A gift

I finished this quilt quite some time ago but I was waiting to gift it before I posted about it. A good friend of mine is expecting a baby girl--which was a relief to me. Don't get me wrong, I love baby boys too, but I struggle with ensuring that quilts for boys are "masculine" enough. I wouldn't say I'm overly into 'girly-girl' things but it is much easier for me to be able to just pull a variety of whatever I'm feeling like doing from my stash and put it together. I rarely buy novelty fabrics (of which there are many suitable for either gender) so I would say the vast majority of what I do buy has a more feminine slant. Does anyone else find themselves leaning on more novelty fabrics and/or solids to sew for boys?

Anyways, this project was really fun. I pulled a bunch of different fabrics that I already had on hand and cut rectangles for some simple patchwork. I wanted the quilt to be quite varied with the fabric but still feel very soft, colourwise. I also wanted it to be a clean, easy design but a little different from a typical charm square type patchwork top. So I went with rectangles that I cut at 6" x 3". I also wanted it to be clearly 'girl' but not over the top and saccharine. I think I accomplished my goals (& I love how it turned out!) Here is a picture of the top:

This was also the last quilt I quilted before I got my new machine. So needless to say, it was challenging. But after trying lots of different tension settings and speed settings and some old fashioned brute strength, I managed to make it work as well as possible. I backed it with one of the (relatively) new Cloud 9 flannels at Joann (which I found to be really great quality & would definitely use again) to make it snuggly for a newborn. I didn't take a picture of the back, but its a white background with pink & green X and Os. I quilted it in a random, uneven herringbone pattern inspired by Ashley at Film in the Fridge. I have done this pattern before on another quilt & I loooove the way it turns out (especially after the quilt is washed and all crinkly). I thought it added a lot of great texture to the simple pattern, while not being overly feminine.

For the binding I used a turquoise polka dot which was also from Joann. I know that everyone has differing opinions on Joann. I have many thoughts & I will write them in another post so you don't have to read an essay about Joann right now. But this was the first fabric that I saw in the store that I liked for binding but I was determined not to pick another turquoise/aqua/blue like I do for all of my projects. So I wandered around the store considering many other options until I had successfully driven my daughter crazy & then settled on the blue because it was just the one. I think it ended up being great & who cares if every project I make has aqua? Not me!

So all in all I was really happy with how this quilt turned out. I hope it is snuggly and soft and wonderful for yet-to-be-born baby girl. Here's one more picture with a hopefully better view of the quilting (I darkened it a little so hopefully the lines would show up better but the colors look different):

Juki TL-2010Q

I'm just going to get right in to it-- I got a new sewing machine. It was sudden & completely unexpected but I couldn't be more excited. 

I had been sewing on a Brother Innov-is 40e for about 5 years. I bought it after I got married & we were both still in college, so the budget was pretty tight. I was also just starting out sewing (I had taken home economics in jr. high & sewed with my mom a few times growing up) so I didn't want to make a huge purchase (not that I could have anyways). It has been a great machine for what it was designed to do. But since I really ramped up my sewing about 2.5 years ago, I was getting increasingly frustrated with it. I realize now that it was mainly due to me trying to push my machine to do things it just wasn't powerful enough to do. I have quilted multiple quilts using this machine, but with the combination of the very small throat space & not enough power to pull the quilt through the machine (even with a walking foot) I was fed up. Also, my tension had always been a little finicky (I don't know if that is part of this machine or just mine in particular) so even piecing was getting frustrating. I have never been a fan of how the thread pin was placed on this machine--I just don't think that the thread ever pulls off evenly. I was to the point that I didn't even really feel like sewing anymore because I was so discouraged. So I was dreaming of getting a new machine but it was a far off dream in my mind--mostly because trying to save up my sewing/fabric budget for each month was mysteriously not happening. There is just way too much beautiful fabric out there that needed to come live with me. 

So this last weekend (Memorial Day weekend, actually) my husband was home on Friday (4 day weekends for the win) & suggested that we go look at new machines. When that happens--you just get in the car and you go. We went to a local store that carried both Jukis and Janomes because in my weeks/months of dreaming I had narrowed it down to either a Juki TL-2010Q or a Janome 1600p-QC. From some compulsive googling, I felt that they were fairly comparable, had nearly the same features & should be priced pretty similarly. I had read numerous reviews (mostly of the Juki--I couldn't find that many for the Janome) & felt that I really just needed to go try them out to try to decide.

