Back to Quilting!

With the holidays over it is time to start quilting again. I am currently quilting two quilts, the first is a gift and the second is for me or to donate. Since I can't blog about the gift I will be blogging about my other quilt. I was inspired by the mod sampler quilt on oh fransson and will be creating a bright version of her quilt. Here are the fabrics I will be working with.

I like the bright colors against the white and think it will be a perfect quilt to get my through winter and into summer! Plus one of my good friends, Amber, has decided to start quilting so hopefully I will have someone to quilt with this winter!

UVA Quilt, Finished!!

It is finished!!! I finally finished my UVA quilt and despite all of its flaws I am in love with it. Since I loved the fabric so much I didn’t want to waste any and may have gone a little overboard with my squares. The quilt was originally suppose to be a lap quilt and ended up being 7’ x 6’ which is just perfect for two to snuggle under but much bigger than originally planned.

Below is a picture of the quilt right after I finished the basting process. With a quilt this size the basting process was difficult for a novice like me so I used quilt basting spray. I laid the backing out first and then the quilt batting on top of that. I cut the batting to size and folded it back so I could start spraying. I worked from the middle out to ensure there were no wrinkles. I then did the same for the top. It is still difficult for me to get all the wrinkles out but it turned out pretty well. Even though you do not need to secure your quilt sandwich with pins when using the basting spray it makes me more comfortable to add a few (as you can see in the picture).

My quilt sandwich ready to be quilted

I decided on straight line quilting each line about 2 inches apart. This took much longer than I expected and my walking foot quit on me by the end but I finished. None of my lines are perfectly straight and it will take more practice to learn how to handle such a large quilt while sewing but I am getting there.

Straight line quilting

 

Finally I had to sew on the border. I went with a yellow border to balance the orange and teal on the back of the quilt. I also like the contrast on the front with the large gray border. I use Elizabeth Hartman’s tutorial for attaching borders.

Pressing my border

And here it is! All finished.

My UVA Quilt

 

Believe it or not, I am already planning my next quilt. I have once again been inspired by Elizabeth Hartman’s Mod Sampler Quilt made by Goddess in Progress. She recommended it for a beginner and it is smaller than my UVA Quilt so hopefully it will take a little less time.



Cut, Design, Sew

This weekend I finally started to feel like the UVA quilt was coming together. After spending several hours squaring what felt like a million quilt squares I was ready to start piecing the squares together.



The million scraps left after I had trimmed each quilt square





All of the trimmed quilt squares sorted by fabric type (yes I am a little neurotic)



In order to make sure that I liked the final layout of the quilt I first arranged each square block on background fabric to get an idea of the overall flow of the final quilt. For this quilt I wanted to make sure the same patterns were never touching and that there was a balance between the more heavily blue, orange, or yellow squares. I also wanted to balance the large patterns with the small patterns and the direction of each block. I placed each square on a large piece of gray fabric which will be what the sashing is completed with to get an even better idea of the final look of the quilt.



The blocks laid out on the gray fabric….finally starting to look like a quilt J


For some reason my dog, Grace, feels the need to lay in the middle of the quilt whenever I start to lay out the quilt blocks. She did this with my mom’s quilt as well. While she is very much in the way it is very hard to get mad at such a sweet puppy just trying to give you love.



Grace hanging out on the quilt squares


I have sewn together 2 of the 8 rows of squares and I think I am loving it! Hopefully I will be able to sew the remainder together this weekend and have a completed quilt top to show you next week. Although, it always seems to take longer than I think it will….we shall see!

Ironing and Ironing

So I must confess that my least favorite part of quilting is the ironing. With my latest pattern I have had to iron each block 3 different times during the piecing process. When I iron my blocks I iron the seams out towards their respective sides. I do not iron the seams to one side because I believe it adds more bulk and is harder to quilt through once you begin the quilting. I know there is a lot of debate about which ironing method is best but so far I have had luck with this method and like that there is less bulk at the seams. Below are some pictures from my hours of weekend ironing.

The next step in my quilt will be to lay out the blocks and then cut gray strips for sashing. I have never attempted sashing and read some horror stories about the sewing machine pulling the fabric one way or the other so that your sashing does not look straight. I will be sure to fill you all in as I take on squaring all the blocks, laying out my quilt top, and begin the sashing this weekend.

UVA Quilt

About a month after I finished my Mom's quilt I was itching to get started on another one. So, I decided to make one for myself. While looking for fabrics for my Mom's quilt I found some beautiful fabrics from the Joel Dewberry Heirloom Collection. They are mainly aquas and oranges and reminded me very much of my alma matter, UVA. The colors seemed close enough to my orange and blue school colors but also different enough that I didn't feel like I was decorating my house like a college dorm room. Below are a few of the fabric swatches I started with.

Once I had the fabrics picked out it was time to pick a pattern. One of the first blogs to inspire me was Goddess in Progress...Quilts and after seeing her 'Penny'quilt I knew I wanted to make a similar one. However, with winter upon us I figured I would pair my aquas and oranges with a gray instead of the white she paired her bright colors with. I think it is more fitting for the fall and will compliment the colors a little more. Below is a picture of a few completed blocks.

I obviously have a long way to go on this quilt but with the onset of cold weather I have a feeling I will have plenty of time to work on it!

Quilt? Bake? Blog?

I have always been a baker. I grew up in a family where homemade meals were made for me every night and homemade chocolate chip cookies were a must around the holidays. But it wasn't until about two and a half years ago that I really delved into cake baking. One night after watching a cake baking show on TLC I realized that I too could do that. I spent countless hours scouring the Internet for cake baking and decorating tips and in the end really loved decorating cakes. The one part I didn't love was that they disappeared and after all that hard work there was nothing left to show for it. Below are a few of the cakes I made over the years.

3 months ago my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. I am not the type of person that wears my emotions on my sleeve and often times my Mom refers to me as her cold fish. My sister on the other hand is sweet, loving, and a cuddle bug. So, after my mom's diagnoses we both responded differently. My sister stepped up as the caretaker and I thought of a way to show her I loved her without physically being able to be present throughout the long recovery process.  Quilts! Had I ever made a quilt? No. In fact, the last time I sewed was with my grandmother over 10 years ago but I was determined to make her a quilt. Once again I took to the Internet and what surprised me this time were the number of bloggers who helped teach me how to start quilting! Below is my first quilt that I made for my Mom to have with her during chemotherapy.

 

So, here I am blogging. I am hoping by sharing my successes and failures in baking, quilting, and other crafty adventures that I can inspire others to give it a try!