Christmas present

I already know what I am getting for Christmas this year, that's because I picked it out and ordered it. Bad, I know. But here are some pictures of it.

My old sewing machine works but the tension is going out on it and gets very frustrating when I am sewing a long piece and it breaks the thread or blouses the material.

And we have a finished quilt

This is going to be a long post so bear with me. You remember I said getting the back on would be a breeze, well here it is. I started it this morning and I am done.

This is the back of the quilt, notice the brown panel that I was talking about earlier. I place it down right side up so that the part I want facing out when the quilt is done faces the ceiling.

I place the top on next and this is upside down unlike the back.

To center the quilt I match up the center seams of the panels, it's kind of cheating but it works.

Next I trim the bottom fabric to match the top fabric, with a little help from the cat.

Next I get out the batting, I am using full size batting not twin or queen

I lay it over the top

Then I trim it and pin all three layers being very careful to match them up exactly and leave room to sew the edges.

Then I sew the edges, double stitched of course, there is no other way for me

Cutting the corners makes it easier once the quilt is turned right side out

Make sure you take out all the pins as you go

and leave an opening, you will need this to turn the quilt out.

Turn the quilt out using the opening you made

This is what it looks like turned out, but it's not done

I always sew the edges, this serves many purposes, first, the opening you left can be closed and no one will ever know it is there, also if there are any other accidental openings you can close these too.

And this is it, finished quilt. TA DA! Took me long enough.

Finishing the back

The sheet that I bought for the back of the quilt was just a tad bit short lengthwise so I am improvising. That's the neat thing about making quilts, you can literally do anything you want with them. I am taking some of the left over brown material and making a stripe panel on the back just at the top. I don't usually mess with the back of the quilt but this will be unique.

I don't know if you can see it from this picture but I have taken out all the seams on the sheet, this makes it a tad bit bigger and gives you a good reference on where to sew.

I will try and post more pictures later on in the day but there is the possibility that I could get called into work so we will just have to play it by ear.

DONE!

The front is anyway and here is a picture of the finished product. The rest will be super easy but I am not tackling it today.

Here's a peek at what I am doing next.

Sick

Turns out that cold I thought I had coming on got the better of me today and I only managed to get the last panel sewn on the quilt. I will try to take more pictures tomorrow. In the meantime want to know what I use for the back of the quilt? Let me show you.

This is much cheaper than buying yards of material and I usually buy it one size bigger than what I am making. This cost me 8.00 at Walmart.

Almost finished

This looks like just a brown stripe but it is the last two panels on one end of the quilt. Once I sew the panels on the other end the rest of it goes fast. I'll be doing some more of that today, check back for pictures.

Progress

Here is the new, updated quilt. I kind of cheated and put two large panels in because I wanted it to be kind of a comforter style quilt. I will finish the front by adding two smaller pannels of that elk/moose material on the bottom and trimming the sides of the existing panels. The finished front will be just a tad longer than standard twin size but that's ok.

More on quilting

I finally managed to get some work done on the quilt today and though I would like to work more on it I have sooo many other things to do. I am posting some pictures to help show you what I was talking about in my earlier post.

This is what the quilt looks like now

This is what I did to get there:

I had already cut two 4x20 rectangles and cut two more then I cut a 4x8 rectangle. On each of them I cut a little bit longer allowing for seams.

Like this:

I did about eight and a half on this one.

Then I sewed the first 4x20 rectangle on bringing it right to the seam where the 4x8 rectangle will go.

Notice where the edge of the material is, that is my reference point although it isn't too easy to see in the picture.

Next I sew a 4x8 rectangle onto the quilt and sew it to the 4x20 rectangle. To do this I fold the quilt so that the two rectangles are face to face and use the seam from the squares below it as a reference point so that it looks like one long continuous seam. I will admit I messed up a little on the first one I did and instead of the seam going straight up it veered to the right a little. I had to rip that seam out and do it over, fortunately it was a small one.

