(no subject)
One morning in July, my friends told me they were gettin hitched. The next morning I went to a courthouse with them to sign something that made me swear I knew them, and then they called up and made an appointment for the ceremony, which would be a month later. That was all well and good until I realized I wanted to make something for them, and they had inconsiderately, dare I say it--insensitively!--only given me a few weeks' notice. Well, a flurry of cutting and sewing (and a little bit of seam ripping and re-sewing) and I managed to make them a wedding quilt that I hope they love for a long time!
I tried to make it look as summery as possible, so they'd remember their nice summer (and I was also glad to be able to give them something with the date on it so they'd remember that too, since they couldn't get their rings inscribed, ha).
It's the first big quilt I've ever actually finished! It is 72" x 72", good for covering two people on a couch. Each Ohio Star block is 12", and the sashing is 2". I tried to pick something somewhat easy--all the same star pattern but in different fabrics--so that I could finish it quickly, but I still wanted it to be challenging so I'd stay interested.
Of course, that's where I ran into problems. I was sitting at the machine sewing together a stack of pieces, actually having these ultra-hubris-y (and of course, badly foreshadow-y) thoughts such as "I am the sewing version of Henry Ford and this quilt is my Model T...I am the definition of efficient...I could be a quilt factory!" (Does it make it any better that it was very late at night and very hot and humid? Of course I was crazed! I had mad thoughts! MAD!) Then I pressed the seams on the whole stack, and then arranged the next pieces to attach to the newly-stitched stack. It was not until I was about to start sewing the next parts that I saw how I'd sewn along the wrong side of the last pile, and that everything was upside-down! Gah. Rip! Do-over!
Besides learning I need to stop and think more while I'm doing things, I also leaned that I'm a terrible quilter. I'm great at hand-stitching, I'm good at machine sewing, I'm not great at measuring and cutting, ironing makes me homicidal and is how I get hurt most often in the whole quilt process, but I am a bad, bad machine quilter.
Granted, this was the first large thing I have quilted. It's the first time I used a walking foot, which may not even be the right one for my fairly lame machine. The stitch length is all wonky in the quilting, and it's in "straight" lines, with very heavy quotation marks. Also, I still don't have a good space to baste all the layers of a quilt, and draping it over my coffee table to do so may not have been the best choice. And finally, while wedging the ironing board between the open door and the little table the machine is on was helpful, I do dream of a big open space that might make the day after quilting feel less like I'd just completed swimming one hundred laps of the butterfly stroke.
But that's just a list of notes to myself for the next time--though if you have tips for machine quilting, let me know! It turned out better than I expected, and I was pretty excited when I finally got to step back and see the whole thing. I made Dave come outside with me and hold it up so I could take a picture before I gave it away. He seemed a little embarrassed, but on our busy street, I've definitely seen weirder things than a person holding up a quilt!
I tried to make it look as summery as possible, so they'd remember their nice summer (and I was also glad to be able to give them something with the date on it so they'd remember that too, since they couldn't get their rings inscribed, ha).
It's the first big quilt I've ever actually finished! It is 72" x 72", good for covering two people on a couch. Each Ohio Star block is 12", and the sashing is 2". I tried to pick something somewhat easy--all the same star pattern but in different fabrics--so that I could finish it quickly, but I still wanted it to be challenging so I'd stay interested.
Of course, that's where I ran into problems. I was sitting at the machine sewing together a stack of pieces, actually having these ultra-hubris-y (and of course, badly foreshadow-y) thoughts such as "I am the sewing version of Henry Ford and this quilt is my Model T...I am the definition of efficient...I could be a quilt factory!" (Does it make it any better that it was very late at night and very hot and humid? Of course I was crazed! I had mad thoughts! MAD!) Then I pressed the seams on the whole stack, and then arranged the next pieces to attach to the newly-stitched stack. It was not until I was about to start sewing the next parts that I saw how I'd sewn along the wrong side of the last pile, and that everything was upside-down! Gah. Rip! Do-over!
Besides learning I need to stop and think more while I'm doing things, I also leaned that I'm a terrible quilter. I'm great at hand-stitching, I'm good at machine sewing, I'm not great at measuring and cutting, ironing makes me homicidal and is how I get hurt most often in the whole quilt process, but I am a bad, bad machine quilter.
Granted, this was the first large thing I have quilted. It's the first time I used a walking foot, which may not even be the right one for my fairly lame machine. The stitch length is all wonky in the quilting, and it's in "straight" lines, with very heavy quotation marks. Also, I still don't have a good space to baste all the layers of a quilt, and draping it over my coffee table to do so may not have been the best choice. And finally, while wedging the ironing board between the open door and the little table the machine is on was helpful, I do dream of a big open space that might make the day after quilting feel less like I'd just completed swimming one hundred laps of the butterfly stroke.
But that's just a list of notes to myself for the next time--though if you have tips for machine quilting, let me know! It turned out better than I expected, and I was pretty excited when I finally got to step back and see the whole thing. I made Dave come outside with me and hold it up so I could take a picture before I gave it away. He seemed a little embarrassed, but on our busy street, I've definitely seen weirder things than a person holding up a quilt!