tips for making your first quilt

If you have been following my challenge you will know that I started of not knowing anything about patchwork and managed to create a reasonable patchwork quilted cushion cover. If I can do it then so can you. Go for it.

Before you start you might want to gather together some handy tools, you don’t need many

The absolute minimum equipment you will need

• fabric
• scissors
• needle
• thread
• long pins
• wadding

I also used a ruler and pencil to mark the fabric before cutting.(using tailors chalk would probably be a much better idea) and a sewing machine for the final quilting. I am thinking of investing in a rotary cutter for my next project, these look very useful, I already have a cutting board.

Because I used old shirts to make my first patchwork the only money I spent was about €3 for the wadding, and that bought a full meter, so I have plenty left over.

I think the most important tip I would give anyone is, take your time, cut your fabric carefully and stick to the 1/4 inch seam allowance.

And most important, Enjoy it, it’s meant to be fun:)

talk soon

 

 

 

 

 

Day 7 of my challenge to make a quilt in seven days

Hurray! I have completed my challenge, even though It is 18 days since I started the project I decided that I would only count the days that I worked on the quilt. is that cheating?

I am so proud of myself 🙂

I know it’s not perfect, the blocks are all slightly different sizes, the cute birds look more like evil crows, (that’s if you can even recognize them as birds) I forgot to embroider the legs on the birds, and a million other mistakes. But I made it all by myself and it’s not a complete disaster.

I start of today making the quilt sandwich. The backing was cut from the same sheet that the blue squares and bird house was cut from, the wadding/batting was purchased from Hickey’s in Galway and the quilt top was made by me 🙂 .  I cut the backing and wadding slightly bigger than the topping. When it was all laid out I smoothed and pinned the pieces together, I have some lovely heart topped pins that came free in a craft magazine, they are good and long so were perfect for pinning through the layers.

I have been looking at all the wonderful quilting methods but decided to keep it as simple as possible and am going with the ditch method (quilting along the block seams). I also decided that this bit would be done with a sewing machine.

I haven’t used my machine in ages so thankfully I did a test run on some scraps, the tension was off and it took me ages find the instructions and workout how to put it right. With a lot of fiddling with the stitch size and tension dials I finally got it right. I started of by stitching around the border and then the cross sections to divide the quilt into 9 squares. This was a mistake, I should have sewed the cross sections first, because the quilt puckered slightly at the joins.

I cut the cushion backing from the pale pink shirt used for the background of the bird blocks. made an envelope style opening, by making one piece 3/4 the height of the cushion and the other piece 1/2 the height of the cushion so that the cushion pad could be inserted easily and I didn’t have to buy a zip or other fastenings.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think of my first patchwork.

Now to  start thinking about my next one !!

Day 6 of my challenge to make a patchwork quilt in seven days

I have settled down and managed to get some sewing done, I sewed all the blocks together but had to unpick them because the seams didn’t match up at all. although I took the time to measure the squares and cut them to the correct size and allowed for a 1/4 inch seams,  I didn’t take as much care when actually sewing, so the seams were all different. So I made the corrections when resewing the blocks to make  them match. I also added a narrow border.

Now I can see what the final quilt will look like it doesn’t quite match my expectations. the blocks are all slightly different sizes and the stitching a bit wonky.

Instead of looking like cute little birds mine look more like evil crows and the top of the bird house doesn’t have a sharp point.

Kaorumarie  gives great encouragement in her post {Finished Items} Patchwork, Please! when she says “you shouldn’t have “perfect” projects when you start because improving your work is part of the fun”. I will continue with my evil crow quilt and have lots of fun with future projects, I have lots of improvement to make.

The next stage is the quilting, now that I have the wadding I am looking forward to being able to show of my not so perfect but “made by me” quilted cushion cover.

leave a comment below and let me know what you think.

My challenge to make a quilt in seven days

I can’t believe a whole week has passed since I last wrote on my blog.

