Tuesday 17 July 2012

The story of the seam ripper and the naughty quilt




 Well, this quilt has been a trial and a half for me!

It was actually the first quilt that I started, and began it's life looking like this:

 


I arranged the strips in a sort-of rainbow order - except that I got a few pieces wrong and had to spend time with my lovely seam ripper....

I got that sorted, then realised that the seam allowance was wonky - 1/2" at one end, and 1/4" at the other! Back to that seam ripper again...

Next problem - the ONE block that was in the wrong place! After much deliberation, I decided to leave it as it was - I had fallen out with my seam ripper by now.


  I finally got it all pieced up and was happy with it. Taadah!



But then - we had a coffee disaster :-( when the cleaner accidentally spilt coffee on it! It was extremely quickly (and quite badly!) quilted without waiting for the walking foot which was on order. The binding was thrown on, quicker than I thought I could, and it was thrown in the wash following the advice of lots of lovely ladies. Please take note of the use of the verb "thrown" - it was appropriate!


The washing mostly worked, so here's the finally finished quilt! It finished up at about 36 sq inches - not huge but big enough to snuggle on the sofa. It is going to be loved and used as much as possible - after all, it needs to be after the stress of making it!




Some straight-ish line quilting here! I mainly quilted in one direction, with a few perpendicular lines. I left the squares on each end clear. Please ignore the puckers, there are plenty, but my machine just couldn't handle the layers and I didn't want to wait for the walking foot in case the coffee stain set too much.


Backing with more fabric from the same line, and some Klona White.





Nice mitred corners - I was very pleased with myself! There's no purple in the quilt, so I thought it'd make a nice frame by using purple binding.


Joking aside, I have learnt a LOT about making quilts in the process and hopefully won't repeat any of these mistakes!

7 comments:

  1. You were good to persevere with this quilt, when it was so determined to beat you! No-one else who looks at it will see all the problems, they will just see a lovely, handmade quilt, which it is!

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  2. just love it and dont worry... it will keep you nice and warm xx

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  3. As much as it was a bugger from start to finish - it is a lovely quilt!!

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  4. The quilt is gorgeous! Funny how it gave you trouble and came out looking so good! =D

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  5. Oh it turned out beautifully despite all the trials and tribulations along the way! Now you can just enjoy it!

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  6. The biggest lesson of all: even though things don't go perfectly, it all usually comes out in the wash (literally this time, in your case!) :) Cute quilt!

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  7. My daughter calls my seam ripper 'the pick of shame', not supportive! Your quilt was worth the effort though, it looks great!

    My first quilting project was a STEEP learning curve, but we've made it over the first hurdle now :)

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