old red barn co

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My first finished quilt-along

July 12, 2009 in Binding, Finished Objects, Quilt-Along | 9 comments

It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you aren’t in your own house.

At home, when the kids are sleeping, there’s a million things to do (laundry, dishes, etc.) and a million things to just plain distract me (computer, DVR, other sewing projects).  But when you’re at your in-laws’ house and the kids are passed out and your in-laws are the fairly sedate type?  You can just hand-sew that binding like it’s your job.  And that’s what I did.

A bit of binding

And barely more than 24 hours later, I had this:

ORBCo Quilt - Finished!

That’s right, the ORBCo quilt is finished!  I’m really happy with it.  The fabrics are crazy and groovy and bright and happy. I credit a fellow quilt-along-er for inspiration on the added border, which I like a lot, in part because it makes it easy to find the top/bottom of the quilt. The swirly pink quilting is really subtle on the front, and really just adds some texture without taking away from the pattern itself.  It’s delightfully soft and crinkly after a nice run through the washer and dryer.

ORBCo Finished - back

I am super, super happy with the back.  With such a loud front, I’m glad I went with a cool, simple back.  The pink thread shows up quite a bit on the dark gray backing (Kona Cotton in Coal), and the slightly-off-center strip (leftover squares from the original strip sets on either side of a few inches of the Wallflower print) pops out really nicely.

ORBCo Finished, folded

The binding is more of the pink/gray Wallflower print with some extra solid gray.  I had around a half yard left over of each after making the front borders and the backing, and I really didn’t want to have to buy any more fabric for the binding.  I needed about nine strips for it, and got seven out of the Wallflower, so just threw in some gray here and there.  I think it works.

ORBCo Finished

I’m not sure what the post-washing dimensions are, but pre-washing it was about 71″ x 91″.  A very generous twin and the largest quilt I have ever made.  I have to say I am really proud of it.

The quilt-along itself was a lot of fun.  The week-by-week instructions were good for new folks, and the Flickr group was a ton of fun to see what other people were doing and exchange stories and advice and compliments and encouragement. In fact, everyone had such a great time that they’re starting another quilt-along: a zig-zag!  I’m sorely tempted, but I think I really need to stick to the rest of the items on my to-do list at the moment.  So many quilts, so little time…

At any rate, I’m thrilled that it’s done. I have no idea what I’m going to do with it, now, especially seeing that there are no twin-sized beds in my house. But that’s really a very minor concern, don’t you think?

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Loopy

July 6, 2009 in Quilt-Along, Quilting | 10 comments

It is done!  The loopy quilting on the ORBCo quilt is done!  I may have risked life and limb (or, you know, naptime) to finish it this afternoon, but I made it. And the kids stayed asleep.  Whew!

Quilting Done

Honestly, I think it felt somehow easier than a “normal” stipple.  Maybe it was the ease with which I could go back and fill in spots, or the lack of fear of crossing over.  And thanks to all of your suggestions, I am SO happy I went with a pink thread.  It’s the “petal pink” from Connecting Threads and I was very happy with it.  Yes, I had to have a lint intervention once or twice, but going that crazy with a free motion foot, I’d hardly expect anything else.  And the quilting itself has made it so crinkly… I’m fascinated to see how this all comes out in the wash!

Quilting Done

I used the majority of a 1200-yard spool, but not so much that I worried I’d run out.  I’d estimate it was about 10-12 bobbins.  It probably took me around 6 hours total, over the course of four days.  I worked on it in 30-90 minute blocks of time, since it pretty much always has to be done while the kids are asleep.

As with many things that we fear, the hardest part is just getting started.  Once I was in there, it went fine, and I just wanted to get it DONE!  I’m super happy with how it turned out, and though there was some serious wrestling, an extra needle, a few spots of messy knots on the back, and other… ahem… things that give it some handmade charm… I’m really proud of it.

Now, all that remains is binding!  Dare I take this behemoth with me to Florida this weekend?

