Triangle quilt

My first quilt!

This is not a post I thought I'd ever be writing, for two reasons. First off, when I set myself a deadline of just over a week to make a quilt I wasn't sure it was possible. Secondly, I just never thought quilting would be my 'thing' but it was so much fun and I think that might be me hooked now! The reason for the crazy deadline was a trip to Scotland last week which included meeting up with one of my best pals and her beautiful baby boy. When he was born I thought about making another baby blanket but decided to challenge myself a bit more. Once I had spotted the See Kate Sew triangle quilt I couldn't resist giving it a go. I started cutting the fabric in the summer but only got 2 of the 6 colours cut out before doubt set in and I convinced myself I couldn't do it. It got hidden in a drawer until, two weeks ago, I suddenly decided I could and would make it, in a week!
Deciding on the colours wasn't too hard as I'd already picked the spider fabric, pale chambray & yellow and knew I wanted colours to stick to more muted colours (well blues, yellow, & white is pretty muted for me!).

Taking some pics of the quilt in my in-laws garden before taking the quilt to its new home

This quilt was made completely from my stash woohoo!
The fabrics:
Spider fabric leftover from a baby blanket I made, fabric from M is for Make
Yellow fabric bought years ago from Shepherd's Bush Market
Pale chambray left over from many Oliver + S sunny day shorts & bucket hats
Dark chambray leftover from my Japanese dress book Dress D
Pale blue was an old H&M shirt of mine
White, leftover from my Banksia top
The quilt batting was organic bamboo batting I bought in Ray Stitch
Striped bias binding made from an Ikea pillow case, I love how it turned out and have another 3 to be turned into bias binding too!

I'd read that there was a problem with the quilt template design that meant the triangles don't keep their points. However I found it OK to get the points using the original template. You just have to be careful where you match up the sides - I've included some photos below in case it helps anyone. I used the 1/4" seam allowance recommended to sew the triangles together but ended up using a bigger seam allowance to sew the lines of triangles together as this was the only way I could see to get the lines almost flush. I machine stitched the binding on the front them slip stitched the back using this Purl Soho tutorial for guidance.

Sewing the first 2 triangles together. On the pinned side you can see the point at the top meet but at the bottom the fabric pinned on top extends further than the fabric underneath.

Attaching the third triangle. I tried to line up the top right corner of the yellow triangle with the top of the dark chambray (they are folded in opposite direction but if you turned the dark chambray under the yellow the corners of the triangle would meet.

First three joined. You can see there is a nice point on the triangle but quite a big border at the top.

Same again, I made sure the fabrics matched up at the top of my stitching.

You can see there is a sizable border at both ends above the triangle points. This meant the 1/4" seam allowance wasn't enough to make the lines of triangles join us so I just had to work out where to sew each line myself. 

This took me pretty much every evening for a week, plus 2 nap times, to do all the cuttings and sewing and even then I still hadn't sewn on the binding before it was time to go to Scotland. Luckily my mother-in-law sews too and had offered me the use of her machine when we arrived in Fife. I had 2 days in Scotland before delivery of the quilt, could I do it?! Well, I would never have done it on my own but, with my mother-in-law's help we got it done. I did the machine stitching then we both sat down one evening and slip-stitched the back.  It was SO nice to sew like this, sitting chatting and working on something together. I can totally see the appeal of quilting bees now and kind of wish I could be in one. Maybe I'll need to start one?! So this was a quilt made with a lot of special fabrics and a lot of love and friendship. And now it's already being loved and well-used in its new home which is all I could wish for.  Sewing to a deadline like this really helped me, I enjoyed the push to complete it and think I will set myself more deadlines, even if they're totally arbitrary!  What about you, deadline sewing or do you prefer more relaxed? Does anyone have any recommendations on any other quilt patterns for beginners?

Baby blanket No.2

After an initially slow start to sewing plans in January - hampered by flue and quickly followed by starting a new job - I was glad to have a nice quick project to start with.  Yes, another baby blanket, this time for Lily, the daughter of one of my friends.  We've been friends a long time so I think I know the colours and patterns she would like - basically anything with a bit of a 60s/70s vibe and/or lots of colours.  This repeat print elephant fabric in Ray Stitch it seemed like the perfect choice!  I backed it with the same blue fleece given to my by another friend (which may or may not be a smuggled airline blanket - ahem!) and once again I used an embroidery chain stitch to sew on the initial.

 I'm so happy with how this turned out and once again would highly recommend Jane's tutorial for any beginner's like myself, or indeed for anyone in need of a quick, satisfying sewing fix!

Continuing on with this productivity I surprised myself last night by getting on with a turquoise dress, another McCalls 2401, which I've had cut out for ages. Hopefully I'll get it finished by the end of the week! I did make a second McCalls 2401, after the initial toile, in a lovely fabric I got from Walthamstow market.  I made it for a wedding but forgot to get any photos, then I wore it again for my birthday on Saturday and once again forgot to take any photos.  I'll just have to wear it again this weekend and get a photo this time!

Progress!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all! I hope everyone had a joyful and relaxing Christmas and New Year break.  I've been very lucky and had an extra long break which I spent back in Scotland seeing family and friends.  It was a great break and now I have the excitement of a new job starting tomorrow as a project archivist at London School of Economics! The project is titled The economist and the wider world: the papers of Lionel Robbins (1898-1984) and I'm really excited about getting started.  As it will be my first week though I doubt whether I'll have much time to blog so I thought I'd just say hello tonight.

I've been loving reading all the responses to Gillian's Top 5 reflections series but I haven't really made enough to participate properly as I've only made 7 items in total this year.   However I've actually got a lot of wear out of most of them so far and I feel I've learnt a lot so I'm happy with the progress I've made.  The most recent dress (still unblogged) has only had one outing so far - the wedding I made it for - but I'm sure I'll wear it a lot in the future.  The 'toile' I made has become a favourite - worn with a belt and a bright cardigan it's perfect for work. 

One bit of the Top 5 Reflections I can complete is the Top 5 Lessons Learned:

1. I have a lot, a lot, to learn about sewing!
2. I'm a slow sewer and often can't find the energy to sew after work - I'm going to try and use the 15 minute idea discussed by Tilly for those evenings when I'm home but feeling too tired to sew as it makes it much less daunting.
3. Making toile's from fabric I'm not going to wear is pretty demotivating.  I just discovered this as it's taken over a month to make up a toile from my skirt block using the same fabric as my dress toile. Somehow a grey skirt as well as a grey dress wasn't too appealing. Time to be brave and just cut into nicer fabric first time round.
4. Sewing friends are amazing! I'm very lucky to have a 'real life' sewing friend and couldn't have learned so much this year without her help.  Like so many other sewers who blog I've been amazed by the support and help I've received from the online sewing community. I hope one day to be able to reciprocate!
5. I love wearing things that I've sewn!

My final make of 2012? A baby blanket made using Handmade Jane's tutorial and stealing the idea of the initial from Kestrel Finds and Makes.  I used a scrap of yellow striped fabric for the initial and then chain stitched round the edge of it with embroidery thread.

I couldn't share this before as I didn't want to spoil the surprise for the receiver, well the mum of the receiver as this was a present for our new two-week old nephew Adam (I don't think he reads my blog - yet!).  It was so much fun to make and I enjoyed relearning the embroidery chain stitch as I hadn't done it for years.  The fleece fabric was a gift from a friend and the other fabric is a lovely soft linen/cotton blend I got from M is for Make (they still have it and it's in the sale now)