Back to blogging!

So it's been years since I updated my blog, oh well. I'm not even going to try to recap the last few years but just focus on I've gotten my sewing mojo back. 

My nieces and nephews have produced a few children in the last few years, so I will start with some pictures of baby quilts. 

The oldest great-nephew in this picture already has a quilt so I made him a fleece blanket.

For the littlest one, I did this sea theme quilt:

This picture is showing the front and the back.

 For the girl in the family, I did this with flowers and butterflies on one side and ladybugs on the other side:

This is the braided edge on the fleece blanket. I got the instructions from http://www.piecesbypolly.com/2010/12/braided-fleece-blankets-tutorial.html 

I didn't use the bent paper clip like she did. I just used my fingers to connect the pieces.
 

This is my blanket/quilt tester. His name is Chuck Norris. 

More pictures to come in a few days!

Remaking an old quilt

A few months ago I bought a set of vintage quilt blocks from eBay. These had once been part of a quilt and were still attached in rows with sashing. There were 6 rows, each containing 8 blocks. The sashing was detoriating beyond thread bare, it practically fell apart in my hands.

The blocks had been machine sewn. I saw no remnants of actually quilting but some of the blocks are worn spots or torn fabric. I ripped what was left of the sashing. I think the blocks were originally supposed to be 9 inches finished. I say "supposed to be" because the seams were not straight and most of the blocks were less than 9 1/2" unfinished. I trimmed the blocks so they would all be 9 inches square before I put sashing back on them. Some were barely 9 inches! Talk about a challenge, this was!

I cut the sashing from white muslin at a size of 3 1/2 inches wide. I also added 3 1/2 inch wide sashing to the outside as a border. I'm pleased with the results. Hopefull later today I can get a shot of the whole top. Here are a couple of close ups.

It's finished!!!!!!!!!!!!

At last! The quilt that took 16 years. It is finished! I just finished hemming down the binding. It was the first large quilt I started when I was first quilting in 1993. The pattern is called Crown of Thorns or Wedding Ring.

It was machine pieced and hand quilted. Each white square has a design in it, the pieced squares have the quilting in the white parts. The finished quilt is about 80 x 80 inches. The blue print is brighter than it shows in these pictures. The backing is white muslin.



Here is a close up of the quilting design (sorry about the shadow)

Here is the whole quilt!

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

It's DONE!! ::::Doing a happy dance:::::

A couple of more quilts

This is a quilt I made a couple of years ago. First is a close up of some of the fabric.


Here is the complete quilt with a matching pillow. The back of the pilllow has the same large floral as the border of the quilt. The quilt is about 48x36 - a nice size for a throw.

This one I posted about a few days ago -- I purchased the top in pieces and have sewn it together. The finished size is 39 x 48 inches. I did free motion quilting using my Viking Mega Quilter machine.

I pieced the backing with this large floral I had in my stash and some unbleached muslin. The binding is done in a solid dark blue.

My First Quilt Project

This was my first quilt. A wall hanging that is about 18 inches square. I machine pieced the top and then hand quilted. I didn't know anything about hand quilting and did the "stab" method like you do for cross stitch. This was done in 1993.


Bear Paw Quilt - 1993


Close up of Bear Paw Quilt Wall Hanging

Other people's quilts

I have some quilt tops and quilt pieces that I have bought off of ebay. This weekend I've been working on finishing some of these projects. The first one was a completed top that I bought. It is made from fabrics that look like they came from the 1980's and 1990's. I used plain muslin for the back and machine stitched in the ditch around each square. As you can see this is a large quilt. It's about 90 x 90 inches. The fabrics are not all 100% cotton, some are more of a sateen home decorating fabric. There is one print that I think I used myself for some home decorating project in the early 90's :)

a close up of the top

The next project came to me in strips of triangles sewn together. The original maker used the machine to piece it. Some of the fabrics are worn/faded but most look pretty good. Some of the triangles are pieced together. Some strips are long then others. I've sewn together all the strips and now will attempt to square the quilt up to some type of size. Looks like it will end up being a small lap quilt.

I love that brown print with the little leaves. Some interesting fabrics in there. This is a bit of a challenge since the original sewing is not consistent. Not all the points are going to meet but I'm determined to get something made out of it.

Crazy Quilt

More pictures of my crazy quilt. I did this quilt in 1999. I used 12 inch squares of muslin as a base to sew and flip scraps. The scraps are of various types of fabrics from previous sewing projects and quilts. The backing is flannel. Then I machine stitched in the ditched. This is a heavy quilt and gets a lot of use around the house. Since some of the pieces have needed repair over the years, it is always changing slightly as I patch it.