This is an example of putting the rectangles face to face and sewing but it is also an example of backstitching and double stitching. The picture isn't that wonderful but you can see two sewn lines and near the top sort of a third line that isn't that long.

As I said earlier you will want to iron each piece as you put it on

This is before ironing

This is the back of the quilt where I usually start when ironing. Notice that I have all the horizontal and vertical seams running the same way. For me this makes it easier.

Then I iron the front of the quilt. This sets the seams so to speak.

Then I continue putting more rectangles on until the picture looks like the one at the top. Right now the center is done but it is only 47 and one half inches. I need it to be at least 68 inches for a standard twin.

That's it for today I will post more throughout the week.

Let's start at the begining

After I posted yesterday I realized that while what I posted helps but it doesn't cover the very basics.

When I start a quilt I start with a center. It can be anything from a square to a set of squares, any design you want. The center of the quilt I am working on now consists of all the squares surrounded by a rectangular border (which I am almost finished with) It is the largest center I have ever done.

Seams- All seams must be the same size. I don't like huge seams so what I do is to pick a reference point on the foot (the thing that holds the material down) and use that same reference point for all seams. I also backstitch (use the back button or lever) the beginning and end of all seams. Another thing I do is double stitch all seams meaning that I sew them twice. This isn't absolutely necessary but I want these quilts to last.

All sewn seams must align exactly so that it looks like they are one straight line. To do this sometimes I start sewing right at the seam and then I sew the rest and if I don't get it exactly right I rip out the seam and start over (I hate ripping seams).

Sometimes, well most of the time what I do to help with getting the seams right is to piece the quilt together one square at a time instead of sewing several squares together and then sewing them onto the quilt. The piecing method works better for me but not necessarily for everyone.

To give the quilt that straight edged look have an iron handy and iron each square as you sew it. Don't wait until after you sew several of them because it is much harder that way.

Once you have the hang of all this start sewing and see what happens. I don't always know what a finished quilt will look like when I start it and a lot of times I am pleasantly surprised.

Now back to the quilt in progress:

First I measure using the quilting rectangle to find out how many rectangles I need to go across the top and how long they have to be. I discovered that I need two twenty inch rectangles and one four inch for the middle.

I only have an 18 inch rectangle so this is how I do it:

I place the rectangle close to the edges of the fabric I need to cut then cut the bottom and two sides.

Then I move the rectangle two inches up from the end of the top cut. There are lines on the rectangle so this helps. Finish cutting the top sides and the top.

And this is what you will have - a 20 inch rectangle.

That's all for now, sleep is calling. I'll post more later.

Making a quilt

I am first going to include a disclaimer with this in case anyone might see it in the future. DISCLAIMER: I am not an expert or professional quilter in any way shape or form. The methods I will show are the way I have learned to do things and what works best for me, it is by no means the only way to put a quilt together.

That being said let us begin.

This is a quilt I am currently working on and I want to put a rectangle running the length of the top so that it will "finish" the center part of the quilt. As you can see in this picture I have already sewn two rectangles running the length of the sides. I did this using a 4x18 rectangle although I cut the measurement back to 16 inches and used two rectangles with the seam in the middle.

Here is another picture of the bottom.

These are the tools I am using: A cutting mat, 4x18 rectangle, and a rotary cutter. I used an 8 inch square for the squares in the middle.

More progress

Worked on it a little more yesterday and today, I'm liking it so far.

It changed a little bit

I changed it a little bit, this is the center of the quilt and I am adding on to it, I will end up making it twin or queen size, not sure which yet.

In progress

This is the next quilt I am working on, not much to look at right now as it's only four squares big but I know exactly what I am doing with it. I'll post more pictures as it progresses.

Fairly new to quilting

I say this because even though I have made quilts in the past I have never attempted to make any to sell until now. Living in the valley is a little more expensive and I was having quite a time trying to find a job. The one thing I could do however was to make quilts and (hopefully) sell them so I went all out and started on a couple, one of which I recently finished.