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No More Stalling

July 4, 2009 in Quilt-Along, Quilting | 6 comments

Though I have made strides in recent months, the actual act of quilting is nearly always the most daunting part of the whole thing for me. I’m never sure exactly what to do when it comes to design, for one thing. I’ve always been terrible at drawing, and quilting (especially free-motion) is a lot like drawing to me. Plus, even with confidence in ability, there are so many darn choices! Zig zags here, swirls there. In-the-ditch, crossed lines, meandering… it’s just so overwhelming.

Add in the gargantuan size (well, at least, the largest quilt I’ve ever made) of the ORBCo quilt, and I’ve been putting it off. Even more so once I had my thread mishap. Not only was I waiting for the thread to arrive, but I also got into completing my nine-patch quilt. In fact, even though my new thread arrived today, I was all geared up to baste my nine-patch quilt sandwich. Except… oh yeah… I used pretty much ALL of my safety pins on the other one. Doh!

No more pins

Alright. No more excuses. I’ve got a backlog of projects waiting to be started and another quilt in need of the pins.  Last night, I finally sat down and started quilting this big honkin’ thing.  And you know what?  Not too shabby!  On the recommendation of someone in the Flickr group, I sort of mentally divided the quilt into quadrants to have a way to keep track of where I am, and to bite off a manageable chunk.  It took about an hour and a half and three bobbins, but I have finished the first quadrant and am really quite pleased with it!

DSC_0508

The husband took the kids for the morning and gave me a bit of a free pass for a few hours (sigh, the bliss), so I’m right back at it.  Mark my words, I am not taking the free-motion foot off of my machine until this thing is DONE!

Besides.  There are nine-patches waiting impatiently in the wings.

DSC_0512

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Intimidation

June 22, 2009 in Quilt-Along, Quilting | 8 comments

I’m afraid of my own quilt.

Veteran quilters, excuse my drama, but this is far and away the largest thing I’ve ever made. I had to move all of the furniture off to the side in my dining room, just so I’d have room to pin it. Note to self: this is the largest quilt I am allowed to make as long as I live in this house.

Backing

I had some helpers, once they woke up from nap. Nothing so helpful as two toddlers and a dog when you’re trying to keep things neat and even.

Helper A

Helper B

So far, pre-quilting and pre-washing, it measures just about 71″ x 91″. Not bad, only about an inch off from what it theoretically “should” measure… but holy crap is that big! It weighs about 6 pounds, which doesn’t sound like much, but it certainly feels heavy as hell.

Pins in

It’s all pinned and trimmed and ready to quilt…. if I could just a) decide how I’m going to quilt it and b) get up the courage to start.

So, how would you quilt this thing? The backing is mostly a solid slate gray, and that same gray is present in a number of the prints on the top, so I was leaning towards quilting it in dark gray thread. (Perhaps because I’m concerned about my imperfections showing up too much on the back!) But do I just stipple it? Do some kind of straight quilting with my walking foot? Do something entirely different? Please, send suggestions!

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Waste Not

June 19, 2009 in Piecing, Quilt-Along | 4 comments

While I’ve been reasonably productive on other aspects of my to-do list, there’s been very little sewing in my house this week. That said, I am very nearly done with my Old Red Barn Co Quilt-Along top. Wohoo! I have to say, sewing all of the strip sets together took quite a while (14 sets x 6 strips each x 44-inch strips). But huge 12-inch blocks? That was delightfully fast. And dang, this thing is big!

(mostly) finished quilt top

This is the first quilt I’ve made that is larger than lap/crib size. At the moment, it’s about 72″ x 84″ (maybe a little less, since my blocks weren’t quite the full 12.5″), and I’m actually adding on some borders to the top & bottom, making it even closer to 72″ x 92″. Insane! Truth be told, I am terrified to quilt this thing. We’ll see if my little machine can handle it, but I definitely think I’m going to have to get those nubby quilting gloves.

