Wholecloth Quilt

I could not sleep the other night and got up to change my pillow case for a fresh dry one. While I was rooting around in the linen closet, I came across a piece of barkcloth home decorator fabric that was stashed in there. It was a large sample piece that came from a local outlet. It was in the linen closet because I had thought it might make be a good pillowcase one day.

Needless to say, the moment I saw it again, I thought that it would make a lovely quilt. I used blue fabric from a vintage sheet to border the center panel. Additional fabric in beige tones was used for the backing and binding. I used a denim blue thread for stipple quilting the borders. The center panel was also stippled, using thread of a greenish blue shade.

When I showed this to my sister yesterday, she took it from my hands, examined it carefully and said, "Thank you!" I guess that means she likes it! She did have to give it back to me so I could wash/dry it. She will get it back soon.

Doll Quilt Swap

I have signed up for a doll quilt swap on Flickr. Go here if you want to see some of the beautiful small quilts that people have made and swapped in the past.

No, I don't play with dolls, nor do I have a girl child to supply with doll quilts. Neither do most of the people who do these quilts. Doll quilts are small, can be finished much more easily and quickly than bed sized quilts and offer their makers chances to try out new techniques on a small scale. They also look great as wall art!

I have made a couple of practice quilts to get ready for the swap. Here they are.

The first is the leftover block from the pieces of eight quilt. Since taking this photo I have completed this block with a binding that is the same as the backing fabric.

The last two photos show a disappearing 9 patch quilt. It is about 23 inches square. These three different fabrics are all blocks cut from vintage sheets. I got these on Etsy from a lady that sells an assortment of fatquarters, 6 inch and 12 inch pre-cut blocks from vintage sheets. I got some wonderful squares, ready to sew with.

I quilted the three layer sandwich with red, white and blue thread in wonky diagonal lines. The center photo shows what it looked like after quilting, but before trimming and binding. I have to say that one of the attractions of doing the doll quilts is that they are easy to maneuver under the machine when you are quilting.

Pieces of Eight

I am calling this quilt "Pieces of Eight." It is a Chinese Coin Quilt with the "coins" grouped in eights. Then I added 5 inch borders all the way around. The name is inspired by my current infatuation with Pirates (I mean the pirates of old--not nasty machine gun toting pirates of today.)

I used the quilt as you go method for this quilt to see if I could do a better job with the machine quilting with less bulk under the harp of the sewing machine. Using a high contrast pink thread for the quilting allowed me to see how my stippling design was turning out. I experimented with different types of swirls and whorls. The eight pieces in the center of each block were done separately to help them stand out in the design.

So, usually the quilt as you go method calls for you to sew the quilted blocks together with the seam revealed to the backing. Then the seams on the back are trimmed and covered to hide them. However, I chose to have the seams revealed to the front because I like the smooth feel of a backing with no extra bumps or seams. I will have my work cut out for me to conceal the seams from the front without botching the design of the quilt. Right now I am trying to decide if I should use more of the white on white fabric that surrounds each group of eight coins or if I should use some hot pink for both the center seams and the binding. I am leaning toward the hot pink.

The backing for this quilt is a vintage sheet from a thrift store. I chose it both for its incredible softness and also for its busy design. Busy designs are more forgiving when being cut up and pieced back together.

Here's the math: I used a Tula Pink Nest Jelly Roll and cut 2 five inch pieces off each of the 40 strips. That made 80 2.5 x 5 inch rectangles. When I pieced 8 of them together that made 10 blocks. As you can see from the pictures, this lap sized quilt only uses 9 completed blocks.

What happened to the tenth block, you ask? It will be finished by itself and probably sent off to a swap partner in a small quilt swap on SwapBot.

More on this project when it is finished!

Knitting Project Bag

These fruity ladies grace my newest sewing project completed today. I quilted a panel of the fabric with some batting and a neutral backing fabric to give the completed bag more stability. The bag has a flat bottom detail and straps that match the inner lining. It is just the right size to carry around knitting WIPS (works in progress.)

Pictured next to the new bag are two new leashes. I whipped them up today as well. They are made from the hemmed tops of 2 different flat sheets. I used other parts of the sheets for quilting projects and had not discarded the nicely pressed top hems. I folded them to a suitably narrow width, pinned and top stitched them to make a nice smooth leash. Using hardware from leashes at the dollar store, I fashioned the handle and clip. I was careful to do a good deal of backstitching for reinforcement. The last thing we would want is leash failure when it is attached to one of the furry children. I have hardware for making another one, maybe later tonight!