Projects/Pics



Monday June 11, 2012
 
Friday I finished a quilt I'd wanted to try, primarily due to the fact
that I have only bits n' pieces of some pretty fabrics I can no longer
get my hands on.
I saw a video tutorial for an x's and o's quilt over at quiltingtutorials.com

Last week - I decided to throw myself into it full tilt.
Adding the stripes around the border was my way of breaking it up
a bit and extending the size at the same time.

Here it is, step by step along with links to a few great tutorials,
one for the x's and o's technique, another shows how to mitre your
quilt top's corners and finally, a great step by step
easy to understand and follow "how to" for applying binding.

Also, I have added how I personally close my binding.
(Not saying it's the right way, but for now it is my way.)

First I gathered up all the prints I knew I wanted to use and thought
would go nicely together as a baby quilt, then cut them into 5" charm
squares. Did the same with some batist but cut them in half each way
to get four 2.5" squares from each white 5" square. 


 Next I sewed the two white corners opposite each other onto the
5" colored square as outlined in the tutorial mentioned above.
Cut off my excess, ironed each square and placed them on the mat
in the pattern I was satisfied with for stitching.



Then I cut some 5" long strips in white batist 3" wide and colored
fabrics 2" wide. stitched them together.




Before adding the strippy border, I wanted a touch of white to break
up the areas between the center pattern and border pattern so I added a 2" strip of batist
as an inside border for the center patterned area.

Also,
 a 5" x 8" white piece was stitched to each end of all the side strips so there
would be enough to overlap all 4 corners.
(when you go see the tutorial on how to mitre corners you'll see why)


I mitred the corners and ironed the whole quilt top smooth.


(mitred corner :)

Now what to do with the backside?
I knew I didn't want an all white backside to this quilt,
there had to be at least a bit of color here and there.

Since I had some leftover pieces that had been stitched to form X's and O's,
I settled on one large x for a kiss and one large o for a hug and
used the other leftover pieces for a center zigzag.

That little piece of white paper lying on the fabric for the backside
is a mathmatical mess but it worked.
I had to figure out what size the white filler and border pieces
needed to be. (math does come in handy after school)


(on a freshly mopped floor mind you)
I layed out some white tissue paper overlapped and taped to stay secure
and then laid the backside of the quilt face down on the paper,
sprayed it
(windows open, breezy day)
with my water soluble 505 spray.
Layed the batting over the backside, smoothed it down, sprayed it
and set the topside down over that and smoothed it down.

Boy, nothing holds a quilt sandwich together better than the 505!
Now, I cannot believe that I did it  -
but I forgot to lower the feed dogs.
Broke 3 needles before figuring it out and those were three good needles.
 


I had to switch to all purpose needles and broke 5 more before the quilting was finished...
 




For the binding, I alternated strips in matching prints
and once I had a piece long enough, folded the starting end in by about a 1/4".


Held the very end down with a hair clip to the backside of the quilt
and started sewing from the first pin, all the way around the quilt until finishing.
(following the technique for the corner that you'll
see in the video I will be listing below for the binding)...

When I'd stitched the binding nearly to the starting point,
I still had about 8 to 10 inches of binding remaining so I cut it down
to fit when tucked inside the folded beginning point of the binding.


Tucked the end inside the beginning portion, pinned and stitched.




Moving from one edge to the next, folded the edges and corners
over to the topside (I use an iron as well to help tame the binding)
and pinned.
Stitched all the way around once again and the quilt was - finally - complete.

Washed it, dried it and took many pictures of it.
I sold it on Etsy to someone who wanted to use it in a gift basket giveaway
for a fundraiser.

Would I have been able to have the confidence if not for the assistance of tutorials
provided by generous and talented crafty quilters?
I can say in all probablility - not.
See further below for the links to the fine tutorials inspiring the making of this quilt and
have an absolute blast going all in elbows deep on making your quilt.
This, as I said before, is only my second quilt I ever created that was not a
rag quilt - and if I can do it?  So can you!


 


Credits and Tutorial Links:

 
Quilting Blocks with charm packs: X's and O's



How to mitre your quilt top corners:




Binding video tutorial  from the CraftyGemini (awesome)













Today I decided to repurpose a couple of items
I bought as a set from a thrift store
that benefits the local battered women's shelter.


The shelf was $6.00 and the box (complete with chipped corner) was $1.00 -
I've had them sitting around, waiting for me to finish procrastinating
and come up with an idea or two.
To be honest, the shelf still ended up being a shelf
so I didn't really repurpose that piece.
I changed it a bit, to match the curtains in my kitchen.
Turns out, the pegs on the front and the whole back panel inlay were easy to remove.





I painted over the original graphics with simple white acrylic paint - two layers and
blow-dried. (I have patience of a Summer storm in the afternoon)
Then I cut my fabric,
backed it with an iron on backing and sprayed the heck out of it
with my 505 spray.  (love that stuff)

Layed the panel on it, smoothed it all out and peirced some openings on top of each peg hole.


Nestled the newly dressed panel back into it's spot
and fastened all the lil' doo-hickey thingies on the back   (what?   what'd I say??)


Replaced the pegs and ... ta-da!, a pretty shelf for my kitchen's back wall.















The box didn't really look like something I wanted in the kitchen
so I figured I'd just make it into a sewing box with a pin cushion on top.



After chipping the rest of the plaster inlaid piece off the box's top,

 

I cut out a piece of paperboard about 1/2" smaller lengthwise and wide...


Then I just cut out about 5 or 6 pieces of batting in various sizes smaller
than the piece of paperboard, sandwiched them all together with 505 spray

then, I cut a piece larger than the paperboard with notched corners,
placed my sandwiched batting between the paper piece and the notched outer batting



and hot glued the overlapping edges to the underside of the paperboard.


I did the same notched corners on a bright piece of Mary Engelbreit fabric
and hot glued the whole piece to the spot where the plaster tile once was.


The sides looked a little plain so I went around them with another
Mary Engelbreit contrasting print fabric.... 


Not too ugly I suppose.



6 comments:

  1. too cute! what a creative mind you have, love the pin cushion
    and the quilt........ Isn't Jenny amazing?

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  2. Sooo cute!!! Can't believe this is your 2nd quilt, you did a fabulous job! And your quilting looks fab as well! Bravo! I have a question - what is white batist?? Like a muslin? Your color palette is adorable! So glad I found your site over on Missouri Star's site, you've encouraged me to do this quilt for my niece! Thanks!

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  3. OMG it is so much fun you have to do it, you'll be so happy you did.
    I took bits from remnants I'd saved and the white batiste helped to stretch my supplies of colored fabrics :) Batiste is a cotton fabric, usually the lighter weights that are used for nightgowns and such. Hancocks has it as does HobbyLobby and online stores. (I like my hobby lobby 40% off printable coupons though so I go there) It took a day for me to cut and sew all the square pieces together with the white corners and the next morning I figured out what I'd have to do to make the border and the back and then I found the site for mitering the corners - check out the links as well because they lay out easy detailed instructions for your binding and also for the mitered corners (even though with the meandering you can go with the unmitered) Do try it and please send a link to your finished item, LOVE to see it! very exciting this new quilting itch!

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  4. jeri, thanks very much I love my little pin cushion, much easier to deal with than a satin heart! Yes, I am so thankful for the helpful crafty folks who assist with our learning.

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  5. gorgeous... you've convinced me to try this.. it will be my second quilt. I hope it looks as great as yours.

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  6. Thanks very much and I'd love to see it when you finish! I want to make another one soon too =)

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