A New Quilt For The New Year.

I can’t believe it’s 2018. 2017 just seem to whizz by so quickly that I felt that I hadn’t accomplished a lot. Anyway, it’s the new year, so I shall look forward too all the new and exciting things ahead.

So, lets start by talking about this quilt I just made. Alas, the quilt was made for someone else so I won’t be snuggling under it every night. It started out with my biannual trip to Liberty to scour through the fabrics on sale. Before I finished looking at the selection, these two fabric pieces were thrust towards me with the question “Can you make me a quilt?”. I thought since I was having quite a quiet January (skint January, I call it), I agreed to this project.

Quilt making is not for the faint hearted. A lot of planning (and effort) goes into it and I’m not surprised why some call it a labour of love (or why some are sold at ridiculous prices). There are starter packs to help the process, but as I was using speciality fabrics, it all had to be cut by hand. Although I do have to say a rotary cutter makes light work.

I decided to go for a striped quilt, as I find it is by far the most simple quilt to make. With all the cut strips done, I started to sew each piece together. I usually start by sewing two strips together, pressing the seams open and then continuing to sew the two strips to another strip of two. So it goes 1 + 1, 2 + 2, 4 + 4, 8 + 8 and so forth. I find that much easier than piecing the one at a time. I guess it’s one of my sewing gripes; seeing lots of individual pieces. It just reminds me that I have a lot of work to do, whereas if I piece them together in sets, I see less individual pieces. The mind plays tricks on you, even when it’s just sewing a quilt.

I find making a quilt a very interesting process. My grandmother only made quilts using the leftover pieces from her sewing projects and she would be rolling in her grave if she knew I was buying fabrics just to cut them up and piece them back together. An antithesis to the whole point of making a quilt. But hey, time changes and quilt making is now more of an art form.

I sometimes can find sewing (especially monotonous sewing) quite boring but I often remind myself, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Keep going at it and sooner or later, completion is but a stitch away.

And there it is, after a lot of effort and pin scratches, the quilt is completed. I had initially thought of making the stripes go vertically on the bed but somehow, we agreed that it was better horizontal as it shows off the Liberty fabrics more. It makes the bed look bigger as well.

You might be able to notice the sink stitch I used to hold all the layers together. I usually do a circular stitch, but being such a complex print and pattern, I decided that it was best to hide the stitching. This still annoyed me but I was sure that I bought Navy colour fabric to complement the quilt – but somehow it looks black. Maybe it’s just my eyes going.

I chose a mitre corner to finish the end of the quilt of and the contract of white and navy really picks this detail up.

I also couldn’t resist using the embroidery foot. After all, there has to be a bit of ‘free-hand’ work in the quilt.

Actually, reflecting on the whole process of making this quilt, I actually found pressing the seams the most unbearable part. So sewing this quilt wasn’t that bad after all.