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Friday, June 17, 2011

My Very First Quilt: How It All Begins

Bismillah,

I am having such a fun time trying new things, especially when it comes to sewing. How did it all start anyways? I'll spare that story for later. For now I want to share what's brewing in my sewing corner. I have, in the last week, been working on my very first quilt. How exciting is that!

It was tough to decide what would my first quilt be, especially with all the inspiration that's out there in the online community of sewists (I don't think this is a word but I like how it sounds). Anyhow, I decided for The easy lap quilt from Bend the Rules by Amy Karol. So far it's been a smooth ride but I'm a bit intimidated by the binding. She recommends to use the machine and hand-sewing technique and I'm going to be a good pupil and follow her advice. Apparently, it's time consuming but worthwhile if you don't want your binding to bunch up.

I'm using quilting cotton (two solids and two prints for the top, and an adorable print from Robert Kaufman for the back) all purchased from my local fabric store.


This is what I envisioned


But after playing with it I went for this


So far I have the top all sewn up and ready to pin it to the batting and backing, then I'll do some 'stitching in the ditch' (ha, I'm even using seamstress vocabulary already) and a few stray stitches on each row to keep the batting in place. After doing all that, I will make the binding from leftover fabric pieces and bind my very first quilt!

If you want more details on this quilt you might want to take a look at Amy's Bend the Rules. I own a copy and have quite a few projects from there that I'd like to try sometime in the future. It's a very good resource for those wanting to embark on this adventure called sewing.

InshAllah (God willing) after this quilt and when I get my hands on the Modern Log Cabin Quilting book I plan on making a quilt for my bed, and hopefully one for each of my munchkins: Cooks, Teddy and Fats.

A little step at a time...

I hope you're enjoying something special made by your hands and that it brings pleasure and joy to you and yours.

Happy weekend to all

4 comments:

  1. Beautiful!! I am looking forward to seeing how you do with the quilt - it looks amazing so far. Nice work! I have been wanting to learn to quilt myself and you have inspired me to try my hand at it (soon).

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  2. Quilting can be so satisfying and the end result always serves a good purpose.

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  3. I definitely like the change you made, but where is the lovely yellow fabric being incorporated?!
    I (blush) purchased that same Robert Kaufman fabric, with no purpose in mind yet...just because I'm a hoarder. Infact, I was a little upset I only bought 1 metre, I tried so hard to go back and get more haha but then school had to end on me, now I'll have to try and find it online.

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  4. The Robert Kaufman fabric will be the backing. I like the contrast of earthy colours for the top and then a bright and lively fabric as the backing.
    I wish I had bought more of it myself but then I'm sure I'd have been tempted to use it on just about anything.

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