Quilting and Sewing Archives - Page 142 of 158

Holiday Season Dilemma

November 30, 2010 jennifer Quilting and Sewing

I’m guessing I’m a lot like you, with a list full of things that need doing, made longer by the advent of the Christmas season. It’s an exciting time and I like most of the things on that list. I want to get to them as soon as possible to allow our family to enjoy the season as much as possible, for as long as we can.

But what do you do when, in addition to these more “urgent” things, you have something like this calling to you?

The collection is “Summertime” by Barbara Jones. I’m loving the combination of colors and the strong patterns in these prints. I’m anxious to reintroduce myself to my sewing machine.

And so they’ll sit while other things get done.

What do you do in cases like this?
HH

One comment fabric

Punctuation Baby Quilt

October 6, 2010 jennifer Quilting and Sewing

It’s late but it’s done! I think it’s also really cute.

This half square triangle quilt was made using the Punctuation collection by American Jane for Moda. I really like the happy colors in this line, and think that it lends itself well to a baby boy quilt. Paired with a beautiful blue solid, I made this quilt with one charm pack. The quilt measures approximately 42 inches wide by 46 inches long.

I used straight line quilting on this, carrying the horizontal and vertical lines across the green border to the edges of the quilt. I then quilted on the diagonal, going opposite the line of the half square triangle squares, but kept the diagonal quilting in the center of the quilt only. I’m very pleased with how the quilting went. I feel that I’m getting better at it, but I’m also aware that this is a very small quilt.

If there was one thing about the quilt that I struggled with, it’s the fact that the charm pack came with so many squares of the pinstripe fabric, two of each color. I didn’t realize when I bought it how little it had of the more graphic designs. In spite of this, however, I think that the quilt came together nicely and, on the whole, is colorful and interesting to look at even with an overabundance of that particular print.

For the back I used the alphabet print in red, which I like a lot. It seemed fitting for a little boy born at the beginning of the school year, the sixth child in his (quite amazing) family.

And for the binding I went with the same blue solid. I like the way it works with the blue quilting lines that go through the green border and meet the binding. I feel like it pulls the whole quilt together. The binding was machine stitched. I’m getting faster at it, and think that I may have found a way to sew it on that I like. I need to bind one more quilt to see if I’m right.

And lastly, my favorite part of the whole quilt:

That’s his footprint! When he was a couple of days old I had his grandma trace his foot so I could make this little tag . I simply embroidered it and then stitched it to the corner of the quilt back. I really like it.

Because of the tag I decided to simply wrap it with a ribbon. Now it’s wrapped around an adorable little boy, and I hope they love it.

Hopeful Homemaker

2 comments fabric, quilting

Personalized Tags for Baby Quilts

October 5, 2010 jennifer Quilting and Sewing

Years ago I began embroidering my child’s name in the corner of the baby quilt I made for them. Last year it occurred to me that I could add a hand or foot print to the tag.

I traced her hand on a piece of paper, transferred it to the fabric and wrote the name and birth date nearby. An hour or so of embroidery and it was done. On this quilt, I ironed the edges under, then stitched twice around using my machine. This meant that I was sewing through all layers of the quilt, making a rectangle of quilting lines on the back.

Because it’s a rag quilt and has a scrappy feel to it, I felt that the additional quilting lines wouldn’t detract from the overall look or feel of the quilt, and I also felt that the tag fit well on the front of the quilt for the same reasons. It’s a wonderful reminder of how small she was, and I love to watch her touch the embroidered lines.

I recently finished another baby quilt, a gift for a friend. I decided to put a tag on it as well.

This tag was placed on the back of the quilt, as I felt it would look awkward on the front. Because I didn’t want inconsistent quilting lines showing on the front of the quilt, I stitched this tag on by hand, being careful to stitch only through the backing and the batting without piercing the quilt top.

To get the tiny footprint, I called my friend’s mother while she was staying with them to help. She traced the footprint when he was just a few days old, and her teenaged son smuggled it to my car when I stopped by for a soccer carpool. Thus, the little tag was a complete surprise to my friend.

While it takes a bit of extra effort, I thought I’d share the idea. It adds an extra touch of sweetness and thoughtfulness to a handmade gift. After all, they’re only little once!

Hopeful Homemaker