One thing I love about this quilt so far is that, of the original 12 half-yards I bought, I’m using all but the teeniest scraps. I got the full 42 blocks out of them, all of which are in the quilt (6 x 7). There was about 6″ left over of each strip set, so I cut two 2.5″ strips from each of them, which I am going to use for borders and on the back. The only leftover from the original 12 half-yards was about three little piles like this: nothing but selveges and scraps from straightening the edges.

Leftovers

Finally got the backing and border fabrics cut last night, maybe I’ll manage some sewing today. I still need to buy a big ol’ piece of batting, and then, *gulp*, it’s on to the quilting….

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Scrappy Strip Strategy

June 10, 2009 in Piecing, Quilt-Along | 4 comments

I’m still a touch “behind” on the Old Red Barn Co quilt-along, but making progress.  I just finished with week 3, which was sewing the strips together and cutting blocks.

Sometimes “scrappy” quilts make me uneasy.  I like clear instructions.  I like it when A goes next to B, and X lines up with Y.  The phrase “arrange in a pleasing manner” freaks me out.  I think because I have a tendency to over-think the layout and I’m never happy.  Too much pink over here, too much green right there, these two blocks are too close together.

Well, for one thing, I totally took the easy way out and just ordered 12 fabrics from the same line.  I knew all of the colors worked with each other, so no worrying there.  Then, after cutting the strips, I grouped them into three piles of four fabrics each.  They were roughly sorted by color.  One pile was more pinks, one was more greens/grays, and one was multi-colored.  It wasn’t scientific or anything, just general color vibe.

2.5

Then, for each of the 14 strip sets (6 strips per set), I pulled two from each pile.  That helped get a relatively even distribution of colors for each block.  When I put them together, I sewed them in three pairs, then put the pairs together.  The overall effect is nice and random/scrappy, but the method was organized and methodical.  Best of both worlds, I hope.

strip sets

The strip sets were then cut into three squares each.  Theoretically, they’d be 12.5″ squares, but my quarter-inch seam isn’t perfect.  They had a slight variation between 12.25″ and 12.375″, so I trimmed them all down to 12.25″ squares (or, you know, as best as I could).  I have a plan for the leftovers from each strip set that will involve cutting 2.5″ strips from them, but I haven’t done that yet.

blocks and leftovers

Now, I just need to assemble all 42 of these blocks into one quilt top for week 4.  I may start on it today, but I’ll then be away from my sewing machine all weekend, so I’ll probably still be in catch-up mode next week.

How’s your quilt-along going?

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Quilt-Along Catch-up (and falling behind)

June 2, 2009 in Fabric, Piecing, Quilt-Along | 1 comment

I decided to go for it and play along with the Old Red Barn Co. quilt-along.  I was a little late to the party, and it seemed like my fabrics took FOREVER to arrive.  Finally, though, they came in yesterday’s mail.  I was thrilled!  It’s a set of 12 from Erin McMorris’s Wildwood line.  Loved it right out of the envelope.

Half yards finally arrived

I was super excited that they finally arrived, and totally behind on the quilt-along, so I gave them a quick once-over with the iron and got straight to cutting.  Normally, I’m in the pre-washing camp.  But seriously?  I may switch teams.  The nice crease already in there from the bolt, the ease of ironing out the fold lines, the crispness of the cuts….. tempting, very tempting.  Plus, I didn’t notice the same freaky fumes that bothered me with the Moda charm pack that was my initial non-washing experiment.  Anyways, we’ll see.  This week is the sewing and cutting of blocks, so I’m more or less caught up.

2.5

The nine-patch quilt-along, though, has fallen way behind.  This week was crazy with my in-laws in town and then leaving for the weekend, so I really haven’t done any this week.  Maybe tonight…. I ran out of the white thread that I was using to quilt the purple and green project, so maybe tonight’s work will be a big load of nine-patches. Fingers crossed.

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