Tag Archives: quilt

Bernina Block of the Month#2

Quilts, Sewing, Sewing Crafts Posts,

It has been a few days since the Second Bernina Block of the Month(BOM) came out, and I finally finished it today.  Since I am buying my fabric as I go, it has taken me a while to find anything that I like.  I am roughly using their color suggestions.  I am trying to use my scraps and buy new ones along the way.

This month they called this the Shoofly block. It uses squares and half square triangles to make a simple 9 patch block.  I found myself at Craft Warehouse yesterday looking over their truckload sale.  I originally went in thinking that I would purchase 3 gray fat quarters, 1 blue fat quarter, and 1 yellow fat quarter.  I found some beautiful fat quarters, but soon realized that I was going to spend twice as much and get less fabric than if I bought a quarter yard of each fabric.  So I reluctantly put back the beautiful fat quarters and searched for a yellow, gray and blue fabric that I liked.  After a half hour of searching, I came up with the following fabrics.

When I got home, I put Abigail down for a nap, and began cutting the fabric into the needed squares for this month’s BOM.  I got all of my squares cut, then began cutting the larger squares into half square triangles.  I was not watching what I was doing, and on the last square I messed up cutting the triangle properly.  The worst part was that I did not have any extra fabric to just cut another triangle.  I guess that is the risk I take when I do not buy extra fabric and only buy what is needed.

I then began assembling the triangles last night.  Some how I managed to use the messed up triangle.  When I messed up the cutting, I managed to cut it in a way that still left me with a little bit of room to make my quarter inch seam.  Before I get too far on this quilt I may think about seeing if there is a product out there to secure that seam.  Whether I use some sort of iron on fusible webbing or a glue of sorts that will not let the seam fray.

This morning I put the three blocks together per the instructions and this is what I ended up with.

Finishing Old Projects- Square Quilt

Quilts, Sewing, Sewing Crafts Posts, , , ,

New Year…. Time to clean up, organize and make room for new projects.

While organizing my craft cabinet, I found a quilt top that I absolutely forgot about.  It was a square block quilt that I had begun, so, so many years ago.  I am not sure if this was before or after my Texas Star quilt.

From what I can tell it began as a 9 patch quilt block.  Then several years ago I had sewn the squares together to make a quilt top.  I think I was going to make this as a doll quilt, as it has turned out quite small.  The quilt block colors decently match as well.  I do not remember where this fabric came from.  It is probably just as old as I am.  I know it was fabric that was handed down to me from either my mom or grandmother.  I know I did not pick it out myself.

As I was trying to iron this quilt top, I discovered that I had hand sewn some pieces together and machine sewn others.  Seam allowances are not a consistent quarter inch.  Some are larger and some are quite a bit smaller which is why they blocks do not match up.  This was definitely a quilt that I started long before I acquired a Bernina Sewing machine.  I vaguely remember trying to sew the blocks together on an older second hand sewing machine.  I always had issues with tension and thread breaking, which I always attributed to the fact that it was a crappy machine.  However, I am now learning that it might have been the cheap fabric and cheap thread that had caused all of my frustration, not the sewing machine.

After I completed ironing the quilt top, I decided that instead of trying to fix all the imperfections, I was going to keep everything the way it was.  I like seeing the old vintage style fabric with the squares not lining up.  It serves as inspiration;  Where I have come from, and how much I have learned through out the years.   There was enough fabric to create a pillow as well.  I quilted the pillow before stuffing it and have machine quilted the quilt top.  It is not perfect, but that is just what I wanted.  I am going to keep this quilt and pillow in my sewing area.  It will help me slow down on future projects so that I can complete them correctly and it will serve as a reminder of what not to do.  I learn a lot from mistakes and just trying new things.