A Quilt for Kindergarten

This September was Loveliness’s first year in Full day Kindergarten!

We were very excited and so proud of her.  She was going to be going off for a whole day on her own. It was going to be a scary adjustment for her I am sure.  All her friends from Senior Kindergarten would be going to Grade 1. She would be taking the bus all day and meeting a new teacher and new friends. I would also have to get used to this too.  I will not have my little chatterbox with me all day.  I will have to be making full lunches.  I was a little scared too, but I was also looking forward to the time I  could spend with Sunshine alone.

 

We learnt that in Full day Kindergarten there would be nap times in the afternoon.  The children didn’t necessarily need to nap, but they needed to relax and just wind down.  For this it was encouraged that the children brought a blanket to lie on.  I decided to make a nice little quilt for Loveliness.  I tried my best to get it ready for her first day,  but unfortunately I was unable to have it completed.  I waited till after the Christmas Holidays to give her her new quilt and she was so happy with it.

I chose my colours that I thought would look nice together. I loved this Pink Corduroy 

 

I chose my fabric and sewed strips of three together.  I cut them out and alternated them so all the dark pink rows lined up.  I took the Pink Corduroy strips and lay them out in between each of the blocks.

 

 

I sewed all the strips of three together then i trimed the rough sides off and sewed it to the pink Corduroy.

 

all sewn together

 

Once everything was all sewn together i made a strip of Corduroy going around the outside of the quilt like a binding.

I then lay it with the wrong side down on the table and I placed a layer of batting on the top of the entire quilt.  I made the mistake of pinning the batting.  So i had to do it all over again. That was what made me take so long in making this quilt.  I put it aside because I was dreading having to take apart all my work.

here is a close up of a simple stitch I made in the batting to keep it from slipping.

 

After making a bunch of stitches in the layer of batting, I lay the bottom piece of material with the nice side facing the batting.  I sewed all around the quilt and left a space to turn the quilt outside in.

I turned in the open seam and quickly stitched it shut with the sewing machine.  I then thought it would be a good idea to do a crazy stitch on the top of the quilt.  My mother in law told me about this technique and I thought I would do it not problem.

 

Problem is when It was going horribly wrong I chose not to stop and just kept doing the whole strip.  I spent the next hour pulling all the stitches out.

a close of of the atrocity I did on the top layer of the quilt. Never again will i try to free hand stitch the top of the quilt

 

I decided to just go with my original plan and do a simple running stitch in a square all along where the corduroy meets the fabric.

And this is the finished product.  Sure it is a little later than I had intended but now Loveliness has a special quilt from Momma.  She has also been asking for it ever since September so I am relieved that it is finished.

 

Catching the Quilting Bug Part 2

I am so proud of myself, I have actually finished a craft.  Normally all the things I make I give away, this time I actually have something to show for all my hard work.

The first part of my project can be found here.

I have taken all the strips and sewn them together.  It was quite easy once I started going.  I then proceeded to make a strip that goes around the outside.  I mitered all the corners of the quilt, and I am quite proud of how that turned out.

all trimmed and pinned in a nice straight line

top of frames quilt

all sewn up and i just need to trim the edges on the top and the bottom

each corner is mitered. I trimmed off the excess fabric from the back - then i trimmed along the top and sides to make a nice neat finished look

After the top layer was complete and all trimmed I placed wrong side down and measured out my backing material against it to get a good size.  I used a fleecy cotton fabric that matched my tie dyed colours on the front.  Since the fabric was not the entire length of the front I had to use two pieces.  I made sure that the seam ran along the middle of the piece that I put on the back.  I pinned it together and sewed around 3 sides and left one side open so I can flip it “pillow” style later.  Looking back in hindsight i think I will leave about a foot of space on the fourth side.  A crease formed when I was trying to sew it and I had a rough time with the fabric.  I eventually creased it and tucked the extra fabric and made it disappear into the seam that ran along the middle of the back piece.  Hard to explain without a picture - sorry

I lay the entire piece down and put my quilt batting on top.  There are a few pieces of batting that were previously cut by my MIL.  I put them down and stitched the seams of the batting together so it would not move.  I hope it lasts?  I whip stitched the batting in place so it would stay as i flip it inside out.

I then proceeded to stitch all around the pattern and along a little + pattern that some of the squares formed.  I think it looks rather nice and it keeps the batting in place.  This is the end results.  My first quilt, and I can’t wait to make another one.  I think for the next one I will work on a super Mario / Luigi quilt.

Catching the Quilting Bug Part 1

This past weekend I invited all the girls over to my house for our first “stitch n bitch”.  I had been wanting to do this for some time now.  I thought it would be a lot of fun to have some friends over and hang out, have a few drinks, a few laughs and work on one of the many projects that I have started and have never completed.  Well, that was exactly how it went down… all except I found myself taking on another project.

I thought it would be fun to use my little girls old baby clothes to make a little quilt.  Of course I have never made a quilt before, but I am never one to back down from a challenge.  Especially a crafting challenge.  The only problem I have seems to be completing these crafts.  I usually get an idea like this and run to the store, buy up all my supplies, work on it for an afternoon or two then it sits in a box or bag somewhere crying out my name every time I go into the basement.  I won’t bore you with the details of the countless crafts I have started, or relive my shame in not having come close to finishing any of these ideas.  Now I am on to something new (yet again)

I have been doing some small little hexagon patches for this baby quilt that I think will look amazing.  I am all geared up to do it on the weekend and I ask my MIL for some advice because she is an amazing quilter.  When I go over to her house she shows me all kinds of extra material I can choose from, all these beautiful patterns that I can make.  She fills my head with ideas and inspiration.  Armed with a jelly roll, some packets of fabric and a giant cutting board I am off on a new quest to make a new project.  It’s a larger quilt made up of little frames.  Looks easy enough, just follow the pattern, cut the material and sew it, right?

The pattern is calling for me to use 1 jelly roll, and a few pack of charms.  I don’t know what these charms things are but I have tons of fabric, and my MIL said I can use the fabric and cut it to the dimensions of the charms they are asking for.  5 1/2 inches squared.  Perfect. So that is just what I do.  Only when I begin to sew the pieces together things are not matching up the way they look on the pattern.  I can’t wrap my head around it. For two days.

I keep at this, because It is something that I am refusing to give up.  Finally I figure out that a “charm” is a 5 inch square and there is a misprint with the pattern I am using.  incredibly frustrating.  I am glad that I did not give up hope though.

I put all my little squares up on a fleece blanket in the basement so I can see what my pattern would look like.

Fleece blanket allowed the squares to stick like magic.

I then began to sew all the frames around the squares.  I scrapped the idea of using the fleece blanket and i just looked at the picture on my phone to see where everything goes.  Two reasons.  I like to do things as I go, and I was done with going up and down the stairs every time I needed a new block to work on.

after I started to get going, sewing these frames around these squares was pretty easy.

Then all I have to do is just sew the squares in a strip, ensuring that I match up the center charm on each and there we will have it.

frames quilt that I started for stitch n bitch

This is where I am at now, once I am done I will post a follow-up.  I am hoping that by posting this blog it will give me some extra accountability for actually finishing this project.  I am sure it will.  I have already talked about my next 3 quilts I plan on making.

♥