I had decided that I wanted a non-computerized machine so I would have less technology to worry about breaking. I liked having a straight stitch only because I don't really need anything else with the kind of sewing that I do. I also wasn't planning on getting rid of my first machine, so I would always have that to pull out for a zig zag or whatever else. I also loved the idea of quite a lot of throat space to try to learn to free motion & even for just straight line quilting on bigger quilts. I felt very confident in my choice.

So we went into the store & we didn't have a great experience. I personally hate most sales situations & have a really hard time being assertive in them. So, from my point of view, I got a lukewarm reception. The first person who I spoke didn't seem to want to show me anything and told me that the machine expert was in a class. So she got her attention briefly and told her I was looking for 'something' for quilting, despite me previously telling the first person that I was only interested in two specific models. So the machine expert gestured to the machine she was showing in class & said I could sit in on the lesson & then she would show me some things. I presumed (mistakenly) that it wasn't going to be very long--mostly because I had my almost 2 year old daughter with me as well. It became clear that they were in the middle of the lesson and it didn't seem to be ending any time soon. It was also a machine that was way more money than I wanted to spend & not at all what I wanted. I got up briefly to check on my daughter & at that time the sales person asked me what I was looking for. When I mentioned the Juki and what I wanted, she looked bewildered and just asked me why. At that point, I was just done. I don't need to convince someone to sell me what I want. I felt like I wasn't being heard. This was especially true in the following exchange: 

Sales person: You won't be able to appliqué!

Me: I don't appliqué (and thinking in my mind that on the rare occasion I felt it necessary, I'm sure I could make it work on the Brother, that she knows I own)

Sales person: You will want to with a little girl!

Me: I don't think so (thinking if I haven't appliquéd anything for her yet in the first 2 years of life the chances I start now seem low)

Sales person: I sell a lot of those Jukis, but usually as a second machine, not a first machine.

Me: (just thinking--I just told you I have a machine already, despite its limitations. & I have thought about this & I feel good about a straight stitch only machine)

Sales person turns back to her lesson and seems to just brush my answers off.

At that point, I just got up and left. They had a Juki that I could have tried but they didn't seem to have the Janome in store (I don't really know if this is true because they didn't ever really talk to me about either). I was leaning towards the Juki anyways because they seemed to be so much more prevalent. I was feeling pretty discouraged about the whole thing.

The next day (Saturday) my husband said that we should go to another local shop and look (or buy) at the Juki. I had been in there before I had much better experiences, so I was up for it. I wasn't passing up my opportunity since he had actually mentioned buying the machine. Timeout for a little sappy moment: Shoutout to my husband for taking a look at the budget and making this happen. He had known for a long time that I wanted a new machine. I looked like it would maybe happen in a few months. But he was sweet enough to realize that he was going to be traveling in that time & that maybe I would just like to get it now so I could sew to my heart's content while he was gone.

So we went in, I tried it out and we bought it. I was so excited. & it was nice to feel like they heard what I said I wanted & showed me. They didn't have one in box at that store, so I wouldn't be able to pick it up until Tuesday. So I did pick up yesterday but I didn't have a chance to take it out of the box until today. I've pulled it out and got it running. I was a little intimidated to thread it--but I figured it out. So I'm infatuated so far in the 10 minutes I've actually spent using it. So I'm sure there will be more info as I use it more and more. 

This purchase was so unexpected but I couldn't be happier. I feel like I'm going to be back to sewing all the time.

Here's a picture of the machine. It is so much bigger & sturdier than what I'm used to. I still just can't believe it. After that word vomit, I think I'll get back to sewing!

Remember this top?

Well now it's a quilt (almost)! Here's it is being basted:

As you can see, I added a 6 inch border in the multicoloured dots to make it a little bit bigger. Before the borders it was about 52" square, but the recipients (my family I was visiting) decided they wanted it to be a little bigger. This was the first time I added borders & it went much smoother than I anticipated. Probably due to the fact that this is a very forgiving print.

