADE a quilt! In 2008 - you sewed a whole lovely artistic blanket!

I have been wanting to learn to quilt for about 5 months now (I got the hankering 1 month before baby girl was due, Greg said it wasn't a good time to start a big new project, I frowned).

Got any beginners quilting recipes (or whatever you'd call it, pattern?) I have a little cheap sewing machine, it's not much, but I know how to use it. How long have you been quilting this? How many works of art have you made? Did you say a week???? A week? Like 7 days?

Anyway, I am totally impressed!

Janet said...

It's actually a throw sized quilt, about 56*87 if I remember my border dimensions correctly (I always have to write these things down in order to figure out how much binding to make, but then I forget promptly once the binding's cut). The pattern in the picture was extremely easy. If you truly want to try quilting I recommend it and I'm positive Amy will add you to her email list for easy projects... wait for it... it's coming... LOL, seriously you'll be recieving email from hopkins775 any time now.

I keep my ongoing projects in ziploc bags if they're still small enough to fit. Once the project grows it moves into a clear sterilte box about 11*17". This keeps the kids from losing anything important and helps me remember what I'm supposed to be doing... especially if I put the project directions in the box with the fabric.

If you just want a sampling of projects that are out there I love some of the magazine websites like Quick Quilts, McCall's Quilting, and Debbie Mumm's free projects.

You should be able to find out whether you've been bitten by the quilting bug even with a very basic machine. If you love it and your machine starts to frustrate you then you can start shopping, but not before! I just bought a new machine, but it took 4 years of sewing on my basic machine before I even knew enough about what I was doing to be able to shop for something better. Now I know the features that I need and how to use them, when I started I simply needed a 1/4" foot and some hours sewing in order to figure out what I was doing. Katie has my old machine. Maybe the two of you can learn a new hobby together.

Janet said...

hmmm... I should also note that technically that's a tied patchwork blanket. It has very little actual quilting (using sewing stiches to join 3 layers of fabric) going on. The patchwork goes much faster than the quilting. I tend to use the term "quilt" for anything made of patchwork, but it's not really correct. Jake's puppy blanket that I made this spring is the only truly quilted blanket I've ever made. Chris is having me go back and quilt parts of his blanket. Sam's blanket and Miranda's blanket are completely tied with no quilting. Sophie and James will probably get blankets with a little quilting and some tying (sp?). Sophie's is going to use some of the leftover patchwork blocks from Pat's throw. See... it gets to be addictive and I'm sure that by now I'm the only one interested in what I'm saying, so... I'll just finish up by saying that having something creative to do with your hands feeds your soul. I'm sure Amy will post something to counteract my other favorite thing about quilting... it makes me feel the same way doing math problems does.

Blind Dog Megan said...

IT is amazing! Good word, I think this is great and wish I could do it. I can barely keep up w/ my knitting projects. I have a lot of amazing fabric from when I lived in Africa and I would love to learn how to sew so I could do something cool w/ it.

Jake camping in the living room

Jake camping in the living room