Christmas and Quilts

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas! Well technically its no longer Christmas but its okay. I didn't make as much this year as I had the years before, mostly because I'm lazy and there hasn't been enough time. That and I also don't feel that the effort I put into making things isn't exactly appreciated. Anyhow I did make my first full-size quilt for my bf and his grandma as Christmas presents. I mean, who doesn't love blankets? I case you haven't noticed I DO! I have like a million that I just keep around at home. (which my sister never fails to remind me about) Dunno, there's just comfort in them. Like Linus and his blanket. Anyway.. 

The first quilt is supposed to be a 'quick quilt' in that it should be something easy, quick, and done in a day. I, however, beg to differ. I found the idea here  It was time consuming, and my sewing machine threads for some reason kept getting caught up and tangled. I wonder if it was just because I made it at a larger scale. It did take a day to make.. albeit an entire day but still a day nonetheless :) Anyhow here's how it turned out. 

Not tooo bad. I think the contrasting stitches make my mistakes stand out A LOT though haha. 

A close up. Looking at it again, it looks better with more lines all over it like the tutorial shows. Oh well. Maybe next time.

The quilt I made for my bf came out so much better than I thought, and I was super happy about it :) The fabric is this really cute fabric (Camp Sur by Jay-Cyn Designs for Birch Organic Fabrics) I found from one of my favorite online fabric stores.. and reminded me of the trip we took to Yellowstone. An inspiration for a camping quilt! The pattern is loosely based on this quilt from a blog I frequent. Many firsts with this quilt. I ran out of basting spray.. and it being Christmas eve at 10 at night, I resorted to using my quilting pins for the first time. 

It wasn't too hard using them.. but I also ran out of quilting pins. I guess the blanket was too large. If I had a choice, basting spray wins. Even though it makes my room smell like glue. 

Aaaaand here's the final product! Love love this camping quilt. I would say it's almost a full-size quilt. 

 A close up of my favorite piece.. the tent and SUV and trailer :) 

Things to keep in mind for the next quilt. Don't make anything bigger than full-size. Unless of course I upgrade to a better sewing machine. My old Target Singer can't handle it. Too many lines to quilt and it kept jamming on me :( 

Also, I previously read tips on how you need to keep the back of the quilt and the batting larger than the quilt top itself. Which I didn't ever do with my baby quilts and didn't understand why it was necessary. Until now. The quilt top was so big that I guess I didn't realize I lined it up wrong and ended up with about two inches of the bottom part hanging off the edge. And I couldn't just cut that part off.. it was part of the design of the quilt! So what I did was take a two inch fabric remnant of the same color and added it to the backing. It worked fine but it was still annoying taking extra time that I didn't have. Surprisingly, the quilt didn't take too long. A day of cutting and sewing and second day of quilting and binding. I'm sure though, if I ever get around to making that chevron quilt it'll take a big longer :)

Pin It