I quilted it with straight lines in a chevron pattern along the chevrons that are in the blocks. I didn't quilt on the borders--so this was the first time that I had to bury all of the thread ends (I usually just quilt from edge to edge and catch the ends in the binding). It probably needs some quilting on the borders but I was kind of in a crunch with the time and didn't have a good idea for them.

It is backed in the multicoloured flags also from this line (The Boathouse by Sweetwater) and the binding is the red & navy links.

As I said on Instagram, I didn't take my real camera (so I only had my iPhone for pictures) & I'm really short so a good picture of the quilt didn't really happen. Instead, here is one of it draped over a couch with the binding sewn on to the front but not hand stitched to the back. Maybe I can coerce the now owners of the quilt to take a picture of the finished quilt...

I was in the process of hand stitching the binding in the car as I was leaving, but ended up dropping the needle as I was trying to rethread it--so only some of the binding is finished. Luckily--I was leaving it as a gift with some other sewers so it should get finished without me (maybe even some quilting on the borders!). 

I love the way it turned out--especially since I don't usually just sew with one line. I'm not very adventurous with learning new skills but this helped me step out of my comfort zone a little bit. At least for me, quilting is always a dichotomy of me wanting my work to look good & being frustrated that I don't have more skills. You can't get better without practicing, right? So I guess it's time to just do it!

Obligatory First Post

I wanted to start a blog for my quilting projects so that I could document them better (or at all). I haven't ever put a label on a quilt & I also frequently forget to take pictures of them (especially when they are gifts). But I also know that I am the kind of person that will want to be able to look back when I'm 100 & say that I made exactly 78.32 million quilts (and yes, I chose a number that would never be attainable both to avoid setting an arbitrary lifetime goal and because I enjoy hyperbole).

I also tend to forget almost everything if it's not written down so hopefully this blog will help on that front as well. But no promises because I am usually only good at keeping up with something for about the first 3 weeks. & since I am also a spectacularly slow quilter, that probably means that this post will be the only one to ever exist. But maybe one day my grandchildren will find this old relic & pull it up on their hologram discs or whatever new thing they will have & enjoy how archaic their dear old grandma was. Then this one post will be worth it!

Also--I always feel the need to preface things and use lots of unnecessary dashes/hyphens (I don't know the difference). So instead I'm just going to say that this is the first quilt that I made just for me. I have made others before this, but they were all given away as gifts. I love giving quilts away. But I also love having something I made in my living room, ready to keep me warm while I binge on Netflix.

It is a scrappy trip around the world quilt--which was quite popular through out the segment of the online quilting community that I follow a few years ago. I made one since:
A) It looked easy enough for me to complete and
B) I have accumulated a lot of random fabric

So I took a strip from every single cut of fabric I owned at the time (there are definitely more now) & stitched this quilt up. It's bound with a black & white stripe and backed in the Ikea Britten Nummer fabric that those Swedes (I actually have no idea who actually made this decision or their ethnic background) decided to discontinue despite it being quite popular & wonderful.

I used 6 strips (cut at 2.5 inches) for each block & the entire quilt is 4 blocks by 6 blocks. I quilted it with lines on all of the seams & another set going diagonally through the squares only in one direction. I like how it looks on the back. Also--do not look closely at my quilting. It is not very good because I am not very good yet. & my machine is also not the most powerful so it struggles to pull that much fabric through. So I usually just wash quilts & when they come out all warm and crinkly I remember why I love quilting, even if it never turns out exactly like you want. And then I fold and roll the quilt a few hundred times in every configuration to show it how much I love it.

Here it is:

Here it is being held up by my wonderful husband:

I love it. Which surprised me because there are lots of fabrics in there I would never put together otherwise. & I don't usually like things that are all just a mishmash of who-knows-what. But this--I love.

Since I enjoyed making & using this quilt so much I decided to make another. It's just a top at this point but it was even easier to make since it's made from a jelly roll (so I didn't even have to worry about the fabrics going together or not!). I am terrible at cutting so if anyone has any tips, please let me know. I have made large strides since I started starching all of my fabrics but I want to get much more accurate with everything.

Here's the other top (you can see I chose a different layout):

And another with help:

This quilt is made of 5 strip blocks. There are 5 blocks by 5 blocks. So one jelly roll made quite a nice little square throw. Or it will, when I get around to finishing it...