May 23, 2014

Finished! My first quilt….

I’ve been jumping up and down for the past week or so, because I finally finished MY FIRST QUILT! YAY! I’m still really excited about it. It’s the first time in ages that I’ve made anything, and the whole process was so much fun (even more than I thought it would be). I learned loads.

How cool is that?!

I can’t remember when I first started it (I should’ve taken better notes…), but I think it ended up taking me a little over a month, from start to finish. In terms of actual hours worked, probably less than a weekend. I faffed a fair bit, and I stopped every time I didn’t know how to do something… which added a few weeks of inactivity here and there.

The whole point of making the quilt was because I’ve got a friend having a baby in August (hi Sparkle!) and I thought a quilt would be a cool gift. It should work as a cot quilt or as a throw for the floor to sit/lie/crawl on. I hope!

It’s a 10 x 14 grid of 4″ finished squares in a mix of yellows and greys (most of which I bought at GJs Discount Fabrics in Brunswick East). Everything is 100% cotton.

Things I learned with Quilt #1: how to piece the front to the batting and backing, why a walking foot is important, why you should always check that your bobbin is full before you start sewing a very long line of quilting, the importance of the seam ripper, the difference between single-fold and double-fold binding, and how to attach binding to a quilt.

Thing I hope to learn with Quilt #2: how to make half-square triangles, how to make my own bias binding, and how to take better photos of finished quilts.

Did I mention how excited I am that I made MY FIRST QUILT?!?!

May 2, 2014

Pixeling

I’m a big fan of using geometric shapes to make whole pictures. Back in high-school art class, I made a huge portrait out of simple shaded squares (I’ll post a pic if I can ever dig one out).

Of course, the same idea has huge potential for quilt-making. Quilting’s all about sewing squares together! (Well, it is for me, at least so far.)

I love this rooster quilt from Elena Chipara. The squares — all 1100 of them — are 2 cm and have been pieced together, then sewn to a backing fabric. How awesome would that look as a bedspread or wall hanging?

I saw The Tenth in a magazine and cut it out and saved the picture… then found it online. Even though I’m not a Dr Who fan, it’s hard not to love this quilt.

Kristy Daum combined strips and squares of Kona Cotton Solids to create her masterpiece. I think the finished size of the squares is 1″ and the quilt top measured 70″ x 100″, so… that’s a lot of squares. Go Kristy!

Finally, if Kristy’s posts on pixeling don’t make it sound easy enough, check out the Victoria & Albert Museum’s free Patchwork Pattern Maker. Upload an image (or choose from their gallery of pics), select your format, colours and pattern complexity, and voila! Out pops your pattern. The options aren’t extensive, but it looks like a quick and easy way to get started on a pixelated quilt. [23 July 2023 update: Unfortunately it looks like the V&A tool isn’t available anymore.]

I want to try something like this soon (after the other 3 quilts I already have in my head…). I have no idea what picture I’ll use though. When I figure it out, I’ll post updates on my progress!

April 22, 2014

72 quilt blocks

This awesome collection of 72 quilt blocks was actually generated automatically using a computer program written by Mark Jason Dominus. From what I can tell from his webpage, he was inspired by a girlfriend who was into quilting; when they got married, she made a quilt from these blocks as a present on their wedding day. Like there’s not enough to do in the run-up to a wedding….

These blocks are all based on a half-square triangle (HST). There are a million and one tutorials online about how to make HSTs — check out the Intro to Half Square Triangles from Connecting Threads or HST Tutorial and Maths Formula from Blossom Heart Quilts. If you’re feeling particularly brave, you can try the Magic 8 Method on Craftsy.