CRACK PROBLEM

zvswgogna

a bag of chips
I been asked a few questions about quilting, so if it not your thing, go here for some home decor eye candy. Or go clean out your belly button. of all, I not a seasoned quilter. I a 100% amateur who has been flying by the seat of her sweat pants with the help of the internet. My quilts are not perfect and there a pretty good reason why I don feature closeups of my seams, machine quilting or handbinding. But I learning and making and screwing something up with each quilt I make. that just adds character, right?
Much like scrapbooking and photography, I developing my own style, discovering new preferences, trying on new things and spending WAAAAY to much of my kids college fund buying fabric, and WAAAAAY too much time browsing through quilter blogs and Flickr quilting groups. I a tad obsessed, I guess.
good pair of scissors used only for fabric (please ignore the fuzz on the tips of my scissors), a rotary cutter, and a pack of replacement rotary cutter blades.
An Omnigrid (or similar brand) ruler or two or three, and an Omnigrid (or similar brand) selfhealing cutting mat (the green thing in the background). I have several different sizes of the rulers and my cutting mat is quite large. Because bigger is better and you know it.
A sewing machine and an iron. Sure, you could sew everything by hand and press your fabric between books. um, no. machine is a very inexpensive and basic thing that I got at Target several years back for about $80. has a pretty good number of stitch styles and is quite easy to use. (Before I bought it it had been since home ec class in junior high that I done anything on a sewing machine. Yeah, a VERY long time.) a basic iron to press seams and wrinkles and to steam things up a bit.
Sharp things, like needles, pins and quilter basting pins (curved safety pins). For basting, which is the process of making the quilt "sandwich" of your quilt top, batting, and backing, there are several methods: pinning (like I do), basting spray (comes in a can I never tried it but many use it), and stitching. Stitch basting involves running a threaded needle through all three layers to secure the sandwich. Again, I not tried this method. Pinning works for me for now.
And then you need some fabric. and fat quarter packs are a great way of getting out of scouring fabric stores for things that coordinate, and are a great way of stashing up. WalMart has fat quarters for a $1.00 and their "jelly rolls" are an inexpensive alternative to the designer precuts. Joann has a great selection of FQs in a full range of colors and patterns for $1.49, though I just bought a huge stack on sale for 99 cents each. you just starting out, like I am, make your first few quilts with the inexpensive fabrics. In this stack, the bottom is a Moda jelly roll (about $35.00), the blues are the individual fat quarters from Joann (bought on sale at 99 cents), and the girly pink/green fat quarter set is also from Joann and cost about $10.00. For this one I used primarily the Joann FQs, and one or two scraps from my stash. My backing is from a sheet set I bought on clearance at Target, and the quilt is bound with a solid dark green from Joann, also on sale. all, not including batting, this quilt cost around $20.00 to make. fat quarters at about $1.00 each, one half of a twin flat sheet (the set was $9.00 or so), and 1/2 yard of solid green for the binding at about $3.00.
This quilt went together really quickly and was super easy. What I love most about this kind of random quilt is that there are no seams to line up. I kept things really nice and random and I love this kind of look. I did some simple straightline quilting with my machine and I pretty happy with how it turned out. and for batting I been using I really love working with it. If you plan on doing a lot of quilting, buying a whole roll (or bolt) vs. bytheyard is more costeffective.
And if you want to know where I go for quilting inspiration, tutorials and virtual handholding, check these out:
Film in the Fridge
Red Pepper Quilts
Oh, Fransson
Crazy Mom Quilts
Missouri Star Quilt Co.
And once I found these sites, with their wealth of tutorials, quilted eye candy, and linkydinks, I felt I had enough information to venture forward. And I have not looked up from my sewing machine since.
My very first quilt was made from one Moda jelly roll. I sewed all the strips together in one night. And it sat for nearly six months before I got up the nerve to do anything else with it. Then I read up on tying quilts and binding, put "You Got Mail" in the player, and got it done.
This quilt came together pretty easily and is my son preferred blanket every night. It not quite wide enough to be considered twin size, but it close. For tying my first few quilts, I just used some yarn and did a surgeon knot (or box knot) about every six inches or so at the seams. Is this the proper way of tying a quilt? I don know, but it how I did it. This quilt has now been washed about 10 times and it holding up beautifully. I mostly machine quilting now, but I do love the look and simplicity of tied quilts. also want to say that I don prewash my fabrics before starting projects and I don think that jelly rolls, honey buns, charm packs, turnovers, layer cakes and other precuts were designed for prewashing anyway. Things like prewashing, basting method, pressing seams open or to the side, binding method and quilting preferences are 100% up to the quilter. Whatever floats your boat, baby.
Oh, sweet internet, how I love thee. How did we ever live without you? So far I taught myself to knit and to quilt online. For free. Pretty freakin cool, right? Pretty freakin cool.
You are so funny! Thanks for your comment on my blog and I am so happy that it led me to yours. I too am new to quilting and a little obsessed and fabric/gadget/blog crazy! It so much fun, though,[url=http://www.fcgeo.ca]Ugg Canada[/url], how can we resist? As for other things we have in common: adoptive moms, Starbucks addicts (I live around the corner from one and a short drive to 2 others!)