Friday, April 3, 2009

Quilting success!



So I've always considered myself to be an anti-quilter. What's that you say? Yes it's true - most traditional quilt patterns are just so not my style and after a disasterous attempt about 20 years ago, I decided to shelve it. Quilts and I were not to be friends. But I've been sewing for decades and just recently decided to give quilting another thought. I do like the designs I've seen with some of the newer and more modern designers on the block.

Like most sewists I'm amassing a huge collection of scraps which I refuse to part with and as my daughter grows older - aka less interested in wearing my cute designs - I needed a new outlet for the fabulous fabrics I see all the time, not to mention the scraps! So I decided, that in my years, (sheesh I'm starting to sound like a geriatric) I've learned a thing or two about sewing and I certainly realize that I might be a more skilled sewist now than 20 years ago - oh and I have nicer machines than I used to. So empowered with that knowledge and an "I refuse to fail" attitute, I decided to revisit the quilting world.

I made my first quilt top last night. Totally winging it - I like that approach - I just flipped around online until I saw something I liked and went at it. A friend who quilts, had suggested starting small - so I decided to work on a doll quilt. My daughter had just recently requested a blanket for her dolls bed - so this seemed like a marriage made in heaven. Here's the top - awaiting quilting, that's next. Still trying to decide whether I should go with the easy straight stitch quilt, or something more free flowing. Apparently now I also need new tools. BSR or walking foot?? I like the idea of the stitch regulator (BSR) because having tried the free-motion quilting approach with my darning foot, I can tell you this method is not for me - my initial attempts were horrendous - the BSR sounds like the solution to my problem, plus an easier way to do it - and I'm about making things easy. Have to visit a dealer and figure out if this will work on my machine.

Ok onto the next part, not having any special quilting tools on hand, I ended up using my embroidery machine to stipple the star pattern onto the quilt. So a little cheat I suppose. It was thin enough that I was able to hoop it without a problem. I free-handed the wavy pattern along the border using a water-soluble marker. I used a very thin layer of cotton quilt batting - thin enough that I was able to sew on it with my ordinary presser foot and I reduced the tension a bit to account for the increased thickness of the piece. This worked great on a small sized quilt such as this one and no puckering. Finally, I used crazy mom quilt's handy dandy binding tute to finish it off.

Here she is:



Do you think the dolls will be pleased?

12 comments:

SandyQuilts said...

Too sweet. You might be interested in the freebies here
http://maryquilts.com

Anonymous said...

Looks great, Caroline! My mom does a lot of quilting, so my girls dolls all have quilts too! :)

Lila Tueller said...

Caroline,
What a cute little quilt! Now you can take on anything! I LOVE the fabric too, By the way...:)

Thanks for sharing...I will put it in my photostream.

Lila

willow and moo said...

The dolls will LOVE it! :-)

Natalie said...

That is simply gorgeous! I love the Soiree with the white background - totally makes them pop!

Jennifer Paganelli said...

beautiful

Kelley said...

This is so beautiful - I'm teetering on the edge of trying out quilting, too. This may have just tipped me over. I'm sure I can find a few dolls in this house who aren't looking forward to winter...yet!

Thanks for sharing.

liz said...

the quilt is so cute! you might like the denise schmidt quilting book. it's very much like this quilt. i have never quilted (besides the doll quilt top i made for my daughter that's waiting to be finished...). i'm sort of an instant gratification sewer. if it can't be finished w/in a day or two i get bored...

(i found you from the fabric co-op w/ the shirt comment on my blog. thanks for your nice comment btw!)

Gandksmom said...

I love it! You did a great job!
Wendy

Canyon Girl said...

It's beautiful! I love your fabric choices.

Sarah - EllieAnna Purse Co. said...

I absolutely LOVE the colors & pattern of this quilt! Great job!!!

Unknown said...

Very inspirational. I think the dolls are LOVING the quilt...cuz we sure are.