First Quilt (proper) part 7

When I wrote my last post, I was undecided on how I was going to quilt it and the colours of the thread I was going to use.  Well, as a sort of 'practical distraction', I went to meet a lady in the village who is part of the Buttercross Needleworkers group and spent time discussing quilting/sewing etc and she gave me a couple of ideas which I hadn't even considered.  So now, fully inspired I wanted to start straight away on my quilt......  Unfortunately being Saturday afternoon, everyone was in the house and I needed space (to lay out my quilt) and quiet (so I could talk to myself in an attempt to believe I could convince myself that what I doing was doing was going to be ok).

Eventually, Sunday afternoon came around, Hubby and the kids were waved off - ice hockey match in Peterborough -  and after cleaning up, setting off the coffee maker (knew I was going to need a few pints!!), washing the kitchen floor and then accumulating everything I would need, I began assembling my quilt.

The first thing I needed to do was iron the backing which I did and also used some spray starch so that it would firm it up enough to hold its shape whilst I set about the pinning marathon!  I then also sprayed the backing - once dry - with Gunold KK 100 temporary adhesive spray and laid the wadding on top of that ensuring that there were no 'bubbles' or creases in it.

That done, the last step was to lay out the denim top and pin like it to within an inch of its life!!!  Half an hour later, I must say that I had had enough!  My knees were cold - from kneeling on the kitchen floor - and my back ached - from being in the same position - and I had lost two nails down to the quick :0(              However, I had half of the quilt pinned and stabilising pins on the other half so that the layers didn't pull away from one another.  I really couldn't do any more pinning but felt that half the quilt could be sewn and that would help me pin the other half but not so rigourously.

Whilst the quilt was laid out I took the opportunity to trim the spare backing/wadding but not too close to the edge of the denim just in case.  I had some spare denim squares which I had decided I was going to use to trial the different and new - thanks to my chat with Chris - ways to quilt my project.  This done, I pinned two squares to the spare (still having a little left and adding this to my 'stash') and placed these on my machine ready.  As this seemed to be a natural break, coffee-time ensued.

Having had a pint cup of coffee, I carefully carried the quilt into my sewing room and set about organising it to accommodate the large (goodness me it was big and heavy!!!) quilt I now needed to sew. All my sewing boxes were placed above head height, laptop moved, other stuff also moved until I had a clear desk and area to the left of my desk. I then trialed the quilting ideas.


Although I quite liked the 'X', I realised that there would be a lot of ends to deal with so, I plumped for method 2 - square.

I then felt that I could possibly 'get away with' only sewing every other one but would check out this when I had two rows done.  Happy that I had made the decision and that the choice of black thread would work on both sides, I took a deep breath, put the Agatha Christie tape in the machine, pressed play and began to sew.

The sound of the machine was interrupted scarily regularly with the sound of pins dropping to the floor and the occasional 'ouch' from me as a pin stuck into my more softer and delicate parts!  (Note to self - must get some proper quilt pins if I am going to do another one).

Lucy (my hand-crank) was coping admirably with the sewing but I was struggling with the turning of the bulk of the thing (this is fast becoming a thing!). However with a few of the squares quilted I was really rather chuffed with the result.

A decision was made there and then, rightly or wrongly, that I would quilt each square rather than every other one.  I know I will live to regret this (and my boobs are feeling sore just thinking of more pins) but I am secretly enjoying this part of the project.  It will though be the first and last quilt I make like this.................

Well, I have managed to take a break from the quilting just long enough for one of my daughters to take a photo of the mess I seem to have created.  Yes, there is a sewing machine in there somewhere but not me!  I have also rethought the pinning and have pinned each centre square only.  Much better!

Updates to come - sooner I think rather than later.... :0)

First Quilt (proper) part 6

Well, thanks to the Sheffield Steel Dogs who had a game yesterday, I was able to check out my quilt 'strips' on the wadding/winceyette and the Ikea lightweight tog quilt to see which of the two 'paddings' I am going to use as my final (final) 'quilt'.

Well the Ikea solution sounded good but in practice the outer fabric, I don't think, will last very long before it's torn.  The fabric seems to be similar to a lightweight interfacing material and, although we won't be playing tug-o-war with it, I don't think it will be long before repairs will need to be made or  (even worse), another quilt for the underside!! lol groan!

Therefore I will be using the wadding/padding I got from my trip to Hobbycraft as I was correct in thinking that the seams would be too 'uncomfortable' without it and I am also going to be brave, bite the bullet and sew all the rows together first then sew all three parts together.  I haven't decided what colour thread to use yet as my denim is mainly blue (doh - obviously) but the backing has a cream background with pictures of black animals all over.  (see photo right)


As there is quite a lot of sewing to do not to mention the quilting part (!!!!), I will pin everything down within an inch of its life and any bits I have to 'trim off' will be used to sample thread colours both top and bottom of the quilt.  That way I will be able to work out what tensions to use them under (if they are different makes) and also check out the finished look before I commit myself 100%.

Initially I thought, to be on  the safe side, I would 'stitch in the ditch' for this one as it is my first and there is so much 'faff' on the top side anyway.  However, I wasn't counting on the number of seams on the reverse of the topside and the many different ways that they lay.  Stitching in the ditch has now now been ditched (! pardon the pun) and I will have to rethink how I am going to quilt it.

As a final decision hasn't been made on the colour of the threads I will use and I know that I will be trimming off some of the winceyette/padding, I can also trial quilt using some of the odd pieces of denim I have left to experiment with the quilting.   I think I may also revert back to using Lucy - my hand-crank - as she really doesn't care what I throw at her, she just sews!  The hand control will be better at a slower speed even though I will only have one hand to guide the whole thing through the machine.  This is the theory - practice may be different and I may stop with the electric one.... will let you know.

Who knew there would be all sorts of decisions to make - thought it would be just sew and go!  Yes, I do know what thought did, thank you!  lol

However, there may not be another post for quite a while now as I can see these last two stages taking a lot of my early mornings up.  Wish me luck................................. :0)