Tuesday 10 May 2011

Finished Quilts!

So... I've FINALLY finished my quilt, and what I didn't mention before, I actually made 2 quilts! One for me and one for my very awesome friend Sarah for her birthday :)

Here they are (mine is the one with the pink bias binding):




I made sure to take some photos of the 'work in progress' so I can give a more in-depth explanation of how I made them:

Once I had cut out all 280 8 inch squares I paired them all up and with right sides together I pinned along one side. I then used the sewing machine to sew along the pinned line.
A really good way to save a bit of time is to sew all the squares in a 'continuous strip' (pictured below) - this saves having to stop and start sewing for every single square!




Once I was done it looked a little like strange bunting...
I then cut up the 'strip' into the original pairs. Each pair of squares was then opened out and the seam ironed flat:



The pairs were then joined to make fours and the fours joined to make eights etc until the sides of the quilts were completed.
I cut out wadding to the size needed and pinned one of the patchworked sides onto it:



I then flipped it over and lined up and pinned the other side to the reverse of the wadding.
I then tacked through all three layers in order to keep the sides in the right place while quilting.

I decided to hand quilt the quilts and used quilters tape to mark out where I wanted to sew - it was REALLY helpful and I definitely recommend it if you want to quilt straight lines!



Once I had quilted, the last step was to add on the bias binding. For my quilt I used pre-made bias binding which my mum had left over from making curtains about 15 years ago! This definitely fit in with my idea of using up materials :) The bias binding is pinned and then sewn along one side of the quilt. The excess fabric is then cut away so that when folded over the bias binding sits straight! I then hand-stitched it down...



Once the tacking was removed I had finished!!
I also added on a cross-stitch 'label' to both quilts - here's mine:



I hope you all like them :)

Saturday 7 May 2011

Pan Grabber!

As yet another 'practice quilting thing' I decided to make a couple of pan grabbers....

We use one in our household to open/close the wood burning stove and our old one has completely fallen apart - so I came top the rescue :)

I patchworked and hand quilted them, like I'm doing with my quilt, but mostly they were a good way to practice using bias binding (especially those corners!).

Here are the two sides of one of them:



and an action shot taking chips from the oven (sorry about the quality):

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