Sewing – Page 2

Another quilt done, and given away

August 23, 2009February 26, 2010 Mirthful Leave a comment

The scrappy hedgerow quilt is done and gone.

First, of course, it has to be bound. By hand. I guess I could do it with machine stitching, but, no.

Here it is in all its glory. And I forgot to snap a picture of the back… Oh, well.

As you can see, I did pretty simple quilting on this one – well, I had to do it myself, for one thing. Just straight lines, one wide masking tape width apart, except in the corner, where I did an A, as the recipient’s name starts with an A (I used masking tape to mark out the A, too, and just sewed around it).

The essence of whip-up

August 8, 2009August 8, 2009 Mirthful Leave a comment

So. We were at my parents’ house, guests were coming and it was simply way too hot for the jeans she was wearing when we left home that morning. I guess a two-year-old would have gotten away with running around in her diaper, but it did look kind of silly. But my mother, though she sews very little nowadays, can be counted upon to produce remnants when requested, and so was born the ultimate whip-up skirt.

You take:
– 1 piece of material, approximately 30cm x 75 cm
– 1 piece of elastic
– 1 sewing machine stuck in the backwards mode

And you sew. One seam up (backwards) the side. One seam around (backwards) to make a casing. Luckily the remnant had a selvedge, so I didn’t need to hem it.

It took, literally, ten minutes. And it looked d***d good, if I do say so myself. The only thing I’d have wanted to change (apart from the direction of the sewing) is the width. I think another 30 or so cm of material would not have been amiss, but I was winging it, after all.

More WIP

August 5, 2009August 5, 2009 Mirthful Leave a comment

This fabric makes me happy:

So does this:

And these:

Not to mention these:

And this?

This puts a big silly grin on my face. Don’t know why. In fact, I’m considering whether it would be an idea to make a dress out of that last one.

For now, though, I’m combining it with the rest of them, as well as this lovely thing:

And these two:

Inspired by the scrappy hedgerow blocks from Oh, Fransson!

Note to self: Don’t start a scrappy quilt with all new fabric. It defeats the point, sort of. I didn’t have scraps to start with, but boy do I have scraps now.

So you can imagine how happy this makes me:

Which will be a present for a very special little lady who’s getting Christened in a couple of weeks. It should give little eyes something to investigate.

I’m in a quandry as to size, though. It’s already too big for a “baby quilt”, and that’s intentional, as I want it to be useful for a few years. But it’s definitely a quilt for a child, with the fabrics I’ve chosen, so it certainly needs to be useable nowrather than in ten years time. So how big is TOO big for a baby/toddler? My blocks are slightly larger than the tutorial suggests, they’ll be 13.5″ when sewn, and I have 12 of them. Even without sashing it will be 40.5×54 if I use all the blocks, and I’m thinking it will look better with sashing. Also, I need to quilt this one myself, and although I was thinking masking tape and straight lines, I still need to get the middle under my needle. How much fabric can I bunch up under the sewing machine arm before it becomes unworkable, I wonder?

Well, I’ll have to decide soon, I should get most of the work done this weekend if I want to finish in time…

More pictures

July 25, 2009July 25, 2009 Mirthful 1 Comment

I finally got around to taking some pictures of the finished quilt – on the morning of the wedding… Here it is, bound and washed and lovely and crinkly.

It’s all done:

Binding:

Detail:

Front:

Back:

If you click through to a larger size of the front you should be able to see that four of the squares spell the names of the bride and groom and the wedding date in place of the “love”. Clever, eh? Even if I do say so myself. Considering this is only my second finished quilt, and my first on a large scale, I’m really thrilled at how it worked out.

I made it!

July 2, 2009July 2, 2009 Mirthful 1 Comment

I finished the quilt top and back Monday night, got it off express post haste Tuesday morning and now it’s on its way back to me. Merete Ellingsen of MA Quilterne – my new hero – did her part in the shortest possible time. Maude and Posten willing it will be back with me tomorrow, and then there’s only the binding left, and a week to do it in, which should be ample, even if I have decided to hand sew it (I did briefly consider machine sewing the binding, but it does look rather a lot nicer with invisible stitches, so since I have the time to hand sew I will).

I’m still somewhat disabled internet-connection-wise, so this picture is courtesy of Merete, a couple of detailed images (to let you see the beautiful quilting) are available in her Flickr album (btw, Merete also has a blog).

Work in progress

June 25, 2009July 2, 2009 Mirthful 2 Comments

I’m working with these:

Inspired by this.

And the results so far are promising.

Not quite the way I pictured it, but it’s working, and that’s a good thing because I don’t have time to change my mind. I need to finish the top and back – of a king size bedspread, no less – by Sunday, get it off to someone with a long-arm quilting machine by express post on Monday and hope I get it back in time to bind it before a momentous event on the 11th.

Leaving things to the last minute? Me? Never!

Edit: Well, I didn’t quite make it. The main part of the top is finished, but needs a border and the back needs a couple of more seams before it’s done. Going to be busy tonight… Hopefully I’ll still get it back in time to bind it.

New from old

May 6, 2009May 6, 2009 Mirthful Leave a comment

Spring has sprung and the lass needs some lightweight hats. I dug through the pile of “want to use this for something” and found one of my favourite t-shirts ever. I absolutely adore this material. However, the top has always been too short for me, and repeated spin cycles have not helped.

So. I cut off the bottom part to make a simple hat, here is the rest of the tee (I forgot the “before” picture):

I made a tube out of several rectangles, folded it double and closed the end where the cut sides were with a seam – making a “peak” or ear-shape at each end. Voilla, new floppy-silly hat:

Dressing up

March 25, 2009March 28, 2009 Mirthful Leave a comment

Despite being way too busy, I did find time for some quick sewing this weekend. The lass has decided one really needs a “dress” (skirt or dress will both do) for dancing, and so I thought I’d increase our store of everyday finery. I copied the dress-pattern from Børnetøy du selv kan sy some time last year, and now was finally the time to try it out. The outer fabric is a piece of an old duvet cover that I got in a swap, it was juuust big enough, and it’s lined with new – but fairtrade – pale blue cotton. The buttons are thrifted, the bias tape from a stash I purchased on sale.

The skirt is made from four matching fat quarters I purchased this autumn intending them for a skirt. The pattern I made up as I went.