Another Quilting Project

A few months ago I won a fabric giveaway! 

I can't even tell you how excited I was when I received this package of eye candy!  I thought long and hard about what kind of quilt I should make this time. And the design I came up with is so fun!  I looked at so many different designs and incorporated many of them into one!

 I am almost done with the top of the quilt and I love it!

Stay tuned for the finished product...

Orange and Turquoise Pinwheel Quilt

A few months ago, I bought some Moda fabric on clearance.  I liked how it was bright, playful and fun and wanted to make a quilt!  So I decided that I needed to start and complete this quilt before I had my baby girl, who was due in February (a few months ago). 

Well, I finished it!  I know that it's April now, but I am just getting around to posting it, mainly because I needed someone to hold up the quilt for me so I could take a picture.  Having 13 year old twin boys really come in handy for a picture like this.  :)  I actually finished the quilt in February.

I wanted to use a different pattern than I had done before.  So I was on the look out for different patterns of quilts.  I actually don't use "patterns",  I don't know how.  :)  I just like to look around and when I find something I like, then I figure out a way to create it!

I was eyeing a quilt that my husband's grandma made and gave us for our wedding 14 years ago.  It had the pinwheels on it and I thought this fabric would be so fun to make pinwheels out of!  So here it is and I love it! 

I made the quilt by cutting blocks in half and the sewing them into diagonal squares and then the pinwheel pattern.  Then I added the strips and pieced the quilt together.  I used my walking foot to machine quilt it.  I followed the pinwheel pattern and it turned out cute!

My daughter quickly claimed the quilt.  The boys said that it was "too girly", so they were OK with it.  But over the past few months, I see the quilt being used by the boys more and more.  

I guess the comfort of a homemade quilt out weighs the "girly-ness" of it.  :)

Stripes and Zigzags Pillowcase

Recently, I showed you the Stripes and Zigzags Quilt that I made for my son.  Well, I had some extra fabric and asked him if he wanted it to make a pillowcase.  He was really excited!  

I gave him a few ideas, and this was the design that he came up with.  It's more of a Pillow Sham than a Pillowcase.  He did a really great job!   And it looks great on his bed with the quilt. 

He wanted me to take a picture of the quilt, pillow and monster.  He made both the pillowcase and the monster.  He has a lot of talent!

Zigzags and Stripes Quilt

My son has been wanting a new quilt for a while now.  He even had the fabric picked out: Riley Blake Super Star.  It has a great mixture of blues, oranges and browns.  And absolutely perfect for a boy!  Sometimes it's hard to find cute fabric for boys, but we both loved it!

So I bought the fabric without him knowing and I worked on the quilt while he was at school and then hid everything before he came home.  It was actually quite difficult to hide everything because he is such an observant child! I wanted to have it done to give it to him for Christmas.  I also made another quilt for one of my other sons for Christmas using jeans.  You can see that post here.

So this is the quilt that I came up with. I didn't have a pattern, but just went with the flow! I bought a charm pack and then some yardage.  I didn't have quite enough fabric to make a twin size quilt for his bed, so I bought some solid navy blue fabric for the stripes and the back of the quilt.

I machine quilted it as well with my walking foot.  I used white thread and it provided a contrast for the back of the quilt. 

I'm not the best quilter and I'm definitely not a perfectionist when it comes to quilting, but my son absolutely loved it!  You should have seen his face, he wasn't even expecting it and that was the best part!

Jean Quilt Finished with Machine Quilting

For Christmas this past year, I kept really busy making quilts for two of my sons.  One of my boys wanted a Jean Quilt and has been asking for months.  So I kept putting him off and worked on it while he was at school.  You should have seen his face when he opened the present Christmas morning!  It was priceless!

 

I did this quilt a little different than the last one I made.  About a year ago, I made a Jean Quilt for my husband.  My mom and sisters helped me tie the quilt.  This year, I didn't have my mom or sisters around to help, so I decided to machine quilt it.  And I love how it turned out!

