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Archive for twin size

Rebecca’s Rainbow

By Liz · Comments (6) · September 3rd, 2012

My big kids turned five last month, and I decided it was time to make the upgrade from toddler beds to twin beds.

I had asked them a few months ago if they wanted new quilts for their new beds, or if they just wanted something from the store. Frankly, I didn’t want to bother making a big bed-sized quilt if they weren’t interested. My son, in truth, much preferred the Star Wars duvet cover from Pottery Barn Kids. Fine with me, I can always make him a new quilt another time. But my daughter decided she wanted me to make her one, and I was only too happy to comply.

After some discussion, Rebecca decided she wanted a rainbow quilt. As luck would have it, I recently participated in the Spectrum Swap, so I had over 200 5″ squares at the ready. I added a handful of my own to balance out some colors, as well as a whole set of pink at the bottom. Not only did the quilt need a bit more length, but I dare you to tell my five-year-old that pink is not its own color in the rainbow. All of her drawings would beg to differ.

Once I had all of the charms sorted to my liking, it was easy-peasy patchwork. Well, mostly easy. Since I was relying on the cutting skills of others, it’s not as though they were all perfectly the same size. Harumph. But I sure as hell wasn’t going to re-cut every single one of them down to 4.75″, so I just kept sewing and hoped for the best. I made the executive decision that having a flat quilt top was more important than points that matched up. So when I sewed the rows together, I made sure the middle squares lined up, and then smoothed out from the center and let the corners fall where they may. Just don’t look to closely, OK?

Another big! exciting! part of this quilt is that it was my first-ever time using a longarm quilting machine! I took a class through the Boston Modern Quilt Guild a few months ago, and rented some time last week to make this quilt happen. (Big thanks to my sister-in-law for watching the kids…) For my first time, I used a pantograph (i.e. traced a pattern, for those like me who are new to the longarm lingo). It definitely looks better towards the end of the quilt than the beginning, but overall it’s pretty neat. Next time I think I will go bold and do free motion, but we’ll see. This 68×90″ quilt took me three hours, from walking in the front door to walking out.

The back and binding of this quilt are both from Connecting Threads, and both were Rebecca’s choice. I love the giant floral, the quality of the fabric is quite nice, and the price per yard is even better than if I had done a Kona solid. Win! Not to mention, this was the first time I haven’t done a crazy pieced back in quite a while. It was sort of refreshing to have it be all the same fabric, and a lot less mental work to put it together.

I have to say, one of my favorite things about this is the very last addition. Rebecca was dying for the quilt to be done, and I told her I only had to make a label, and then it could go into the wash. She asked if she could write it. So I had her write her name, and I wrote the date and “Love, Mom.” 5-year-old handwriting, preserved on the quilt. It’s like it suddenly became a time capsule, and it thrills me to no end.

Comments (6)

Categories : Finished Objects

Tags : charm quilt, charm swap, rainbow, twin size

Triangle Madness – Finished

By Liz · Comments (24) · January 19th, 2012

Oh, am I excited to use that word. FINISHED!

For those who might be newer to my little blog, this quilt started as something of an experiment way back in October of 2010. I went through my scrap bins one at a time, and cut one 5″ square from as many different fabrics as I could dig out. I had a goal of making 14 sets of half-square triangles each week, and would stop when I made it through the scrap bins. Turns out, that netted me over 400 blocks from more than 200 fabrics. DANG.

And while there were a lot of starts and stops (and major life events) along the way, it is finally done. I assembled the HSTs into 20 of these blocks, and then had enough left over that I added another ring around the entire quilt, just continuing the pattern. It ended up being approximately 72″ x 88″, or a pretty generous twin-sized quilt. If it’s not the largest I’ve ever made, then it’s close.

When assembling the blocks and, subsequently, the quilt top, I will tell you that I put as little thought into fabric placement as I could. I didn’t lay a single thing out ahead of time, I just grabbed the next HSTs out of the box and sewed them together. I only vetoed if the two fabrics were too similar to one another. That was it.

For the back, I had a handful of HSTs remaining, and damn if I wasn’t going to use all of them. For the rest, I ended up pulling a rainbow of solids from my stash. I meant it too look more “color wheel” than “pride flag,” but hey, it’s pretty whatever you want to call it.

The binding is solid medium gray. Given the complete randomness of the front, I could easily have used just about any fabric. But to narrow it down, I decided to go for something that would compliment the back, and the gray just kind of spoke to me. In my haste to have this thing finally done, I decided to give machine binding a go. I am happy to say that it was pretty darn successful. I attached it to the back, first, and then sewed it down from the front. The front, I think, looks really good. The back is a little iffy, but not terrible. Not too shabby for a first effort on a big quilt.

I am really, really happy with this quilt. But while I’m perfectly pleased with the way it looks, I’m even more satisfied with it in the abstract. This was a departure for me – it was a process quilt. It was always about the process that got me to the end product, not the end product, itself. I love that the whole thing is like my own personal I-Spy quilt, with bits and pieces from lots of old favorites. I love that the whole thing came from stash and scraps (aside from having to order more Kona Bone), and yet barely put a visible dent in either.

