To be a bit cliché, this shoemaker is a professional Web Developer and her child is this blog, but it was past time to launch what I have of a new design. All the content is still here, everything else is a work in progress (kind of like most of my sewing projects)!
With the emergency surgery needed for one quilt, I didn’t manage to finish the quilt for my friend’s soon-to-be-born daughter. I knew I needed something quick that would go with it, since we flew down to visit and attend her shower, so out came my trusty copy of Simplicity 2613.
The quilt uses Heather Ross’ Nursery Versery fabric (among others) and Nido was having a sale, so I picked up extra for this project. I had a bit of yarn and large rickrack that coordinated for the ossicones and tufts of hair on the neck.
It rattles, thanks to some sort of plastic capsule I had around and pearled barley from my cupboard.
Once I finished the stuffed giraffe, I thought the gift needed a little something more, so I grabbed a FQ of another Nursery Versery print (that will also be the backing of the baby quilt), paired it with a pale yellow and white flannel (backing) and pink linen (binding) from my stash, and made a whole-cloth doll quilt to match.
She’s not due until April, so I still have time to finish up the quilt, but I’m happy to have made these accessories in time.
I’ve mentioned how well-loved my very first quilt has been in the hands of its owner. He finally let his mom send it back to me for some therapy after the binding ripped, so I got a chance to see just how badly it’s held up over the past three years (mind you, of very extreme use). I’ll let the photos speak for themselves:
The places in the center where the fabric is missing are where I used silk. Lesson learned there. The rest of the center has a few split seams but is in decent shape otherwise. The inner border has issues on both seams. Thankfully, the back is in much better condition—a few of the rips from the front around the inner border are also present on the back, but they aren’t bad. Mostly, the back just shows how badly the quilting itself held up.
When I first looked at it, I didn’t think I could rehabilitate the front at all. But over the course of a few days of contemplation, I managed a plan.
First, I patched all of the missing silk pieces with an off-white cotton (stashed Moda Bella Etchings Stone if memory serves). I cut the patches slightly larger than needed, then used a three-step zig-zag to secure it, going over other loose seams while I was at it. It’s not the cleanest solution, but it is sturdy, quick (I was on a deadline), and gives it character. I added more colorful patch to the bottom corner where there was a small hole, and a couple to the back where holes had gone all of the way through the quilt.
Because the borders were in such bad shape, I decided to completely cover them with new fabric by thinking of the quilt as a giant quilt-as-you-go block. First, I replaced the inner border with a yellow flannel from my stash. Then, I made the outer borders with a brown flannel that is very similar to the one I used originally. I sewed the seams for both with the three-step zig-zag to better hold the holey fabric below, then topstitched over them with the same stitch for even better holding-power.
I stitched a line of quilting through the outer border to secure it to the back, bound it with more of the brown flannel, and called it good. The binding isn’t the best job, but is secure. Hopefully its owner will let it get some rest in favor of his newer quilt, but at least it’s in stable condition again. A lot of threads need to be trimmed from the failing quilting, too, but I haven’t done that part yet.
Coming soon: photos of the quilt for his sister that I should have finished this week, but alas, will have to wait another week or two.
“There is something delicious about making the first stitches of a quilt. You never quite know where they’ll take you.” — Beatrix Quilter
When one must make two quilts in the same approximate timeframe as typically takes one, simplicity is key. At least, this is what I kept reminding myself when I felt that the basic layout I’d planned for these two quilts was too plain. I worked a bit outside of my comfort zone in terms of palette and style, but the parents chose to go with a Peter Rabbit theme for their nursery, and once I found a Beatrix Potter panel for sale, it seemed like a good idea to go with it. While basic, it’s also a more traditional layout than I’m used to.
“Thank goodness I was never sent to quilt school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.” — Beatrix Quilter
Of course, I couldn’t restrain myself and keep it entirely simple; it’s hard to tell in the photographs, but the brown strips surrounding the panel strips are gathered, giving them a bit of texture. It may have been better to make them wider (so it was more obvious), but I was limited in the amount of fabric I had to work with. That, actually, explains many of the design choices. I fabric shopped before deciding on the design (or perhaps you could say that I changed the design after fabric shopping), so there was a lot of give and take when I went to create the quilts.
“It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is soporific. With luck, the same cannot be said of quilting.” — Beatrix Quilter
The quilts are backed in paisley Minky, and have a layer of low-loft 80/20 batting inside (from stash scraps, so I’m not positive about the brand). The quilting is very basic—stitches in the ditches for the panel and brown strips, simple meander on the block sections—in a poly/cotton beige Gutermann thread. I am always amazed at how fast free-motion quilting goes; it took about the same amount of time to do all of the FMQ as it did the 12 straight lines across each quilt.
“No more twist binding!“ — Beatrix Quilter
Due in part to my aforementioned fabric conundrums and a desire to make the quilts ever a bit larger, I decided to try out a new binding technique and use the backing as self-binding. By cutting the batting 3.5″ larger than the top, I was able to support a thicker binding and gain an extra 1.75″ on each side of the quilt. Plus, it gives the front even more texture. The somewhat sparse quilting density kept the batting from shrinking all that much, and everything went together pretty well.
“Now run along, and do get into mischief.” — Beatrix Quilter
The two quilts have been shipped off to the twins, who were born in December. I hope they don’t get into too much mischief for now, but I bet their parents will be kept quite busy! Now off to get in more mischief myself, as I have another baby quilt to finish by next Friday.