Tag: Quilting

January 14, 2017

Fabric Panels

Since I started sewing, I have seen “fabric panels” which are basically a large picture printed on fabric. Never ‘got’ it … for what purpose does one get a picture on a piece of fabric? After Christmas, I was shopping clearance sales and found a quilt kit that used the fabric panel. Oooooh! That is how you use a fabric panel.

I’ve now got two new blanket projects for Anya (tied quilts) — one with construction trucks that I know she is going to love with a minky yellow fabric for the back. And gravel print fabric for the binding

The second is a Northcott print with woodland animals looking up at a star. I’ve got a minky ice blue backing for this one.

I made Anya’s sleeping bag with two layers of Quilter’s Dream Puff batting – that’s almost too warm (but good for sleeping outdoors). I’m thinking a single layer of the Dream Puff batting should give us a couple of cozy blankets.

February 26, 2016

Anya Quilt – Part 1

I have been working on an Ohio Star quilt for Anya’s bed (figure anyone who lives in Ohio should have an Ohio Star quilt or two in their house!). Constructing a quilt is a great visual example of exponential progression. Piecing the four tiny triangles into fairly small squares … you’ve still got a whole lot of tiny pieces. Strips of three squares put together were still a lot of small pieces. But, the quilt builds up rather quickly from there – strips turn into 3×3 blocks, then these blocks form three really large strips with a border fabric between them. Then border strips go in between the star strips to form the entire quilt top.

I had the final top pinned together and took a quick picture to share. Something didn’t look right. Took the picture, folded up the project for the night, and went on to other things. Right before bed, I pulled the picture up again to send to my mom:

Something REALLY didn’t look right … stared at it for a few minutes before I realized that two of my block-triangleblock-block strips were attached upside down! Instead of having a pink triangle along the center block, I have a white triangle. Looking back at the previous step, I do not know how I missed it:

Evidently there is no historical basis for a humility block (an “intentional” mistake put into a quilt – sort of like small dead end roads used to copyright protect maps) … and, honestly, it always sounded like a defensive “I meant to do that!” kind of thing rather than a real “only God is perfect, so my quilt should have a flaw to avoid angering God” thing 🙂

My task for today is to rip out the two backwards blocks and get them stitched back into the quilt. Ugh! Very important lesson learnt — but all in all, not bad for my first quilt.

February 16, 2016

Another Quilt

I have found another quilt that I absolutely love — the Blooming Butterflies quilt from Shabby Fabrics:

I love the swirly quilting that they’ve done too. I *really* need to learn to applique – I would love to make this quilt and the shooting stars quilt for Anya.

December 12, 2014

Stars

A dozen little squares of paper later, I am starting to think that using a template and cutting stars is going to yield better results. I finally found a process that works for me (http://www.firstpalette.com/Craft_themes/Colors/foldingpaperstar/foldingpaperstar.html). And a little bit of wonkieness can be accommodated in the applique process … But I think I am getting more than a bit!

December 7, 2014

Star Quilt – Phase Zero

A few weeks ago, my mom sent me a picture of a pieced circle skirt made with rainbow colors:

That is fantastic, but with Anya being so small … seven different colors would yield very tiny little slivers along the top. So I thought I’d make something like this, but using Newton’s five color spectrum divisions. Even sharing the fabric with my mom so she can make another skirt, I’m going to have a good bit of fabric left over.

I think I’m going to make a quilt. It is possible to cut a five pointed star from a square of fabric with a bunch of folds and one cut (http://www.ushistory.org/BETSY/more/flagfoldcut.htm). The mariner’s compass will be challenging, and attaching all of the stars to the background fabric will certainly be time consuming even on a machine. But I think it’ll be worth the effort. Quilt design below – the rectangle is where a twin size mattress would be.

Below is a blow-up of the star. There are really three different triangles cut from two different colors. Piecing it together, though, is a challenge. I found a good paper piecing tutorial at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlF1J05OV4U … the process actually makes sense now. At least in theory!