I Designed a Quilt!

Today's the big day.  I've written my first quilt tutorial and it's over at Sew, Mama, Sew!  It's called Ladder Lattice.  (Here's the link.)

The blocks are 12.5" and you can easily make three from a fat quarter so it's really up to you how big of a project you want to make.  Although I agonized over my photography skills -- I usually do -- I am totally pleased with the quilt and design itself.  I think it would look gorgeous in solids or just two colors too so I'll probably be making another one soon.

A couple of firsts on this project.  I didn't use any pins, just Elmer's washable school glue with a fine tip.  You squeeze a thin line inside the 1/4-inch seam allowance and touch press with the iron.  It holds everything perfectly through stitching so I hardly had any trimming to do which saved fabric loss.

The second new thing is my walking foot.  I finally ordered an easy-feed sewing foot for my freebie machine.  Now I'm invested!  Although my stitching actually suffered a little,  especially in-the-ditch; my speed really increased.  I know I'll be practicing more with it and making bigger quilts in the future.

It's really satisfying to see a project from my sketchbook come to life.  This one is so much like my pitch drawing that it's uncanny.  I designed it specifically to use fat quarters (7 prints) from Erin McMorris' Forest Hill by Free Spirit.

I'm still learning and growing as a quilter but the design part of it is a key element for me.  When I brainstormed ideas, this was one of five I pitched and then, as I constructed the quilt, I jotted down notes for two new projects.  I so hope that someone finds the tutorial useful as it would totally please me to see more quilts made from it.  Since I've really learned to sew through online tutorials, it means so much to me to give back to that process.

It's also the Blogger's Quilt Festival this week so I'm entering Ladder Lattice in the Original Design Quilts Category.  Just because I can and it feels so good.


This quilt leaves 10 inch squares (actually, a little more) for scraps so I'm working on a pattern that will use those next.  Please come back to check it out.

That's it for now.   Thanks for stopping by!

Keep stitchin'

-Kristin

Builder's Grade

If you're one of those people (and I'm beginning to think that means EVERYONE) who hates honey-oak trim, beige carpet and white walls - well - you're not going to like it at my house.  But to me, it's a gallery space with warmth and a place where every color looks just right.

See more from my photo shoot over at the MMQG blog where I posted this week about hanging and displaying quilts.

If you're sticking around to admire that purse in the photo, however, welcome!  I got it in the Minneapolis Modern Quilt Guild's bag swap at our February meeting.  A talented gal named Rozina made it and I couldn't love it more.  I immediately dumped the contents of my purse into it, threw it over my shoulder and haven't looked back.

Here's the one I made:

It's from the Tohoku Tote pattern/tutorial by Cheri at her "I am Momma, Hear me Roar"blog.

I followed the pattern except for adding this internal zipper pocket.  I found this tutorial helpful.

The prints are from IKEA; the black is duck cloth from JoAnn Fabric but I didn't like the way it faded when I ironed it.  All in all a fun swap.  We're doing name tags next.  Stay tuned!

Living and Dying

      This weekend my husband became a great uncle for the first time.  I made this quilt for baby Braydon in November/December and on Friday, I could finally finish the label and send it by personal messenger to its intended owner for his birthday.  It's my first quilt for a person!  It's titled, "Welcome Home."

Top

Back (and label before the text)

 

     There are tons of process photos and a mosaic on my Flickr photostream.  The design is my own but based on lots of other cross/plus/x quilts from Pinterest and blogs and such.  It was simple to figure out with a piece of graph paper and sized to fit the batting I had on hand.  My spouse, for a co-designing credit, picked all of the fabrics which are Kona cotton solids in charcoal, corn, and royal.  The binding is a Quilter's showcase print and the back is Snuggle Flannel from JoAnn Fabric.  I don't recommend the snuggle flannel for gift quilts as it really pilled in the prewash and although it is snuggly-soft, it already looks old!

     I had to send my gift along by courier because I had other plans for my Saturday.  Mom and I signed up for a fabric hand-dying workshop at the Textile Center with Kristin Lawson from the MMQG.  We measured, mixed, and soaked a ton of little fat quarters.  Here are the results:

     The stacks, from left to right are: 12-step "cool" color wheel, 8-step tints in boysenberry, and 9-step Chroma Bridge from sun yellow to intense blue.  Afterward, during "playtime," I used some extra dye dregs to dip a couple of flour sack dish towels and make some pretty eyelet ruffle in a very watered-down boysenberry shade.  We got to choose our own colors for the exercises and relied upon Kristin's expertise.  We learned a ton and I now feel confident I could do this at home.  The possibilities are endless!

Now I must dash because January is almost over and I have a few Flickr swap projects that are dangerously close to their deadlines!

TTFN!