Joe's Baby Quilt Finished!

The baby quilt is all finished!

I think also that was the best photo I got of it!  Have to remember that for photographing baby quilts in future.

This quilt involved a lot of experimenting and a lot of learning.  I'd decided to fairly heavily quilt the main panel (heavy compared to other quilts I've done), but I think it was too much for the high loft wadding I had.  I'd just used regular polyester thin wadding from Lincraft because this is what I had on hand.  This shows you better why my quilting was not the best choice for the wadding:

The patchwork is almost lost to the quilting lines.  You can also see that the border is a bit ripply.  This is because I was trying to square up the uneven lengths that were caused by the poor quality fabric, as previously mentioned.

The quilt was a really nice size to work with, but not sure if it's a good size for use.  It's slightly too small for a cot quilt....

 

but too big for a pram quilt....

 

The dimensions are 28" x 34" so I might have to play with them and get a feel for what a good size is.  The elephant baby quilt I am making is quite a lot bigger, but I think ultimately it will be too big as a cot quilt (but excellent once the cot is turned into a toddler bed!).

I think if I made a quilt the same size as the centre panel of this green one (without the plain borders) it would be a really good pram size.

I really had fun making this quilt because I felt free to experiment.  There are many faults in it but the person I am making it for really wont be that critical, and as soon as I started using the fabric which was cut crooked I knew it wasn't going to be of the highest standard so I let my standards drop a little.  That sounds a bit bad, but it freed me up to try new things and not be so obsessive about making it perfect.

I can't wait to try and make another one.  I do have about half the jelly roll left, and I have another roll the same in pink to play with as well!  I just have to finish the music quilt before I'm allowed to start any other new projects.

I almost forgot.... the last detail of the quilt is the label of course!  Because this quilt is for Joe I decided to make it a J

Joe's Baby Quilt

I finished the quilt top for my cousin's not-so-new baby.

I am quite pleased with the result given I was making up the design as I went for some of it.  It is the first quilt I've done where the design relied heavily on patchwork.  All my previous quilts have been lots of applique, or some applique and then just squares joined together.

Some of the blocks are a bit crooked, but I'm putting that down to the poor quality of the fabric.  It was one of the 'Bebe Fabric Rolls' from Spotlight.  I had lowered my expectations of the fabric based on what Margaret had said, but that didn't prepare me for the horror of trying to work with these strips.  They were cut off the grain and my strips were 1/8" shorter at the selvedge edge than the folded edge, which, when you are quilting with 1/4" seams, makes a big difference.  I had to cut my squares for the blocks from the middle of the strips, not the ends (to get the right size), which meant when I came to do the first border, I didn't have long enough pieces and I had to put the check squares in the corners.  Even then I think I had to skimp on a seam allowance here and there.  Actually I think the end result from that looks good anyway, bit it's annoying when you can't do what you want because of the fabric.

I really got into using my machine properly on this one!  I used the 1/4" quilting foot (as per earlier post) and did the embroidery on the bird and flower 'properly' using a backing and different stitches from the machine.  The eye is actually an eyelet stitch, which I hadn't done successfully before so am rather pleased.  The beak took a little time to get right (on practice fabric) as it is actually half of a diamond stitch.  In the end I started sewing the diamond stitch on scrap fabric and counted how many stitches it did, then when it was at the widest point, I stopped, put the quilt top in the machine and finished the pattern, to make a triangle.  I forgot to take a close up shot but I will try to remember to do that when the quilt is finished.

I think I've decided what quilting pattern I want to do in the main part, just have to work out something for the borders.  Am going to back it in the plain green of the border, it's easy and I already have enough on hand.

Oh, and it was supposed to be a cot sized quilt but I messed up the measurements along the way.  It's actually come out a really nice pram size!  Think I will make some more this size.

Whilst it was hard working with the poor quality jelly roll, it has given me a bit of fun working out what I can and can't do with a jelly roll, on fabric which I'm not so attached to, before I start cutting into the nice Moda jelly rolls I've bought.

Edit: just realised the previous post about this quilt didn't publish properly :(  So here it is if you want the beginning of the story!