I haven’t been completely  idle. I’ve been shopping and the first thing I bought was a little crafting sewing kit in Aldi. It didn’t cost much and contains a few really handy tools. the most helpful being the needle threader, a really ingenious device that looks like a very cheep medallion with a thin bent wire at one end, I wish I had this from the start it saves a lot of time.

another very handy tool is the seam ripper. The tailors chalk pencil and the marking wheel will be very useful for my next quilt.

I was in Galway and went to Hickey’s  to  buy some wadding (in most of the articles online the word batting is used but I think the word is interchangeable, it was called wadding in the fabric shop)  and was pleasantly surprised to find that it is not expensive at all.

So now I am fully equipped to complete my patchwork cushion cover. so no more excuses.

Day 5 Of my challenge to make a patchwork quilt in 7 days

Today I managed to get quite a lot done, I sewed the pieces for the bird house block I didn’t sew the circle for the hole yet, I plan to applique that on later.

I cut out the pieces for the four square blocks.

I thought that using the yellow from the beaks and a blue fabric (from an old sheet) would look nice, but when I tried them they looked completely wrong, the yellow was too bright. It is better  kept just for the beaks. I cut the rest of the squares from the checked shirt and think it looks much better with the blue.

I sewed all the blocks and joined the three blocks for the top row of the cushion cover, it’s starting to take shape. tomorrow I will sew the rest of the blocks together and cut out the backing. I will also add a border.

That will just leave the applique birdhouse hole, embroidering the legs on the birds and the quilting. I have been looking at some quilting methods and a lot of it is amazing and real y complicated looking. I am going to keep it simple and use a sewing machine so it shouldn’t take too long.

leave a comment and let me know what you think

Day four of my challenge to make a patchwork quilt in seven days

Today I cut out the pieces and sewed three bird blocks. (This time with the triangles the correct sizes.) They look much better. I also cut out the pieces for the bird house block for the middle of the quilted cushion cover.

What I have learned so far

•    Making something small is not necessarily easier. It can be more difficult because the pieces are fiddly.
•    Needles are harder to thread than they used to be, (either they are making the eyes smaller, the thread thicker or my eyes are getting worse.)
•    Small stitches make neater seams
•    Check you have the pieces put together right before you sew (small neat stitches are hard to unpick.)
•    squares are the easier shapes to work with
That was it for today; tomorrow I will cut out the rest of the pieces and start putting the blocks together

Day three Of my challenge to make a patchwork quilt in 7 days

pieces cut out for bird block

It has been a few days since I have done anything on my patchwork. I have been busy with other things, (work, family etc.) but I have not abandoned my challenge. Even though technically it could be classed as day 5 I am calling it day 3 as it is the third day working on my quilt.

I cut out all the pieces for the bird blocks, I think that I will use the buttons form my checked shirt as eyes.

I am hand sewing the pieces together using back stitch.

They say you learn from your mistakes, and boy have I learned a lot.

When working out the sizes of the pieces my logic went like this.

• I want the bird block to measure 6 inches by 6 inches,
•  The bird block is made up of 9 squares 3 squares by 3 squares
• Each square needs to be 2inches by 2 inches with a seam allowance of 1/4inch
• So I cut the squares 2 ½ inches, and then cut them in half and quarters diagonally to make the triangles.

Makes sense right? Wrong!!

I didn’t consider that the smaller triangles need to have seams too. I didn’t notice my mistake until I was sewing it together.

At first I thought that the block could be salvaged and using a border around the quilt .

But when I sewed the bottom row to the other rows I saw that it just looked wrong and the seams couldn’t match up. Although I will not use the block in my finished cushion cover I am not going to dismantle it I am going to keep it so that I can see my progress as a patchwork quilter.

Day 4 will be spent redoing what I did in day 3 but this time with the correct size pieces.

