My First Quilt - in Retrospect or What I Have Learned

1. Always check your stitch length before sewing. It seems elementary, doesn't it? Unfortunately, I didn't and some of my seams appear too tight for the amount of loft in the batting. I could and should have tried the stitch length before sewing the actual quilt.

2. I will not prewash my fabric again. In this case, it was a bad idea. I think my fabric was a lower quality and it might have been better not to prewash it. When pressing, I think I might have pulled it off grain but there is no accounting for the print being crooked on the fabric - that issue, I couldn't have done.

3. Wind a few bobbins before you start and keep ahead of the game. I can wind from the needle with my Viking Platinum Plus but it's just as easy to wind on top of the machine because I have a separate bobbin winding mechanism. When you're in your sewing groove though - it's nice to have prewound bobbins.

4. Number your lines when making continuous bias strips. It's easier to match them for sewing the seam.

5. Mark your seam when doing a whole cloth quilt. Even if you can sew a straight seam, when the fabric is rolled up on your machine, all points of reference disappear. Ask me how I know that! :)

6. When putting the sandwich together - do not ignore the suggestions to anchor the layers somehow before pinning it together. My quilt isn't as tight as I think it should be!

My personal preference is to make bias binding the old fashioned way - I tried the continuous and it didn't turn out that way. I thought I was following instructions perfectly - but when I tried to cut it apart, it was far from continuous. Perhaps I had too much on my plate with just getting back into sewing. I'm also convinced parts of the strip was not on the bias as I found out while I was pressing it. Lots of difference in stretch between bias and straight of grain strips.

I thought I could just wing it - doesn't appear to be the case! :)

My First Quilt - The Binding

This is a picture of the quilt pinned and wrinkled after first pressing. Repeat with same result.

I decided I wanted a ruffled edge to this quilt but only after the top was quilted. Well! That's not an easy task! I've thought of sewing a ruffle seamed in the binding but I'm not sure how that would wear. If I do that, should the binding be on the cross grain or bias? The ruffle as well? I would like to think I will do both on the bias but for this quilt, I'm looking for a fast solution.

I read that bindings should be bias for a well used quilt which I suspect this one will be. Something about it wearing longer than cross grain. Okay...

These links are sites I used to try to figure this out:

How to Make Continuous Bias Binding Tape from Modern Quilt Love
Continuous Bias Binding Strips from about.com
Pretty Bird Ruffled Edge Blanket 
Gathering and Ruffles Made Easy
Spice up Your Baby Quilt with Ruffled Bias Binding
Continuous Bias Tape - a good description, tutorial and explanation of bias tape with mathematical formulas.
Bias Tape - How to make it attach it - making bias tape using the traditional method. Also how to make real mitered corners. Next time, I'm using this tutorial!

Edited to add: Is it possible to have strips that are on bias and others that aren't? I followed the link above from about.com because it looked the simplest but now I'm not so sure. The tutorial from Modern Quilt Love has you numbering the lines you drew and in retrospect, I can see how this would be helpful. Once I had my lines drew and tried to match them to sew together, it was confusing because the lines were at right angles. Perhaps I sewed it together wrong, I'm not sure but as with anything, I suppose practice makes perfect!

My First Quilt - Geez! LOL

Well, ya live and learn, that's all I have to say! Next time, I'm going to research fabric, loft and backing before I begin to sew. If I hadn't promised this to my grandaughter, I wouldn't finish it. It sure doesn't speak well for my sewing skills!

I decided to make a whole cloth quilt because I couldn't see cutting up perfectly good fabric only to sew it back together again! No - really, I guess I was too lazy and figured if I did that, she would get it by the time she graduated high school - and she isn't even two! I promised her this in April when she was released from the hospital and I'm sure she's forgotten about it but a promise is a promise!

I still want to sew a puff quilt but I'm just learning my Viking Platinum Plus that I bought a few months ago. I decided better to learn the machine on this than to try to learn cutting and piecing in addition to the machine. Wish I had batteries for my camera but you'll have to excuse me - you probably won't get pictures until it's finished.

Where did I go wrong? I didn't have starch and when I prewashed my fabric, it turned very soft. I've ironed it twice but it didn't help. It still wrinkled while I was trying to safety pin the layers together. After the second time pressing it, I decided there is nothing to do but put it together as is.

I also don't have a walking foot which makes basting the layers together a little difficult. All I can say is it feels very soft against the skin which I'm sure she'll enjoy.

The worst thing? I didn't check my stitch length before I began to sew. It's definitely not a basting stitch! Nor did I mark sewing lines so you can imagine what it looks like. I kinda eye balled it and my goodness! I'm laughing as I write this!