I started making the quilt by cutting the jeans into strips.  The length of the strips varied depending on how long the jeans were and where the holes were that I had to cut out.  The width of the strips were 4, 5 or 6 inches, depending on how wide the jeans were.  I divided them into piles and then sewed the piles of strips together into long rows.  Then I sewed the rows together, alternating the different width of rows.  I used another quilt that I had to get the dimensions.  He wanted to fit it onto his bed.

Now it's time to put the quilt together.  I bought some fabric and sewed it together to make the backing, I believe that it was about 5 yards.  The last jean quilt I did, I just used a flannel sheet.  My son requested a John Deere Jean Quilt, so that's what he got!  

First, put down the back of your quilt on the floor, then the batting and then the jean part.  So you have a sandwich of a quilt.  Smooth out the wrinkles and use curved safety pins to pin all over the quilt.  The safety pins will hold your quilt into place.

Now is the time for the sewing machine!  Above is a picture of the curved safety pins and the walking foot that I used.  I went to a local quilt shop and bought a generic walking foot.  They made sure that it would work on my machine before I bought it and it cost about $20.  The walking foot feeds the top layer of your fabric so it doesn't get all bunched up.  

I sewed down the quilt in straight lines.  But I didn't "stitch in a ditch"  because I didn't want to break any needles.  So I stitched about 1/4 of an inch away from each seam.  When machine quilting, it's best to start in the middle of your quilt to avoid bunching and tucks in your fabric.  

And believe it or not, I only broke one needle the entire time by working on this quilt!  And it was my own fault, because my needle was loose and I started sewing, which caused it to break. 

My son's name is Ashton and he wanted the letter A on his quilt.  So after I bound the quilt, I cut out the letter A and sewed it on.

The quilt turned out great, and is perfect for keeping warm.  Ashton said that he wants a jean quilt so when he goes camping he can wipe his dirty hands on it and not feel bad.  Hmmm...whatever makes him happy!  :)

Friday Feature: Sew Stormy

My friend has the most amazing quilting room!  She has fabric in her room that could last me a lifetime and I would be so happy!

She started a Star Sampler Quilt on her blog a while ago and for all of you quilters out there, it would be so fun to follow along.  She shows how to make each star block step by step and each one is different.

He blog is called Sew Stormy and we have featured it before, but this was just too fun to pass up!

Here is a little sample of a few of her blocks...

Here is Block 6:

Here is Block 5:

 

Here is Block 4: (and I love these colors!)

 So, hop on over and start your own Star Sampler Quilt!

Pretty in Pink Quilt

Last week I showed you the top to this quilt.

Well, I worked really hard and finished the entire quilt and I love it!  

For those of you who didn't see last week, I made this quilt from all of my daughter's receiving blankets.  I also added some pink minky fabric because I didn't have enough receiving blankets for the size of quilt that I wanted to make.  

This is a great repurpose project! 

 

This quilt is so incredibly soft, you would not believe!  I'm thinking that I want to sleep with this blanket every night!

I used a walking foot on my sewing machine to quilt it.  I followed the zig zag pattern, but I did not "stitch in the ditch".  I stitched in the center of the zig zags or just above or below the seams.

The binding took awhile.  I did the usual method of stitching one side to the quilt with the sewing machine and then hand stitching the other end to the other side of the quilt. 

A few years ago, I made a quilt out of my boys' receiving blankets.  That quilt is another family favorite, as I'm sure this one will be!  

This is a great way to take something precious and make it into an heirloom!

Pretty in Pink Quilt Top

If you have been following us for awhile, you might remember the Quilt that I made out of Receiving Blankets from my boys when they were babies.

Well, after I had a handful of boys, I had two sweet, little girls.  So we made a huge shift to everything Pink!  It was a lot of fun!  But now I have girl receiving blankets that are taking up room in the closet.   I figured it is time to make another quilt!

