Quilt #2 Finished

HEP's quilt is all finished! I am very pleased with how it turned out. I was a bit worried this morning when I was quilting the border because it got a little puckered in places, but once I sewed the binding on, it laid quite nicely. I decided to use the zig-zag stitch to sew on the binding and I really like how it looks and it seems so much more secure. Overall I think the quilt turned out great, but I learned my lesson regarding drawing my quilt lines vs not drawing them. I think I will take the time to draw them from now on. It will just give my future quilts a more polished looked. None of the lines are too terribly crooked, but when I laid my two quilts out side by side, the quilting on the first one looks much better because I took the time to draw the lines. Sorry, HEP! Now I have to wait until mid-May to give this to her.

Almost Finished

It was a big weekend of quilting as I hurt by back at work on Friday and couldn't really do anything very active. I spent all of Saturday building the quilt top. I got all the blocks sewn together and the border put on as well. I really liked how it turned out, but I wish I would have made the pink triangles blue. I didn't know so many of the strips would be pink, so it all sort of blends together when you look at the big picture. I think blue triangles would have popped a little bit more. Oh well, it still looks good. Today I did most of the quilting, but first I had to making the backing so I did that. Then I made my quilt sandwich. This was much easier than the last time. I think it was partially due to the fact that I bought better batting and it laid much flatter. To do the quilting, I used pink thread on top and blue on the bottom. I think these were good choices because the pink doesn't show that well on the top (except on some of the dark spots) and the blue blends nicely with the backing. Here is a rundown on all the pictures above:

Figure A) Shows the quilt top all sewn together and quilted. I still need to go around the edge of the pink triangles and the border, but that shouldn't take too long during my next session.

Figure B) A close-up of the quilting. I bordered all the blocks and then made an X through each box. This took most of today. My lines are not all that straight because I did not draw them this time around. It took way too long on my last quilt so I figured I would just eyeball it. They turned out a little crooked, but they make it look homemade!

Figure C) I love the backing of this quilt. You can see some of the quilting lines (blue) in this picture, too, but I mostly just wanted to show the back.

Figure D) These little birds are so funny looking but I love them.

All that is left to do is quilt the border, make the bias tape and sew the bias tape on. I am only working Tuesday and Thursday nights for the rest of the semester so I'll have some time to work on it during the week. Maybe I'll even finish it before the week ends. But then what will I do next weekend?!

Minor Setback

There was a minor setback in my quilting progress today. The day started off a little sluggish to begin with as it took me a good hour to lay the blocks out like I wanted them. I started laying them out randomly on the bed in the sewing room (really the guest bedroom), but I didn't like the way it turned out, so I picked them all up and moved the the living room floor. I put them out much more methodically the second time around and liked it much better. Now content with the design, I started sewing. I sewed the first three rows together and noticed the blocks weren't lining up very well. I thought about it for a minute and realized this is because the blocks are now 8 1/2" x 8 1/4" because they were only sewn together in one direction. This means I need to go through and trim all 50 blocks 1/4" along one of the length edges. Boo! I also need to trim the triangle pieces because I cut them to fit the 8 1/2 inch blocks instead of the 8 1/4 inch blocks. Quilting is tricky business! Once I figured all this out I started to do some seam ripping. I haven't gotten all the blocks apart yet, but I need to eat lunch and head off to work. I guess more progress will have to wait until next weekend (or maybe tomorrow if it rains enough to cancel insect detection work!).

Lotsa Blocks

After a short hike and a quick run to the grocery store this morning, I spent the rest of the day working on the quilt. First I cut all my 8 1/2 " strips -- 200 in all. Once they were all cut I put them together in groups of four and sewed each group together to make the blocks. I managed to get all 50 blocks finished by 7 pm! All the blocks are pictured below. They are pretty :)

I was curious what the quilt might look like, so after I finished my first 25 blocks, I laid them out with the pink 1/2 blocks. I'm liking it so far. I am going to lay them all out tomorrow and get them sewn together. I'm hoping to get the border on as well, but I have to work tomorrow afternoon so we'll see what happens. I'd be very happy to have the quilt top finished tomorrow, that way next weekend I can do the backing and start doing the quilting. That will take some time. More to come tomorrow...

Quilt Planning

I've been thinking about making another quilt but haven't had a really good reason to until recently. My best friend from college, Heather (HEP), is graduating from Iowa Medical School in May, so I thought it would be nice to make her a quilt as a gift. It will be something she can keep forever and whenever she uses it she can remember me and her med school graduation. I've come up with a plan -- it's going to be diagonally tiled 8"x8" blocks made with 4 - 2" strips. I am going to alternate the direction of the strips to give it a sort of weaved look. After I got the design figured out, I searched for the perfect fabric, and I think I found it. It is the collection called "Blush" by Basic Grey for Moda Fabrics. To make my life a little easier, I ordered a jelly roll of this collection. A jelly roll is precut fabric -- 40 - 2 1/2" x 44" strips -- so it will already be the proper width and I'll just have to cut the strips to be 8 1/2" long. Much easier than buying yardage and cutting it up. So the strips will be all variates of the collection. The half squares around the edges and the binding will be the "Sweetie Grunge" fabric (the pink one) and the border and the backing will be the Mike Chocolate Adore fabric. I'm looking forward to getting the fabric so I can get to work on this. HEP is coming to visit in May so I'm hoping to have it done by the time she gets here.