Somehow I'm going to make this pretty! Have any ideas? :)

My First Quilt - Solution to a Problem

Find my other posts on the quilt at My First Quilt - Prewashing and Ironing,  and My First Quilt - The Grain and Wrinkle Fiasco. I promised this to my granddaughter and I'm not going to disappoint her!

Doing my first quilt has turned into quite a learning experience. I bought a nice cotton print that has a fairly large repeat with the intention of cutting large blocks. After prewashing and ironing, I found it was printed off grain. I'm not sure how that would affect quilt blocks but knowing how important grainline is in apparel sewing, I didn't want to try it.

I then thought of doing a whole cloth quilt but that wouldn't solve the problem. If I quilted it at right angles, the print would be off.

While reading Pinterest, I found a pin for bubble quilts - that might be my solution and they are adorable! The print wouldn't show as well but I thought I could center the character's face on some of the squares and alternate them. I love Pinterest but hate when you find a how-to that you have to pay for so I did a little research! I found it is easiest to find tutorials if you search for "puff quilts".

About.com has a good tutorial at Learn how to make puff quilts and it forms a good basis but I'm very inexperienced. I've never cut pieces using the rotary cutter. The tutorial has links to instructions for rotary cutting and I'm sure it will be very helpful.

A few questions came up while I was reading. It doesn't mention how much stuffing to put in each puff but I would think it would be wise to put the same amount in each one. I thought I would cut the batting into squares just as I do the fabric to make sure each puff is equal.

You use two pieces of fabric for each puff but one is 1" smaller. You line up the corners and pleat the larger fabric with the pleats all going in the same direction.

Another issue is deciding what size square to use. I'm not into intricate work at the moment and I thought 5" would be a good size to start with. Sadly, my camera isn't working at the moment but I'll take pictures as soon as possible.

You can either do the puffs traditionally by hand or by machine. Guess which method I chose?

My First Quilt - The Grain and Wrinkle Fiasco!

How discouraging! My perfectly ironed quilt is no longer smooth!

I laid this out on the floor a few days ago to anchor the layers with safety pins and didn't give it a second thought when I folded it and put it on top of the ironing board. My Grandkids were coming and I couldn't leave it on the floor!

I'm not sure that you can see the horrific wrinkles in this image but believe me, they are there! There are so many things that books don't tell you!

Not only do I have the wrinkles to deal with but the fabric was printed off grain. I pulled threads AND tore the edges thinking I could straighten this up. I pulled diagonally on the bias. It was not to be - the LARGE pattern repeat is printed off grain.

So that means there will be no piecing on this. I can't cut the print straight if I want the grainline correct. If I hadn't quit so many projects in the past, I would scrap this. However, I'm determined to finish this quilt for my little granddaughter.

I thought a whole cloth quilt would be the way to go. However, I can't quilt in the traditional fashion because it is off grain and the print of the fabric would make it appear out of square.

Then I was reading the documentation to my new (to me) Husqvarna Platinum Plus. It describes embroidery of single motifs to anchor quilts. VOILLA! An answer! I can embroider single motifs to hold this quilt together without making it appear crooked!

Did I mention that I don't have a walking foot? I think with single motifs it wouldn't be as big of a deal. All the purchases I have made lately and I didn't get the most basic of needs! Geez

Hope you learn from my posts. It's not easy to post failures online. I'm somewhat of a perfectionist but sometimes I settle for "good enough". Especially when I am a beginner and trying to learn - finishing this project now is as important to me as perfection. I promised it and I want to deliver!

Thanks for reading!

Nothing Sew Fast and Easy About My First Quilt!



See the bottom edge? It's not square.

I doubt if there is anything that's going to be fast and easy on this website although I'll probably find short cuts to things I make eventually. Shortcuts for sewing a quilt? I doubt it! Especially for this quilt newby.

Today I've prewashed my other fabrics and they are hanging to dry - a little! I'm going to iron them while damp to help get the wrinkles out. I'm also going to starch as I go, unlike the first batch of fabrics!

Now that it's almost time to cut and sew, I'm thinking of design. One of the fabrics I bought has flecks of gold in it and at the time I thought it was pretty. I have found now that it doesn't have the softness I wanted. I doubt that Dani would carry it around or want to be covered with it if it's stiff. I think I'll use that piece of fabric for the border and use the pink polka dot for the backing.

As the task of cutting and sewing looms before me, I'm thinking of making a while cloth quilt for her with heart appliques. I'm known for my unfinished projects and I don't want to get discouraged with this one.

On second thought, I think I'll use a little fussy cutting and center the snow white motifs on squares and alternate with white polka dot squares. Pink polka dot backing and the pink swirl/gold fleck for the binding. Maybe ruffled, we'll see! After all, how hard can it be to cut and sew 12" squares?