My first custom quilts

This was a huge challange for me. I am not very comfy with the ideea of making a custom... something...anything actually, for somebody I don't know. But this nice lady left everything up to me. Well, I couldn't say no.



The quilts came really quick, I think they took a day each, however the pillows took me more than 3 days. I wanted something different than the quilt, but still the same story.


The baby quilt has a simple pattern, but some of the squares have another layer of batting and I hope this will be more visible once the quilt is washed. The ones with more batting also miss a square in quilting, to really pop.



The back is from 2 of my 3 favorite Ikea fabrics, the houses are also hand sewn on the top of the quilt.




The quilt for the bigger sister was the most chalenging. I wanted something for a child, but also something she will love later, because the quilt is quite large, around 100 x 130 cm.



Again, the colours are far from reality, I think the green in the pillow is pear, far far away from the grass green in the photos. The back is my other Ikea favorite, the gray angels, and I just found out they will not make it anymore :( Just when I decided to buy a full bolt... Of course, they didn;t have any...

I am really happy how they both turned out but I'll still be nervous untill the kids actually see them. Wish me luck :)

A series of fortunate events

* Out of 221 colours I managed to buy the same exact colour twice. A colour that I don't actually use to often, I just liked it as in I-know-I-will-get-use-it. Eventually ... So I found myslef with 1,5 yard of a dark kona, when 90% of my quilts are sashed in white. And use kind of fresh colours.
(Now really, what are the odds? Ok, I know I'm not the smartest one around when I forgot I ordered a dark red the day before. Then again, the same dark red? Two different shops, both with quite a large selection of Kona? You know, that many many many Konas?)
And no, I don't know the name :))

*Surfing the net I found an incredible pic on Flickr. I just loved it and the next minute I already had the pattern in my head. Guess who just found a use of that grape Kona :D ( It seems I did not add it as a favorite after all and I have no ideea how to find it. But will try and add it here when I find it)
Ha, here it is:


*I managed to find Monaluna's Mingle in the right colour, the one I was in love with before I started quilting. It was even on sale. What could I have ask more? Oh, yes, I know, a very nice lady behind all this. Perfect!






* I found a great shop for all Amy Butler dots. It's closed right now, but they have lots and lots of dots. You know, the Love & Lotus dots? As in best dots ever? And best colours ever? Oh yes. And good prices too. Oh, and super fast shipping. And A+ customer service. And no, they don't pay me for this :)))





So, after all this and one small drawing just to be sure that what I have in my had can actually be done, not like the frames on the TDF quilt [do you see my eyes rolling here?], everything came up really quick. I already had all the small squares (5") and the larger ones were really easy to cut. After I decided on the size of the sashing. [Did you see the bold on the 'after'? Yes, I did cut a few rectangles a little to early]

The top was ready in no time and so was the rest of it. I was happy to see that dark sashing makes much more easier the thread cutting. As in I did not bother to cut all the threads on the back of the top, like I do when I use white sashing. What a relief!


So...Ta-da! The Princess quilt.





And here's a pic with a more accurate colour of the sashing.



When I saw that quilt with wavy lines I said well, this is one thing on saw on RPQ that I will not do. Ha! The back was just cring for some waves. So I took a deap breath and did it. I think it turned out really good but I doubt I will do it again.



If you didn't have enough pics, there's more on Flickr.

My new TDF quilt

It seems that almost every quilt I make is the one I like best at that time. Of course, unless I really hate it :))) Fortunatly, this one is TDF in my book.

I was so obssesed with this one that I actually dreamt about a way to make those frames. Of course that after I actually tried doing them like in my dream it turned out it wasn't possible so I ended up with twice as much work to fix them. Good thing I only started two blocks like this...

And a WIP pic with more real color of the background, quite greenish actually.

It's almost 40 x 50 " and I have added more photos, including a detail of the fame in my flickr quilts set

A hard to make quilt

It all started very very well. And it finished the same. But the process...ah, the process...almost dried me out.

