Moses Basket Quilt

So one pillowcase has become the softest baby quilt

The applique petals came out perfectly. There are still a few yellow chalk marks where I quilted some straight lines but they'll come out with use.

Here is a close up of the quilting stitches I did round the petals. I try to use cotton abrode but I don't have very much. So when in doubt I simply use Gutterman button thread which they seem to sell everywhere and is really cheap. I find it really smooth and just the right thickness. Terrible I know, but it makes for a really cheap quilt! The binding was just a pack of yellow bias binding from John Lewis.

Basically a very quick, cheap, soft quilt! I was thinking I might try and draw up the pattern. I can't quite decide.

It fits perfectly in the moses basket.

And in the Babybay bedside cot.

I know you're not suposed to use blankets but they seem to sell them in Mamas&Papas so I guess they're just there to look nice really. See the start of the project here

My Amazing Mum

So in the time it takes me to sew two bits of material together...wrongly, my mum whips up this little number and gives it to me. This was all hand applique and hand quilted. It must have consumed many hours. My mum is my quilting guru.



This is an adaptation of a classic Robert Callahan quilt pattern. My mum spilt tea all over the pattern book and we had a real job finding another on the internet for her. She was so pleased in the end though when a neat and tidy version came along. Berries seem to be the bane of her life though. No material is ever the right hue and then she is not happy with how she makes them. I was too amazed by the whole thing to even look at the berries!

For any appliquers out there, here is the technique she uses for small circles. That's what I bought those precut circles for. I am going to try and design my own simple applique pattern soon... gulp.

Blasts from the Past

This quilt was the first proper quilt I ever made. I made two before this but the top was already premade and I just sandwiched it all together really ineptly. But I was 17 when I made those. This one I made when I was in my twenties for my best friend's baby. He's just turned 11, making it seem like such a long time a go! I love how soft it is now from years of use. You can see my first ever applique I did. It's not half bad even if I do say so myself. I was so chuffed with myself when I finally completed it.

Applique bits

I sewed my last leaf today and ironed all my bits. I've been taking it very slowly, as it's a bit laborious to try and do it solidly, but every time I sit down to watch TV I've been doing what my mum advised. Tacking leaves and sewing circles. After my awful attempt at the fast way, the difference it makes doing it this slow way is amazing. I am half tempted to unpick my first attempts but if I did that I think the quilt would no longer me my test quilt. There's something satisfying about being able to see your skills progress from one shitty edge to the final perfect one. Well I say perfect…

So in a nutshell, the winning applique technique I have found works best:

LEAVES
Iron freezer paper templates onto wrong side of material.
Cut round material leaving 1/2 inch seam.
Fold edges over freezer paper and tack right into paper roughly making sure you start outside in so your knot is easy to cut off once you've sewn it.
Pin and sew onto material 3/4 way round
Undo tacking, retrieve freezer paper and sew to finish.

CIRCLES
Cut shape out leaving 1/2 inch seam
Use a double thread making sure the lopped thread is at the end of the thread
Sew from outside in leaving a small loop on the outside to start with
Small tacking stitches all round circle
To finish come out through the top into the loop
Place mylar template inside and pull thread in loop to tighten
Iron
Extract mylar

It's a real rigmarole. Definitely more pernickerty than other methods I've seen, but it gives a foolproof finish as the shapes don't look lumpy when sewn on. Maybe as I get better I'll do it differently, but my mum still uses this technique and she is an applique machine I tell you!

Applique Decisions

I rented out "The Art of Applique" from my mum's library and it's perfect. Everything you needed to know about Applique in a thin, straight forward book with lots of diagrams. Every variation of method explained from start to finish. Everything is clearer now. You can click on the above images to see them larger but they just explain what I have been doing so far this weekend.

I started by cutting some test strips, each using a different method. One strip was ironed into three (which was easier than I thought it was going to be) and hand sewn in place. The other was ironed in half and machine sowed on one side, tacked, then hand finished on the other. Each created a different effect. In the end I decided to follow the same technique used in the quilt instructions which I understood a lot more after reading this book.




The folding in half method creates a raised stem which I like and is slightly quicker. You can't really see what I mean from the image though. Anyhow, I had already photocopied my design onto tracing paper so I needle punched holes down the stems. This is my version of prick and pounce which is just a way of transferring a design onto your material. Previously I've just used a lightbox and lain my material over the design and drawn it on, but I decided to try out this method for a change. I had bought some chalk refills ages ago when I was with Claire so I thought I should try it. I put a small amount of the chalk into a film box, then dabbed a rolled up bit of wadding into it and dabbed the holes. I'd like to say I thought this all up myself, but it's all care of my mum who is the master in these matters. Anyway it worked like a dream and I just joined up the dots and got sewing.

Now I am thinking, Teen Wolf on the telly and I can sew those stems in place. I need to get a wriggle on as I have a backlog of other projects but this is the only one I can now do in front of the TV. This is going to take an age, and then I have to hand quilt round it ALL. There is no machine quilting on this quilt. It is a monster.

Applique

I've cut out all my shapes and drawn up my pattern. I might try using prick and pounce to transfer the pattern, or I might try photocopying it onto tracing paper and just overlaying it. I need to look up a few techniques.

Applique

I've been putting it off for a long time, but finally I am finishing off this Maggie Wise quilt which I thought would be a good way to learn a bit of applique. The applique bits go on the two fat borders by the checks. It's all stems, leaves and flowers. I might draw out a diagram later.



Here's Maggie's quilt she made which I love. You can see the flowery vine on the side. This is what I am doing now, or rather, trying to do.



Applique is when you sew shapes on top of your material. It's fiddly and I know I am going to be awful at it. I actually did some on my second ever quilt, where I wrote the name 'ROWAN' on alternate squares of a quilt. (I really should photograph it for posterity but Rowan has it now and goodness knows where it is). Anyhow, I've forgotten everything I learnt as that must have been 7 years a go now. So it's a big learning curve.

I already got it wrong as soon as I started! First I cut templates out of this plastic stuff called mylar. You can just use cardboard but myla is transparent so I could trace them from the pattern. Then I folded some freezer paper, drew round the shapes, then cut them out with my nail scissors. What is freezer paper you ask? It's what americans use to wrap food in bizarrely enough, but it's got a shiny side which when ironed, sticks to fabric rather nicely. Basically you iron your shape shiny side down to the wrong side of your material, then cut 1/4 inch round the shape. I did it wrong by cutting out the fabric first then ironing the freezer paper on. I think it's better if you iron, then cut as your 1/4 border is more even.

Some people think that's too generous and that you should only leave 1/8inch, but I thought I'd maybe try both as I go along. There seems to be so many different ways in which people applique. I guess it's all about finding a way that works best for you. I quite like the needle turn approach where you remove the paper before you sew and you don't tack the seams beforehand, you just lay it down and tuck in under as you sew, as shown here and here. I've got a lot of tiny circles to do which I know are going to look pretty wonky at first so I might follow this method here but insert a lot of swearing. Anyhow, you can see from the numbers on each template that I've got a lot to cut out. It's all good for doing in front of the telly.

I might go home and raid my mum's books on the subject as she loves applique. I bet she has umpteen books on it. When I go to Birmingham I'll also be able to browse the book stalls, see if I can find me a good instruction book about it praps.

I can't wait until Birmingham! It's the mecca of quilting!