I would definitely like to do another process quilt. Something that pulls from scraps, something that is maybe a little daunting to think of in its entirety, but that I can do pieces here and there over time. String blocks, maybe? A warm-cool HST quilt? Log cabins or improv blocks? I don’t know. I’ve got other projects already started, so I’m going to turn this one over in my head for a while, but I do think I’ll do it again.

What would YOU do for a “process” quilt?

Comments (24)

Categories : Finished Objects, Quilt-Along

Tags : half-square triangles, scraps, triangle madness, twin size

What would you do?

By Liz · Comments (7) · April 4th, 2010

First, as for the yarn… you guys are totally right, and I’m going to send most of it to Susan V for her charity knitting. Hooray!

So, as I was going through my yarn, the kids got curious and asked about it. My husband was telling them that it’s used to make hats and sweaters, and that Mommy once made Daddy a PIRATE sweater! (It’s true – it’s black and has white skull & crossbones on the arms.) The kids got all excited and asked when I was going to make them a sweater. And while I’m all done on knitting right now, I informed them that I would, in fact, be making them each a quilt. I even showed them the pile of fabrics.

The trouble is, now my daughter pitifully asks me a few times a day, “where’s my quiiiiilt?”

So, I guess I’d better get started. And that’s where I need your help. Here’s where we’re starting:

I bought this fat quarter bundle of Far Far Away almost a year ago, and knew I would use it for my daughter’s big-girl quilt. But, of course, I’m stalled with indecision and haven’t yet dared to cut into it.

I’ve got coordinating solids, especially in pinks & purples, to go with it. I’ve got scraps I can pull in. It will be a twin-sized bed quilt, and I’m leaning towards something with more solid-color space and fewer blocks. Maybe. But what kind of blocks? How many of them? How big? Where do I begin??

What would you do? Any favorites you’ve seen in the blogosphere or on Flickr that you think would be just perfect? Should I just do straight patchwork squares and be done with it? Should I do completely different front and back so it’s reversible? Gah! That’s the trouble with quilting. The possibilities are nearly endless.

Comments (7)

Categories : Quilts

Tags : Far Far Away, Heather Ross, twin size

Vacation Finish #1

By Liz · Comments (5) · August 10th, 2009

I brought three quilts on vacation with me so I could finish the binding while I was away from my machine. Naturally, they were all done before the first week was over, so I’ve been twiddling my thumbs ever since! Good thing I didn’t have internet access for much of the last week, or I probably would have gone on a fabric shopping spree in my withdrawal from all things sewing.

The first of the three finishes was a custom order from a blog friend. She wanted a pink and brown ragged square quilt for her daughter’s move to a big-girl bed.

It was quite a variety of fabrics, but I think it turned out pretty well. I added a solid pink border (Kona Cotton in Carnation) because it needed a few more inches in order to drape well over a mattress.

The back is solid brown (I believe it was Kona Cotton in Mocha) and a lighter solid pink that I found at Joann’s, with a little stripe of one of the prints from the front, which I believe is from the Moda Sultry line.

The binding is more of that Moda Sultry print. Not only did I love it, but Fabric.com sent me a full two yards of it when I only ordered a half, so I had plenty!

I had some stern words for this thing when I was quilting it, but it all worked out in the end and it sounds like recipient was darn pleased with it, so that’s all that matters!

Comments (5)

Categories : Binding, Finished Objects

Tags : ragged square, travel, twin size

My first finished quilt-along

By Liz · Comments (9) · July 12th, 2009

It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you aren’t in your own house.

At home, when the kids are sleeping, there’s a million things to do (laundry, dishes, etc.) and a million things to just plain distract me (computer, DVR, other sewing projects). But when you’re at your in-laws’ house and the kids are passed out and your in-laws are the fairly sedate type? You can just hand-sew that binding like it’s your job. And that’s what I did.

And barely more than 24 hours later, I had this:

That’s right, the ORBCo quilt is finished! I’m really happy with it. The fabrics are crazy and groovy and bright and happy. I credit a fellow quilt-along-er for inspiration on the added border, which I like a lot, in part because it makes it easy to find the top/bottom of the quilt. The swirly pink quilting is really subtle on the front, and really just adds some texture without taking away from the pattern itself. It’s delightfully soft and crinkly after a nice run through the washer and dryer.

I am super, super happy with the back. With such a loud front, I’m glad I went with a cool, simple back. The pink thread shows up quite a bit on the dark gray backing (Kona Cotton in Coal), and the slightly-off-center strip (leftover squares from the original strip sets on either side of a few inches of the Wallflower print) pops out really nicely.

The binding is more of the pink/gray Wallflower print with some extra solid gray. I had around a half yard left over of each after making the front borders and the backing, and I really didn’t want to have to buy any more fabric for the binding. I needed about nine strips for it, and got seven out of the Wallflower, so just threw in some gray here and there. I think it works.

