Jungle Fever!

When I had visited Jackie last we went to the store and picked up fabric for a quilt.  I initially had thought that I would have it done in no time.  Yea that is never how it works.

I finished it literally on the way to meet her, Dallas, and the cutie for dinner.  No joke.  Jon drove us there.

This is what I was working with.  Jackie loved the color changing thread.

I am really glad I bought the super huge (well not the hugest) cutting mat.  It made it so much easier to cut the fabric.

Of course it all starts with cutting the fabric.  This is always the hardest part for me.  I have to make sure that I am cutting it the right way and will end up with the right amount  and right size squares.

Speaking of making sure everything ends up right... I had to draw myself a picture to make sure that I would end up with enough squares.

Don't laugh because I ended up with the perfect amount of squares.

My first roadblock became which way to have the zebra stripes facing... I had to ask Jon's opinion and it only verified what I already knew.  Non-Crazy stripes was the way to go.

Getting them all pinned up was super easy since Jon helped!

The sewing was standard straight lines.  Gotta love it.  In a pile they look all the more impressive don't you think?

Jon helped me line the backing up against the front of the quilt.  I made sure to cut away the excess.

To get the back fabric all lined up I rolled up the front fabric with the lining and unrolled it out onto the backing fabric.  It worked like a charm.  It got all pinned up and was ready for quilting!

I have a hard time making decisions, can you tell that already?  Jackie and I had decided on a color scheme in the store.  Did I write it down to remember it later?  Of course not!  It had come time to sew in the quilting and I couldn't remember for the life of me which way we decided to go.  I had to call my mom after sending her pictures to get her opinion.  And what did we end up with?

The yellow on the front and the green on the back.  I think it turned out very nicely.

The drama came in when I realized that my machine did not have the thread tension set correctly when I had already sewn almost all of the quilting lines.  I freaked out and started seam ripping a bunch of the quilting out thinking I could do it again.

Yea that didn't work.  After ripping and re-sewing three lines worth I realized my old machine was screwed.  I decided to give up and be good with how it was.  Because I didn't want to add anymore multi-colored thread to this pile.

I have no pictures of pinning and sewing the bias tape, so darn, you get to see the final reveal now.

I loved it.  And Jackie loved it too.  I can't wait for Caleb to use it.

Now I just have to get both of my machines to the Dr.s and I can get back to sewing with machines that work properly!

Second Quilt!

In taking off of work for a few days last week I was able to finish my second baby quilt.  It is very similar to the one I already finished just with a few little changes.

First change was that I made all of the stripes go in the same direction.

Second change was that when I quilted it, I used brown thread on the bobbin and blue thread on the top thread.  That makes the back look so much different without seeing the quilting.  You are still able to see the quilting on the top since the blue thread shows up over the browns.

Third change was that I figured out how to make the bias tape look much more finished.

The fourth change was that I only used blue thread to sew on the bias tape.  I also only sewed the bias tape twice.  Once very close to the edge and once more in the middle. I still have to figure out how to avoid making the bias tape shift when sewing it.  It seems to pull and then the bias tape looks wrinkly.  I don't like that.

But on to the reveal!

 The blue thread I think looks so pretty against the bubble fabric.

The back.  You can't even tell if there is any quilting on the back and I think I really like it that way.

Here is the bias tape.  I found that if I folded the edge over and then pinned it.  It made the switch from one bias tape to another less noticeable.  I still have to work on that to make sure that it looks its best but I am proud of what I did.

And I only ran out of bobbin thread once!  And I knew it was going to happen but it happened about 8 inches before I was ready.

I calculated about how long it took me to make this one (without accounting for cutting the squares because they were already cut) and it took me about three and a half hours.  Not too bad I would say. :)

Bias Tape Sewing Tutorial

With my recently completely quilt I have learned a new skill, sewing bias tape onto a quilt!  I had watched my friend Ellie sew it onto my bf's T-shirt quilt so I kinda had an idea of how it would work.

When it finally came time to sew the bias tape on I kinda freaked out.  I was so close to having the quilt done and now I was not sure I could made the tape look good enough (yes I am a bit of a perfectionist).

I started by laying the quilt out and slowly pinning the tape.  Once I arrived at a corner I worried again.  I tried to remember exactly what Ellie had done.

I lined up the two sides and prepared to pin.

I made sure to pin all of the way though all of the fabric without pulling or making a ripple in the fabrics.  That part was a little tough.

Then comes the tricky part... folding around the corner.  Hold the fabric tightly at the corner and slowing fold down and open the bias tape.

The bias tape will have some extra fabric, don't worry about that yet.  Make sure to line up the bias tape along the second side.

Now. Fold over the extra fabric (facing either side, it is your choice).

Carefully pin the second side so that all of the fabric is caught in the pin.  I did not pin the folded part, when I sewed it I just made sure to hold it flat as it went through the machine.

Here is an example of the completed corner all sewn up.  I decided to sew the bias tape three times (twice in brown and once in blue).  Some people like to sew it up only once, very close to the inside of the bias tape to hide it as much as possible.

Next I have to figure out how to make the crossover from one stripe of bias tape to the next look seamless.

Hope you're having a great day!!