Screen Print Class

My friend Sarah and I just took a screen printing class at the Make Workshop on the Lower East Side.  For my project I chose to make a fabric label for Ellisa's house quilt (I haven't quite decided how I'm planning on attaching it- before or after it's quilted?).  It was a really cool class and definitely has me interested in learning more (this class was only two classes) about screen printing and other crafty fabric related things so hopefully there will be more (exciting) projects to post in the future!

Here are photos of Sarah and me during our workshop on Sunday:

Original paper drawing (left) and painting on the screen.

          

After screen filler is added (left) and during the printing process (right).

Sarah printing

Finished product!  (Sarah's Valentine's Day cards are above)

Not Going Well

So, I have begun my first attempt at the meandering quit stitch.  I really like doing curly cues, but Courtney really wants the meandering stitch for her thank you quilt and I have been putting it long enough.  I studied photos of the stitch, read a little bit about how to do it, but in actuality, it's not going so well.  My hope is that it'll start getting better the more I do it (it's a huge quilt, so I definitely have learning time!) and that when I wash it the stitching won't be so noticeable...  After this quilt, I may stick to curly cues...

The Dirty Thirty Quilt

Today is Cristina's 30th Birthday.  She is one of my closest friend and she, unlike me, is not too excited to hit the big 3-0 and she, unlike me, is celebrating in a nice normal fashion- dinner with her boyfriend and then a party at a bar.  Since we aren't going crazy with the celebrating, I decided that I needed to do something special for her for her birthday (especially since she will be traveling for mine).  I had put a nice little gift bag together for her when on Tuesday she let it slip that she'd love to have a quilt to use while watching TV if I ever felt like making one for her.  I also had plans to maybe see her on Thursday- Make an entire quilt in less than 48 hours?  Challenge excepted.

Who would have thought that I'd actually be able to pull it off?!  30 hours after I began the quilt, it was finished.  (Sleep and human interaction is highly overrated anyway...)  I have been thinking recently that I wanted to do more work with hexagons, because apparently I love them.  I also love a quilt that is in Elizabeth Hartman's book that is a white quilt that looks like it has peddles tossed all over it.  I decided to try to combine the idea and attempt to make a quilt that looked like there were hexagons sprinkled over the quilt.  For the most part, I think that I succeeded (especially since I patterned it myself- a first for me!).  Here is my wonky inspiration drawing and my notes that I used during the process.  Not a lot to work from, I know.

Also, since I had such a short amount of time to complete it, that I needed to only use what I had.  Thankfully, I'm pretty familiar with Cristina's aesthetic, so I just went through my stash, picked out stuff I knew she'd like, and cut hexagons using the hexagon template from Fresh Quilts.  The rest of it, I totally winged.  I played with the hexagon template and took all kinds of measurements.  Over all, I'm happy with the pattern (which will, forever be referred to as the Dirty Thirty Quilt), I think there is a little too much white, I think that it suggests what I was going for.  I might actually write up a little tutorial of this later if I'm feeling ambitious.  The back of the quilt is a few different vintagey fabrics that go pretty well together and the binding is actually from a top sheet that I no longer have the mate for...

And now, a word (or a few) about free motion quilting.  This was my first attempt.  At first, I HATED  it.  It was really loud (I thought my neighbors might complain) and really hard to control, the stitch lengths were crazy different, and I broke 5 needles.  And then, like magic, the foot broke.  No, seriously, this medal bar thingie snapped right off, and it was like magic.  Suddenly, it was quiet and controllable and faster (and no more broken needles!).  Maybe they sold me the wrong foot.  Whatever it was, now it's good, so I'm okay with it.  I did sort of curly cues mixed with circles- I wanted it to basically look like I had doodled on it (I even threw in a "Hidden Mickey" for good measure).  For a first outing, I think it went pretty well.

Cash insists on immediately running up and lying on any quilt (or fabric) that I put on the ground- especially when I want to take photos.

I Have A Plan, I Swear

I'm in the process of cutting the fabric for the first quilt that I'm making for myself.  This picture sorta make it look like I don't have a plan, but I swear, I know what I want it to look like in my head.  I laid it out to see how many more strips I need in order to make it and I'm really glad that I did because I'm rethinking that size.  I looked up how large a quilt should be for a double bed and it said a minimum of 80" wide.  I laid it out of my queen size bed and it looks huge, but I may make it a bit smaller than planned, especially since the cool part of the quilt is going to be the detailing on the sides (trust me).  I also learned that I need some more neutral-y fabrics.  I chose these fabrics because most of them have meaning for me (duvet covers from years past, my love of football, gifts from friends, the first vintage fabric I ever bought), but it's starting to look large pattern heavy even busier than I thought it might.

