Nearly finished

A quiet evening & I managed to get plenty done on the wall hanging. I must admit that I am very pleased with how well this project is working out and I can tell that my sewing and cutting skills are improving.

I cut the border strips first of all but I also had to trim the background fabric down as when I started this project I had cut it larger than the pattern required (on purpose). Once the border strips were cut I then sewed the first one to the bottom of the background fabric, sewed the patchwork panel to the bottom of the first border and then attached the top and bottom borders. Thankfully as I had been accurate with my rotary cutter I achieved all of this without a hitch for once!

The next task was to cut and attach the side borders. I checked the length of the wall hanging to make sure that the size required by the pattern would fit (I found that the side strips would extend out further than the length of the wall hanging but this was no problem as I could trim them down once they were attached.

Once the side borders were attached I had to layer up the wall hanging with the wadding and backing fabric. I had some polyester wadding and some cotton wadding left over from previous projects. Unfortunately the cotton wadding was not wide enough to fit the wall hanging so I had to use the polyester wadding (having worked with both types I definitely prefer the cotton as it is much nicer to sew through although it is thinner). I laid the wadding out & placed the front of the wall hanging on top & then cut the wadding to size, leaving a nice wide margin of wadding extending out from underneath the wall hanging top. I repeated this process for the backing fabric.

Now it was time to baste! Even though this was a small project I still found it a bit tricky trying to ensure that all the fabric layers were pinned together nice and smoothy and pucker free. I wish I had some 505 spray to help the layers stick together as I was pinning them. After a bit of fiddling about I did manage to get the wall hanging basted.

Before I started quilting I changed the needle on the sewing machine....I had noticed that the previous needle was starting to make a slight popping noise as it was going through the fabric when I was sewing the borders. I hadn't changed the needle since buying the machine and I guess that the quilting I had done on the previous project had blunted the needle slightly. I also changed the presser foot on the machine for the walking foot.

My last job of the evening was quilting the wall hanging. I chose to use navy blue thread for this as the borders are blue on the wall hanging and I think it looks nice.

The last job is to add the binding. I am saving this task for tomorrow. I have not yet decided how I am going to do this. The pattern suggests that you do each side separately but I might do it as continuos strip binding to practice what I learnt on my first big quilt....anyway we shall see what tomorrow brings....nighty night xxx

My first large scale quilt is complete at last!

Today is a special day - I have completed my first large scale quilt (well its half a king size but my biggest quilt so far!).

For this project I had decided that I wanted to make a small quilt for my lounge, featuring mainly green fabrics.

I chose an easy and simple design from my favourite quilting book, Material Obsessions, which my sister gave to me for my birthday. I then chose the fabrics I liked when I visited The Wandering Line, in Purley. A fab shop dedicated to quilting.

Making the top layer of the quilt was a quick and easy job. I simply trimmed down the fat quarters into 18 1/2 inch blocks. I then cut the sashing strips into 3 1/2 inch strips (some needed sewing together to reach the desired length). All of the top layer was pieced together using the old Singer 533 machine given to me by my Grandmother (in law).

All the fabric and threads I had used so far were 100% cotton so I decided to used 100% cotton batting for the middle layer of this quilt (I made sense as I wanted it all to be made from natural fibres). The batting was purchased from Thread Bear, Hamsey Green, another local shop.

The fabric which I had chosen for the backing layer was not long or wide enough to cover the back of the quilt in one piece so I had to piece together two sections. This I did with the help of my sister. Together we taped the whole piece of backing fabric to her kitchen floor so that it would not move and then used 505 adhesive spray over the wrong side of the fabric, laid the batting on top and smoothed it all out. Then we used the 505 spray again and laid the quilt top on top of the quilt sandwich, smoothing the fabric out and pinned all the layers together for safety.

My sister & I both agree that using the 505 spray greatly reduced the risk of the layers of fabric slipping against each other and puckering when you come to quilting.

The purchase of my new Janome machine occurred in the middle of the process of making this quilt. I played with my machine for a while prior to getting ready to quilt my quilt and even trimmed off some of the excess backing fabric and batting from the quilt to practice on with the walking foot attachment which came with my machine.

The walking foot for the Janome made quilting the layers together easy as pie. The walking foot grips the top layer of fabric and feeds it through as well as gripping the bottom layer of fabric and feeding it through the machine. This again reduces the risk of puckers and slippage.

The last job to do was to join together the binding strips, stitch them to the front of the quilt and then blind stitch them to the back. I had not done any binding using the continuous binding strip method, so I enlisted the help of my sister. I stitched the binding strip to the front of the quilt using my machine and walking foot and then spent the last couple of days bind stitching the back.....completing my task tonight!

I am very pleased with the result. It is by no means a perfect quilt but it has given me the confidence to try some other projects.

I am already looking forward to my next project and am dreaming of future projects too...I can't help myself, I am so excited about where this new craft and machine can take me. Tomorrow I aim to start on a simple wall hanging for the hallway, then I plan on a simple purse with a zip so I can learn how to fit a zip, then next might come some embroidered napkins (I plan on making a set for Grandma for her birthday and if she likes them, maybe even a table runner for Xmas!) Eventually I would like to have a go at making some Amy Butler clothes that I like the patterns for :-)

Anyway enough for tonight...speak soon xxx