As I was sorting through photos and thinking about what to write next, I found my mind wandering to the time when all of this began. I have so many friends who can't sew a stitch, and who seem to think my ability to turn a ball of yarn into a hat or a pile of fabric into a dress is some sort of magic. Like anything else, though, my modest sewing and knitting abilities come from study and practice, practice, practice!
I still remember my first sewing lessons, which took place at a neighbors house. She offered to teach all of the young girls in our neighborhood to sew, if we could provide our own sewing machine and a simple dress pattern. My mother obliged, and my first project was a denim sundress that I wore it with pride until it just wouldn't fit anymore. The rest is history!
The one thing I haven't accomplished yet, however, is to make a quilt. That all changed this year! Between asking for help from the women in my church (almost all of whom quilt, I found!) and researching patterns and tips online, and I successfully completed my first quilt. It was made for my fiance's step-sister, who just had her first son. He is a sweet, happy baby and I was more than happy to gift this to him!
The pattern is the Zig Zag Quilt from the Purl Bee. I made a few modifications, such as dropping the broad sashes between the zigzags. This quilt took fifteen fat quarters, five colours and three patterns of each (and there are enough 4 7/8" squares left over for two more quilts of this size). The finished quilt is tiny, but it should be just right to tuck into a diaper bag and throw over a car seat.
To be sure I would like it before I got all the way through piecing the front, I made this doodle. Hurrah for crayola crayons!
It also helped me know how many patches to make, and which colours had to pair with which. I wound up needing only sixteen blocks of each pairing (red/orange, orange/yellow, yellow/green and green/blue) which results in cutting the following 4 7/8" squares: eight red, sixteen orange, sixteen yellow, sixteen green and eight blue.
I had also planned to put a patch of each colour across the back. In the end, I dropped that idea for a clean white back that would show off the quilting I had planned:
Instead of quilting in the ditch, I echo quilted 1/4" inside of each zigzag seam, using thread the colour of the fabric. On the back of the quilt, this resulted in coloured zigzags that popped off of the white Kona cotton. I wish I had a photo that displayed it better, but this will have to do:
All in all, I'm glad I started with this project. It was simple and small, but received a number of compliments. If you haven't tried quilting yet, or if you're an experienced quilter looking for something fun that lets you play with colour and pattern, I definitely recommend this quilt!
No comments:
Post a Comment