I’m not sure what the post-washing dimensions are, but pre-washing it was about 71″ x 91″. A very generous twin and the largest quilt I have ever made. I have to say I am really proud of it.

The quilt-along itself was a lot of fun. The week-by-week instructions were good for new folks, and the Flickr group was a ton of fun to see what other people were doing and exchange stories and advice and compliments and encouragement. In fact, everyone had such a great time that they’re starting another quilt-along: a zig-zag! I’m sorely tempted, but I think I really need to stick to the rest of the items on my to-do list at the moment. So many quilts, so little time…

At any rate, I’m thrilled that it’s done. I have no idea what I’m going to do with it, now, especially seeing that there are no twin-sized beds in my house. But that’s really a very minor concern, don’t you think?

Comments (9)

Categories : Binding, Finished Objects, Quilt-Along

Tags : Erin McMorris, old red barn co, travel, twin size, Wildwood

Intimidation

By Liz · Comments (8) · June 22nd, 2009

I’m afraid of my own quilt.

Veteran quilters, excuse my drama, but this is far and away the largest thing I’ve ever made. I had to move all of the furniture off to the side in my dining room, just so I’d have room to pin it. Note to self: this is the largest quilt I am allowed to make as long as I live in this house.

I had some helpers, once they woke up from nap. Nothing so helpful as two toddlers and a dog when you’re trying to keep things neat and even.

So far, pre-quilting and pre-washing, it measures just about 71″ x 91″. Not bad, only about an inch off from what it theoretically “should” measure… but holy crap is that big! It weighs about 6 pounds, which doesn’t sound like much, but it certainly feels heavy as hell.

It’s all pinned and trimmed and ready to quilt…. if I could just a) decide how I’m going to quilt it and b) get up the courage to start.

So, how would you quilt this thing? The backing is mostly a solid slate gray, and that same gray is present in a number of the prints on the top, so I was leaning towards quilting it in dark gray thread. (Perhaps because I’m concerned about my imperfections showing up too much on the back!) But do I just stipple it? Do some kind of straight quilting with my walking foot? Do something entirely different? Please, send suggestions!

Comments (8)

Categories : Quilt-Along, Quilting

Tags : basting, old red barn co, twin size

Somebody stop me

By Liz · Comments (2) · May 23rd, 2009

This is not a good idea.

I’m thinking about joining another quilt-along. It’s hosted at Old Red Barn Co., and it’s a fairly simple-looking but lovely quilt, just about twin-sized.

Here’s why I’m thinking about doing it (aside from the fact that I’m a glutton for punishment)… I’ve been seriously toying with the idea of making some twin-sized quilts for my mom’s lake house. In total, there are seven twin-sized beds there, but I’m going to start with the room that only has two. So I’d like to make two matching/coordinating twin-sized quilts.

I’m considering doing it with the Michael Miller Farmers Market line. Seems appropriate for a lake house, no? Or possibly the Paula Prass Flights of Fancy, as recommended by the quilt-along host (and it gets you extra entries for the prize, but it’s also quite lovely). Or any number of other fabric combos that I’m falling in love with. (Damn, you online window shopping!)

Here’s why it’s a BAD idea…. um, do I really have that kind of time?! Between the nine-patch quilt-along (nine-patch-a-day through early July), take two of the failed baby blanket (must be done by June 9, it’s coming along…), a twin-sized ragged square quilt I need to get cracking on for a custom Etsy order (should be done by early August, though I suppose it’s flexible)…. and, oh, LIFE! I don’t know.

Part of me gets a bit uneasy with too many WIPs. I think I worry that, in my excitement to start something new, I’ll never finish the things that were already in progress. I get a little nervous when my to-do list gets too long. My new white board next to my sewing table helps me keep tabs, but still.

On the other hand, I know people have many more things going at once than I do. And there’s nothing saying that I can’t set these twin quilts aside if I need to, and not exactly keep pace with the quilt-along…

My final consideration in the lake house quilt project is that, well, I don’t want to tell my mom about it ahead of time. I’ve mentioned the idea of making quilts for the house, and she thinks that’s a perfectly lovely idea. But I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself, and so I don’t really want her asking about their progress, you know? I’d really like to just present them when they’re done. And if that’s next May for Mother’s Day? Fine.

So, what do you think? Join in? Take a deep breath and step away from the fabric?

Comments (2)

Categories : Quilt-Along

Tags : family, gifts, twin size

Archive for twin size

Rebecca’s Rainbow

Triangle Madness – Finished

What would you do?

Vacation Finish #1

My first finished quilt-along

Intimidation

Somebody stop me

Crafty Folks

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Works in Progress

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Archive for twin size

Rebecca’s Rainbow

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Triangle Madness – Finished

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What would you do?

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Vacation Finish #1

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My first finished quilt-along

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Intimidation

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Somebody stop me

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Crafty Folks

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Wish List

Works in Progress

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