The Sewing Mom

I did it! I finished the baby quilt! I am so thrilled and I had to put to use some new skills to complete this quilt all by myself, but I did it and am very proud of myself!

There are a few things I did for the very first time in making this quilt. After piecing the top together, I had to figure out how to quilt it. I’ve quilted smaller projects, but nothing of this size.

I began by machine stitching in the ditch around all the small squares and then outlined the larger center squares. I did some free motion machine quilting around the characters and words. When it came to the borders though, I felt they needed something more than straight lines. So, while at the fabric store, I found a heart template and decided to go for it. I marked the borders with a water soluble marker and then began stitching.

I completed the bottom border first, but not without doing some major damage to my hand. I do not have a quilting machine, and trying to get all that fabric and batting through the machine everytime I had to turn the quilt to go another direction left my hands bleeding from catching on all the pins that were holding the quilt layers together.

After discussing it with my sister Grace, and then my mom, I pulled out my sewing machine manual and finally figured out a way to drop the feed dogs on the machine and, using my embroidery foot (I don’t have a quilting foot), I was able to glide the layers through, changing direction without having to turn the fabric. It was amazing! I can’t believe I did it!

Finally, after quilting the remaining borders, I seamed my binding together and machine stitched it to the front of the quilt. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I despise hand stitching. So, needless to say, I procrastinated for several days before working up the courage to sit down with needle and thread and hand stitch the binding to the back of the quilt.

It took me 2 days just to complete the binding, but I finally did it. The binding is on and the quilt is complete! I am so very happy with the results and am truly considering purchasing more of the same fabric to make a second one. I need to for gifts and I really do like the way it turned out. What do you think?

I get asked many times “where did you get you sewing skills?” Well, I really believe I inherited many of my skills from my mom! You see, we grew up watching her sew, whether she was making our clothes, clothes for our dolls, or piecing quilts.

As we all got married and went our own way, we have always remained close and we discovered several years ago that we all have a love for fabric and for creating things with it. We have even been know to head of to parts unknown, just to track down a new quilt shop or attend a quilt show!

Here is a shot of my mom, the leader of this quilting group, my sisters Karen and Grace. This was one get together I didn’t make it too, but they are showing off the tabletoppers/wallhangings they made.

So you see, I really do think the sewing gene ran in the family!

This is what I’m currently working on. This baby quilt top centers around 10 inch squares, surrounded by 2 inch squares. I have the piecing completed and have pinned the top, batting and backing all together. It’s ready to be quilted.  The fabric is “Sleepytime” by Moda Fabrics.

Next step? Move my sewing machine to a larger table that can support the length of the quilt so it’s not trying to pull out of the machine while I’m trying to quilt it. I’ll be rearranging my sewing room this afternoon!

I have given myself quite a bit of time of from the computer and have spent a great bit more time sewing.  One particular item I made during the month of December gave me more satisfaction and gratification than probably anything else I’ve ever made.  The reason?  I gave it away.

That’s right, I made this cute quilt to donate to Quilts for Kids, a charity that brings quilter together by allowing us to make quilts that will be given to children in need.

This is the quilt I pieced together and then quilted from the fabric that was sent to me by Quilts for Kids:

My mom also got into the act by creating this fun pinwheel quilt from fabric she found on clearance. What a great way to use it!

If you don’t sew or quilt, you can still help. Check out their website at quiltsforkids.org

I was blog surfing a while back and ran across this at My Meme Mania and, with permission, have re-posted it here. This definitely applies to me!