I won't be posting completed photos of this one until October because after seeing it on my bed, I don't think that there is room for me to lay out the whole thing in my apartment (which I'm really going to need to do for this one), so I may have to wait until I'm in Ohio to put it together.  If I get anxious, I may be after to move some furniture in my living and dining room sewing room.  I hope this one turns out well!  I also want to get a darning foot for my machine and try to do something a little more interesting than a straight line for the actual quilting, but I won't be surprised if I ended up scratching that idea and just doing what I'm comfortable with (and have the materials for).  Time (hopefully not too much time) will tell.

Photo Free Friday

Things I learned on Thursday...

• I am not good at all things fabric.
• Stuffed animals are very hard and very time consuming to make.
• I'm not good at hand sewing.
• I'm not fast at hand sewing.
• When you drop scissors (the pointy kind that can cut leather and stuff), point down onto your foot it doesn't bleed a ton, but really hurts.  And bruises.  And makes you think that maybe you've chipped a bone in your foot.  Then you think that maybe you've watched too many episodes of Bones in a row and that your foot is fine and you're not going to die, it's just going to hurt for awhile.
• Did I mention that I'm not good at making stuffed animals?

New Wave Quilt (finally!)

I know I've been talking about this quilt for forever- well, it's finally done (I really hate that pesky binding, so I've been holding off on that)!

It's not as great as I wanted it to be, but I did learn a lot from it (mostly about binding):

• Do not cut the binding too small- this will cause all kinds of problems!
• At this point in my learning, there's not such thing as too many pins.  Once I get better, then I can cut back.
• Don't get too excited that the quilt is almost done and rush through the binding- the slower the better.

 

This is by far the largest quilt that I have ever made.  It was hard working on this scale towards the end, so I'm going to focus on smaller quilts for a little bit until I get more comfortable with the binding and quilting.

The front - I didn't measure, but to give an idea for size- this is on my queen size bed.

Back

Setbacks, New Goals

Well, folks, after trying to teach myself some new stuff, I have some bad news: I may not be very good at quilting- yet.  I decided to give finishing full, detailed quilts a little bit of a rest and try things on a smaller scale, so I'm making (drum roll please)... pot holders.  I figure that this is a good, practical way to teach myself how to finish quilts without the pressure of having spent hours upon hours on it already.  This way, if I mess up, it's not such a big deal.

The first pot holder I attempted to make today was also my first attempt at a pinwheel.  As the picture shows, it did not go well.

What I learned: think before you cut; think before you sew.  And, if you don't know how to do something, maybe look up how to do it instead of just diving in and thinking it'll be a snap.

The second attempt actually worked, even if there are some imperfections.  I have some Alexander Henry baseball fabric left over from a blanket I made for Project Linus.  This was my first time doing actual binding on a quilt, including a mitered corner!  So, even though it's not perfect, I think it's a good step forward.

front

back

Anybody want a pot holder?

Early Delivery!

Last weekend I was in Ohio for a wedding and my mother was nice enough to drive two hours to have lunch with me.  In her trunk were two huge boxes she found in the attic- one was labeled "Fabric/Batting" and other, unlabeled.  She told me to look through them and decide if I wanted them or if she should get rid of them.  Talk about a find!  There was a huge box of fabric from when I first started sewing in college.  Back then I was obsessed with making pajama pants for anyone who wanted a pair and tiny clothes for my cement goose, Ferdinand.  In the boxes were yards and yards of silly cotton fabric, some cut in the shape of pajama pants that were never finished, there were bandannas from our late dog Lily, vintage hats I purchased at a theatre sale, some disgusting poly batting from my pillow making days, and some super weird fabric from a play I designed years ago.  There was too much stuff to travel back with me, so my mom generously offered to mail me a box of fabric.  It was supposed to arrive Wednesday (I've been going crazy waiting for it to arrive), but guess what came in the mail today?!  Yay!  Most of the fabric is very novelty and will be used for kids quilts for Project Linus.

Today also marked my first time I attempted to quilt on a machine and not by tying little embroidery floss or yarn at the corner of each box.  It wasn't a completely botched attempt, but I ran into some difficulties.  (I should mention, I do not have a walking foot.)

Here's what I learned:

• Machine quilting is much harder than the YouTube video I watched made it look.
• Spray adhesive may be the best invention of all time.
• I need a lot more practice at this!

Once the quilt is done, I'll post a photo of it.  It's for Project Linus and is made mostly out of left over fabric from the baby blanket I made for Danielle, along with some striped and solid fabrics I had lying around.  I'm a bit discouraged by the setback, but I keep reminding myself- everything is a learning experience!