Green baby quilt

Earlier this year my cousin had a baby and I was going to make her something but time slipped away from me and I never got around to it.  Now that I've had my Abigail, she sent me a present so I figured I'd better get into gear and return the gesture.

A while ago at Spotlight I bought a Bebe Fabric Roll which is 25 strips 2.5" wide.  To my disappointment, when I opened the roll, the strips are cut 1/8" short at the selvedge edge.  Luckily I had planned squares so it just meant I had to cut my squares out of the middle of the strips rather than the ends.

I decided to use the images from the fabric and create applique squares, and then some patchwork blocks to coordinate.  I bought some fabric at the recent craft show to add a little extra colour and variety.

For the plain fabric, I just found a cotton poplin in the right shade.  The poor quality of the other fabric deterred me from getting special quilting fabric.  Also the fact that I couldn't find anything plain in the appropriate colour.  Sometimes I regret living out here, so far away from good quilting shops!

This is the design so far:

I've managed to get enough time to myself to sew the blocks together, but I miscalculated when I cut the border strips so they've all got little tails on them.  Nothing a roller cutter and square ruler can't fix.

I've pressed them since taking the photo.  Next step will be the applique and associated embroidery to complete the images.

I haven't decided what borders/bindings/backings I'm going to use yet but I usually get to that once I've finished the main part of the top.  I'm usually a very organised and planning sort of person but my quilts seem to take shape along the way rather than being totally planned out in the beginning.

Baby's Day Out

Yesterday I bundled up little Abigail into Grandma's car, and with Ergobaby on board the three of us headed to CraftExpo.

I met up with Margaret and Jayne out the front, but quickly we separated to follow our own time schedule.

It wasn't a big haul this year.  I think I've bought up big recently on 'treats' and wasn't drawn in by the "it's pretty, I MUST buy it" motivation.  I guess also a lot of it is things I've seen before.  Maybe you can go to craft shows a little too often ;)

I did pick up lots of fabric for the Homespun Harmony wall hanging (pattern came from the previous craft show) I am going to do for a friend's baby.  Most of the fabric came from Patchwork with Gail B but some also came from Logan's Patchwork.  Obviously you can see that I haven't gone with the traditional colours on the pattern cover.

Not exactly sure where I'm going to put what fabric but I think I'll just do it block by block and see how it all ends up.  Probably have to buy a bit more fabric later, but it will develop and grow as it gets sewn, rather than being all planned out from the onset.

I have also decided to make a cot quilt for my cousin's new baby.  He was born back in March but it always takes me ages to get around to these things ;)  Now that she has sent me a gift for the birth of Abigail I figured I should get around to sending her something.  I bought some fabric rolls from Spotlight a few months ago so have broken open one of them for the baby quilt.  At the craft show yesterday I bought the brown dotty fabric to go with them.

I'm designed a quilt which incorporates the pictures off the fabric.  I'm going to copy them up larger and make applique designs out of them for some of the blocks.  Also went along to Spotlight today to get some plain green to coordinate with it.  I hope it works out, I haven't really designed a quilt from scratch before.

Also at the show yesterday I picked up this interesting looking contraption.

It's a Flower Stitcher foot from Punch With Judy.  You can do funky things like this with it:

 That picture is from the book I bought to go with it, but I've just discovered people have posted YouTube videos of how to use it and what to do with it, so I might have to go exploring once I've learnt the basics!

Not sure what I'm going to do yet, it just looked cool so I bought it.  I want to have a play with it but Dad is camped out in my sewing room for the next two days so it will have to wait a while.  Not like I've really had the time to play with anything anyway now that Madam Abigail is in the world and refuses to go to sleep!

So a big milestone was achieved this weekend.  Abigail went to her first craft show AND she had her first trip to Spotlight.  Two things that I'm sure she will do lots of over the next few years.

Oh, and I'm beginning to feel like I'm Wonder Woman or something. The number of people commenting on me being out and about with a three week old baby.  Apparently I'm supposed to be in my pyjamas, slobbing around the house, not going anywhere, just 'cause I have a new baby.  Pooey to them I say!!