I started putting favorite fabrics two but two, not knowing what I was going to make. Went to two colours pinwheel, aborted, then to print plus white pinwheels...



... moved them about one hunderd times, found the perfect spot for each, found the right amount of sashing, basted to death with hundred of pins and...

Well, that's pretty much all the fun part. 'cause at some point, my sewing machine decided to get stucked in a tiny thread caught somewhere under the bobin.



One night and 2 hours trip to Brother later, nobody was there to fx it.
Another night and another 2 hours trip to Brother later, the machine was cleaned.
Another night and half quilted quilt later, the machine started leaving black oil staines all over the quilt. And the fact that I decided to quilt around the squares, therefore move the quilt a lot, did not help at all. Nor the fact tha I somehow didn't see the first staines and things got only worse as I kept quilting.




Hours of crying later, the quilt was washed but still had one black point.



Then a nother fun part came along with a great ideea, to hand sew a little.




Despite my anti-washing-quilts-before-giving-policy, I really think that this quilt might just be able to leave my house at some point. But only after I am really sure I really really really don't need another quilt, because, well, I love it!

Don't sleep and sew

I grew up with a work at home mom. Designing, sewing, crafting. I learned to sew just like I learned to talk: with no training, just by watching and playing. And I never got into sewing grammar :) until 20 yers later. So every now and then, after improvising, free sewing a lot and getting all covered in thoughts while sewing (that's the sleep while you sew phase), I get an epiphany.


As I said before, I don't really like borders, but I also don't like having the binding bite from the quilt's design. I tried adding another tiny white border, as almost all my quilts are sashed in white. But as I was finishing my not-so-pink-after-all quilt, it stroke me: the binding wasn't the only one biteing, it was also the qulting that was deceiving.



So after I quilted it, instead of cutting the excess batting and back up to the front's dimensions, I left another 1/4" all the way around, from backing fabric and batting.


[lousy pic, i know)

Also, I made the last row of quilting not 1/4" from the edge, but 1/4" from another 1/4" left as the sewing allowence, that doesn't really exist when you talk about the edge of the quilt.

Well, the ideea came half way quilting, so 2 edges are quilted 1/4" from the edge, the others - 1/2"


You can actually see the difference between left/right and up/down.


I really really like the way it looks now, I feel it looks like somebody thought about all the details before making the quilt, witch is not really true in my case :D

And here's the closeup of the good edge.



Yes, definitely a good day!


P.S. When i say 1/4", I obviously mean 4mm. Or 5. Sometimes 6.

I love life in metric

I love base 10. You know, count to ten and start over? Yes, metric system is beautifull. And easy.
10 mm = 1 cm.
100 cm = 1m.
1000m = 1 km.

How tall are you? 1, 60 m. Or 160 cm.
How simple is this? Well, just as simple as masuring weight. Simple, clean numbers. How many kg do you have? 50? 60? 72?

See? Life in metric is simple.

Than, in my beautifull metric life, something terrible happened. Quilting came along! Ok, it's not a problem that everybody's talking in half yards, half inches, 3/8, 5/8, I never really care about making a certain size quilt, so I just go along. But did you see the Olfas? No, really, did you ever look at the metric side of an olfa cutting mat? It's ok, I'll wait for you to turn it and see the back.

Saw it? Ok. Now try looking at it for an entire minute. I'll wait again.

A-ha! Came back after 15 seconds, right? Well, yes, I know I am right. You just cannot use the metric side of an Olfa. It makes you dizzy, you can't follow the numbers and you can.not.use.it.at.all.



Good bye sweet metric life. Good bye 15 cm blocks with 0.5 seam allowance and 14 cm finished block. Good bye 75x120 cm quilts.

Welcome 1/4", 5/8" and 76,2x127.

Not so much pink after all

Yes, I decided to give up that much pink, and put some next to white. The sewing machine is in service, but can't wait to get it back (today!) and finish the pinky :)