I knew that!

Modern Quilt Along

When I joined Kim’s Modern Quilt Along a few months ago, I’d planned on making a quilt from the Once Upon a Time pattern for our nephew. With three baby quilts to make (yes our friends are a fertile lot), I decided that quilt might make a better Christmas present now!

Today I finished the first of those three quilts, this one for month-old Lauren Alice. I used the Plain Spoken pattern from  The Modern Quilt Workshop: Patterns, Techniques, and Designs From the FunQuilts Studio by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr, the good folks over at Fun Quilts in Oak Park. The instructions for the quilt were very well written and easy-to-follow. I was surprised at how little fabric I needed for the top.

The colors were selected to coordinate with a rug in the nursery from Lauren’s Grandma and Grandpa.The quilt’s intended to be made up in solid fabrics, but I thought prints were a little more practical, babies being the little stain-making machines that they are. I think at a distance, most of them “read” solid anyway, except for that…is it a “foulard?” The cadet blue menswear print.

Here’s a shot of my lovely Harvest Gold linoleum in the kitchen, oh, and the blocks being laid out. I think I rushed thru the layout step, but you learn something with every project, right?

Here are the rows all sewn together. I really dig ironing the seams open, as recommended by the book’s authors. It makes for a much flatter top, and much easier seam matching. Look at all the fabric I have left on the right side of the sofa! I told you I didn’t use much!

Completed top. Hm. At this scale, I definitely see some blocks I would have rearranged. All in all, I like the about-half-improvisational piecing. My “random” layouts have always stressed me out so much! I chose not to mark the quilt, since I planned to use the width my sewing machine foot to estimate 1/4 inch quilting along the wider rectangles.

Here’s the backing fabric.

Okay, for you non-quilters out there, next you put the backing face down, then smooth batting (cotton-y padding stuff) over it, then place the quilt top face up on top of the whole sandwich. I do my layering on the floor and attach the backing to the floor with masking tape to make sure it stays flat while you pile on the other pieces.

Next, so the layers don’t shift and make wrinkles while you’re sewing them together, you have to baste the whole thing with a needle and thread…or! safety pins. I have this tool that helps with the pins.

After I completed the quilting…I found I wasn’t done after all. The quilting along the outside of the wide rectangles wasn’t quite enough for me, so I marked lines dividing the wide rectangles in two (not fun on a squishy quilt; much better to do this before it’s layered, much less sewn). I quilted on either side of these lines. Much better!

I love to bind quilts. As I work through the earlier stages of cutting, piecing, layering, basting, and quilting, the final product still seems so elusive, no matter how close I am to completion. Attaching that little strip along the edges makes the sad little floppy thing suddely become a quilt, in my eyes. “Oh hey! I made a quilt!” I finished binding it on the train this afternoon, then ran downstairs when I got home to wash and dry it. I love love love crinkly, wrinkly cotton quilts.

How many times can I use the word “quilt” (or a form of it) in a single post? Apparently, at least 22.

Share a Past Project Thursday – Quincy’s Quilt

I’m busy working on three baby quilts at once (!), so not a lot of other crafting is going on right now. I thought I’d post some pictures of one I’ve completed, to remind myself that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel all three tunnels.

I think this was my second quilt ever, made in 2004 for our nephew Quincy. It’s a simplified version of a traditional quilt block called “Storm at Sea.” I designed it in Microsoft Publisher, of all things, a desktop publishing program. It was fun changing the color scheme over and over before ever cutting any fabric. I also used Publisher to print paper-piecing foundations.

My mother-in-law helped me piece the dark aqua squares-within-squares. I felt really domestic that day, churning out quilt blocks for a family quilt with her one sunny Sunday afternoon.

Lest this quilt appear too calm and soothing (although those aren’t bad traits for a baby quilt), I decided to use this fabric for the backing. It’s a Michael Miller dot with a not-usually-for-babies color combination that includes orange, black, yellow, sage green, and aqua. Mostly, it’s dark, so Mom and Dad could throw the quilt on the floor without a second thought. I still have some of the fabric left and have been in search of the perfect project for it. Purse lining, maybe?

Anyway, as with all projects, I learned a lot from making this little quilt. I machine-quilted it, but I instead of going in straight lines, I rotated the quilt aroundandaroundandaround under my sewing machine arm (the “circular” shapes defined by the large white diamonds, and then smaller squares within the yellow diamonds). To quote niece Payton,* “I’m not doing that again!” Even a small quilt was too bulky to do that easily. Also, I didn’t figure out to adjust my tension, and the black bobbin thread showed up pretty regularly on the quilt top. Luckily, after I washed it, it came out of the dryer all crinkly and hid most of the worst parts.

*upon being questioned about a fat lip she’d accidentally given brother Quincy.