Wednesday, May 23, 2012

May Update: Quilting Edition

Joining in on Lee's Wednesday WIP! Happy Day Everyone!

I've done it! My very first official quilt! Now, I've made quilts before, but not quite official quilts. The difference being in the quilting. I've done tied quilts before, but never a fully quilted patchwork quilt. I pulled up my BGP (Big Girl Panties), took a few deep breaths, relied heavily on the kindness and continued encouragement of my sewing ladies, and I did it! And here, without further ado, here she is, my Rainbow Sprout quilt:


First of all, let me acknowledge officially how cool it is to have the friendship and support of a very cool bunch of sewing ladies, especially when you're starting out in the sewing/quilting world. Ella hosted an amazing retreat last weekend, and it helped push me over the edge into finishing this quilt. All I had to do was finish the binding over the weekend! The combined humor, advice, wisdom, friendship and encouragement from April, Ella, Jenny (needs a blog!), Marion, Pamela, and Sue (get a blog!! :-)) has been such a true godsend! Thank you! There's so much more to report on the retreat, but stay tuned for that in another post . . .  I'm on the road and couldn't take photos of all the goodies that came out of the retreat!

I discovered the marvelous tutorial for this quilt from Hooked on Needles. And when I say it's an entirely manageable tutorial, BELIEVE IT! It's a great first-timers' quilt. I think it's a great go-to quilt for a baby gift. I'm kind of all raring to go to make another. I made this for our nephew, Cameron Derek, and I was a bit teary packing it up and sending it off yesterday, as joyful as I am to have this wrap him in love and blessings! Most of the charm squares come from Emily's swap I did earlier this year, but I did throw in a few I Spy squares. I even cut into my beloved Heather Ross Munki Munki--both the gnomes and the VW vans (Cameron's dad is a VW fan)!


For the quilting I did what I'm calling a wonky geometric design, essentially square-ish, but deliberately not perfect squares. I guess we officially call those rectangles (from what I recall of Geometry?). I was originally going to just do straight line quilting, but I wanted to do something with a bit more movement in it.


So this, is my proud photo of work accomplished! I also, with TONS of guidance and inspired help from my dear friend Sue over our fabulous retreat weekend finally finished my pincushion/scrapbag (photos to come).

As for works in progress, Oy! So much in the WIP line! I still have miles to go on:
- My messenger bag
- The valance for my mother's house
- Dare try to make a scrapbag/pincushion for my mother-in-law
- Finish the baby quilt for our friend's almost year-old baby (should I just scrap it and do another Rainbow Sprout quilt?)
- There's so much more I can't even remember anymore!

11 comments:

  1. That is so cool that you went on a retreat - I've been wanting to do that for so long.. congrats on making your first "real" - it's a beauty!!

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    1. Thanks, Bethany! The retreat was so great. It was my third and I can't wait for the next! The last two were overnighters. Can't beat a slumber party!

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  2. Congrats on your first official quilt -- it's lovely! I can't resist all things rainbow. :)

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    1. Thanks! Rainbow things are hard to resist, aren't they! ;-)

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  3. Congrats on your first quilting! It looks great!

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  4. ...and I just read your "about me" and totally know the feeling about the ocean. I grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan and when I moved away I didn't know how to find where I lived on the weather radar maps. :)

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    1. Thanks, Amanda! When I first lived in So Cal, I once almost ended up in Mexico because I had been so used to using the East Coast as my guide for driving (where the ocean is on the right when you're driving north!) Whoops!

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  5. Yippee!!! You did an amazing job!!! Those bgp's have some serious magical powers! I had the best time at the retreat! Thank you so much for my wonderful gifts :) xo

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    1. Thanks Marion! It was so great getting to know you! And yes, BGPs indeed can be magical.

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  6. Beautiful quilt - love your machine too! Does it have 3 drawers on each side ? If so it is the same as mine.

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    1. Thanks Kirsten! And yes, my machine does have three drawers on each side--they must be sisters!

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