I decided to go with a zig zag pattern this time and it was so much fun!  I didn't have enough blankets to cut up to make a twin size quilt, so I found some light pink minky fabric that I bought a long time ago with stars embedded in it and I used that fabric and alternated it between the receiving blankets.  

This quilt will be so soft!  I'm excited to finish it!  I just bought a walking foot for my sewing machine and I am in the process of machine quilting it.  I just wanted to give you a little preview!  I love it!

Repurpose: Recieving Blankets into a Quilt

For any of you that have children, you know how many receiving blankets you manage to collect.  They are so soft and snuggly.  And they are perfect for all that newborn goodness that we all just want to absorb and never forget.

  After having my five boys, I was so excited to be pregnant with a girl!  But I knew that I needed girl stuff, and I couldn't just throw away all those receiving blankets.  They were faded and worn, but still in good condition.  So I decided to make a quilt out of them.   

Now I have to add this disclaimer, I am not a quilter, nor do I claim to be.  Would I love to be one? Yes!  But for right now, this is as good as it gets.  I wanted simple and I'm sure there are better ways to do this, but this is what I did and it worked!  I actually made this quilt about 5 or 6 years ago and it has been a family favorite ever since.  It has been used and abused and still has held up great!

This is how I made it in a nutshell.  I cut the blankets into 4 inch strips.  I took the different strips and sewed them together.  This made large blocks.  I then took those large blocks and cut them into 4 inch strips again.  And sew the strips together again to make large blocks. This is how I made the squares. There is no rhyme or reason to the pattern.  But that is what I wanted.  I pieced all my large blocks  together to make the quilt.

I wanted to continue with all that softness, so I chose to use flannel for the back.  The top of my quilt was a little too small for a twin size, so I took a large flannel sheet and cut it down.  I used the part I cut down for a border on the top.  And the rest of the flannel sheet for the back.

I hand quilted the whole thing in a diagonal fashion.  I love the colors, except for maybe the Winnie the Pooh fabric, but it's part of the blankets, so I needed to add it. :)  This quilt has a whole lot of character and memories!

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Jean Quilt Tutorial

My husband and children love quilts!  Especially homemade ones!  So for Christmas this past year I made my husband a "Levi Blanket" out of old jeans that we wore out over the years.

I started out cutting my jeans into strips.  I cut them into 4, 5 and 6 inch strips, it all depended on how small my jeans were that I was cutting.  To me, this is the most time consuming part.

  I sewed the strips into rows.  Then go a head and place the rows into the order you want them to be sewn into.  I was planning on using a flannel sheet that I picked up on clearance a few years ago that we never used.  So I laid the sheet down and then laid the rows of jeans on top of that so I would have the right size of top.  Once you have your rows laid out in the order you want them to be in, start sewing them together to make your jean top.

Now on to the pictures...

Lay your sheet on your frame.  It's best to have help and it's more fun too!

Clamp your frame together and put on stands. 

You know how much I love yard sales!  Well, I picked up a huge roll of batting at a yard sale for $1!  Actually my husband found it and bought it asking if I could make him a jean quilt with it...

Lay out your batting and smooth out any wrinkles.

Now put the jean blanket on top and pull tight. Clamp the corners and use pins along the sides to hold down the all the pieces of the quilt.

Now time for the fun part!  Tying the quilt.  We wanted to put our ties right down the center of each strip that I sewed.  We used 3x5 inch cards to space out the ties along the strips.

With a few people working, you can really crank a quilt out fast!  As you finish rows, roll the sides up and then reclamp the corners.  This way you can tie the middle of the quilt.

Once it is all tied, all that's left is finishing up the edges.  There are different ways to bind a quilt.  I did it the easiest and quickest way I knew how to do before my husband came home!  I trimmed the all the layers down, but left the flannel sheet about 2 inches longer than the rest.  Then I folded the flannel over the jean part and sewed.

Now we have one heavy, but warm, jean quilt!

Questions:  How do you do the edges?
I don't do anything to the edges.  I have made many jean blankets and haven't had any problems with the edges.  I just sew them together using a straight stitch.

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