Day two Of my challenge to make a patchwork quilt in 7 days

My design

Day 2 tasks

• create final design
• cut out pieces

Today I worked out a design for my quilt and cut out some of the pieces.
As you can see I have based the design on my coffee mug, (see day one)

I am planning to use the quilt as either a cushion cover or a table center piece. The quilt size will be 18 inches by 18 inches.

The piece will have nine blocks with a bird in each of the corner blocks and a bird house in the centre block. I have kept to squares and triangles in my design so that all edges should fit together easily.

What do you think?

Tomorrow. I will finish cutting out the pieces and start putting it together

Day one. Of my challenge to make a patchwork quilt in 7 days

my favourite coffee mug

Tasks for day one.

• Decide on a project,
• Findfabric

For my challenge I want to create a patchwork that I can be proud of but at the same time it needs to easy enough that a complete novice quilter like me can manage. I want to use the challenge to learn about patchwork and quilting
I plan to make either a cushion cover or table centre piece. The size will be 18 inches by 18 inches. Not too small that I won’t feel I accomplished anything, but not so big that I won’t get it finished in seven days.

I am going to use my favourite coffee mug as inspiration.

I am going to use unwanted clothes as a fabric source  and have been rummaging through cupboards and draws for some suitable fabric.
When deciding what to use I kept in mind that the clothes would need to have enough fabric between seams to enable me to cut out the pieces, I also wanted to use fabrics that would hold its shape. So that ruled out tee-shirts, jogging trousers, sweatshirts etc. That left mainly shirts. I don’t own many cotton dresses and Teenage girls are not fond of their mother cutting up their clothes to make soft furnishings… go figure!

my quilting fabric

The results aren’t great. The colours are a bit muted and not much in the way of patterns.

I have been searching the internet for ideas and advice and am amazed by the skill and creativity out there.such as Ruthie’s mini quilt with a sewing theme

I didn’t realise there was a whole new language to learn.
Here are some of the quilting terms I have come across

• FMQ Free Motion Quilting (this had me puzzled for a while)
• Paper piecing (still not quite sure what this is but I think it is like a template, please leave comment and correct me if I am wrong)
• Batting – Cotton, wool, or synthetic fiber wadded into rolls or sheets, used for stuffing furniture and mattresses and for lining quilts
• Blocks – Basic unit of a quilt top, usually square but can be rectangular or other shape
• Fat Eight – Pre-cut pieces of cotton cloth that measures about 18″ x 11″
• Fat Quarter – Pre-cut pieces of cotton quilting cloth, taken from one yard of fabric, cut in half lengthwise, and in half widthwise, rather than lengthwise, approximately 18″ x 22″

Ok I’ve learned a lot today and managed to sort out my fabric for day two i will decide on a final design and start cutting out the pieces I’ll let you know how I get on.

Any advice would be appreciated

Learn To Make A Patchwork Quilt In 7 Days

Image courtesy of debspoons FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Challenge:- create a patchwork quilt in seven days.

While sorting out some cupboards I came across a book on Patchwork quilting, that I had bought ages ago.

Looking at the pictures of lovely quilts, I imagined my home with cosy patchwork throws and gorgeous wall hangings.

I have a habit of getting great notions of creating beautiful things, but not following through. So I have set myself a challenge of learning how to create a patchwork quilt in 7 days. Writing this blog and showing the world my progress will make sure that I stick to it.

I haven’t picked up a needle and thread to make anything in over 20 years, and I have never done any patchwork. I wouldn’t be able to create a beautiful quilted wall hanging straight away. But if I start with something a bit less ambitious I might succeed.

For my first quilt I will use the fabric from unwanted clothing. I have a few reasons for this,

It is cheaper, more environment friendly, more traditional and if I wait until I get the chance to travel the 50 odd miles to a fabric shop, the notion will have left me and I will not start never mind complete my challenge.

You can help keep me motivated by leaving comments and advice (I can do with plenty of advice)

I’m off to rummage through wardrobes and draws for some fabric and then decide what to make.

I’ll have an update tomorrow,

Any advice will be appreciated