Saturday, September 8, 2007

First large quilt.

Ok...I'm bitten. I've got the quilting bug. Four months and I don't want to do anything but piece tops and quilt them. I even enjoy putting the bindings on. From what I've read on everyone else's blog, enjoying bindings is not normal. Perhaps that will pass. Here are my first endevors into this new world.....










This is an Irish Chain quilt. I've done some straight line quilting thru the chain parts and now I have these large white areas with no idea what to do with them regarding the quilting part. I've only been at this for about four months and I'd like to do some machine feathering but I actually like this one so much I'm concerned about screwing it up. I may take a lap quilt top I've done and practice feathering on it before I attempt this big one. The other is a close up of a pinwheel I did. It didn't turn out quite as big as I had hoped. Learning how much you lose when you sew the blocks together was an adventure too!

I've done several and I can see some improvement in my piecing. Time is on my side I suppose. I can only improve from the first couple I made.




This is one I like pretty well. Just big enough to snuggle and hang on the back of the couch. My first one that I'm really happy with and is completed.


Here are a couple more I've done. All small and more or less practice quilts. I have three nephews who won't notice the mistakes. Thank God for small children who only know you did something just for them.
This is a rag quilt I did. Saw the pattern for it....had to give it a try. Not bad and I loved all the poka dots. Dots on the front, dots on the back. This was fun with the easy quilting, but not so much with all the clipping.






This is a scrappy star I think. I've looked at so many patterns I've lost track. I love ticking. I think I could use it in every quilt I make. Might not be such a great idea, but when ya love something...it's so hard no to work it into everything.





Well, I suppose that is all for now. I have some sewing that is calling my name and better get to it. I hope to make new friends and share this experience with those of you who know so much more about this lost art than I do. Thanks for looking and any advise will be appreciated greatly.

3 comments:

Jen said...

I bought my mom a pair of fiskars that are made just for clipping the raggy quilts. I was skeptical but they really do work a lot better and give you less hand fatigue. I like putting on bindings, but I do them by machine because my carpal tunnel flares up if I do it by hand. I just don't like doing it when I've got about 9-10 to do at once. We have a lady right now quilting all of our tops for our project linus group. I seem to be the only one offering to put bindings on even though others should be helping as well. It really irks me when I have to put bindings on a big stack PLUS prepare the bindings...when I know the ones I handed in were already done. =( But other than that, I do like to bind.

BitnByAQuiltingBug said...

I heard about the fiskars a while back, but couldn't find them at Joann's and then forgot about them. Binding is a great thing to me...it signals that I actually finished a project. I've been a crochet-er all my life and could never just work on one project...had to have a dozen going at one time. But eventually all would get done and I enjoyed each one.
So glad to see you stopped by. Nice to finally meet you!
Have a great night!
Regina

Anonymous said...

Great job on all your quilts!! Especially in such a short time! I've been piecing for about a year and want to get a stretch Hinterberg frame now to do my quilting. I've tried quilting on my kenmore and I HATE it. Wasted money on the tools for that. Oh well. Moving on!!
TTFN
Kimber in WV
http://360.yahoo.com/lilchefkimi.com