Falling Waves From Hell

Today I'll tell you about the...(let me count) third quilt I made.

Let's just say: This one wasn't pretty! I basically hated every single step of the process!

Here's a first glimps of the culprit:

Falling Waves Quilt

 Looks innocent enough, doesn't it? If only it were so...

The Fabric

I found different fabrics in the sales bin at my local quilt shop. They were being sold for $5/m - which is a great deal in an area where fabric is sold for $24/m! I bought three fabrics in shades of pink because I thought they would work together nicely. Definitely not my favourite colour scheme, but it was - comparably - cheap!

The Piecing

This quilt was actually all about practice! I planned (and still plan) to make a quilt with HRTs (Half Rectangle Triangles), but they are not that easy to make without loosing all the points. So I decided to pratcise with HSTs (Half Square Triangles).

I used - what could possibly be described as - the traditional way of making HSTs: put two squares on top of each other, sew down the diagonal twice 1/4" from the middle.

I didn't calculate that every two squares sewn together that way would also yield two HSTs and I ended up with far too many! I was planning on a baby quilt, but now it's closer to the size of a lap quilt!

You can imagine that it took me a long, long time to sew them together, press them (half to the dark, the other half to the white) and square them up! I think I went through a whole audiobook. That's over 30 hours!

I was already fed up just looking at them!

Falling Waves in all its Hellish Glory

Then came the sewing them all together part. I hadn't met the 1/4" seam (or just a consistent near 1/4" seam) yet. Need I say more? Nope, it's blatantly clear I did a lot of ripping, re-sewing, re-ripping and re-sewing of these stupid pink fabrics I didn't like to begin with, sprinkled with imaginative swearing, groaning and foot stomping.

That's also when I learned: There's a moment when you just have to let that idea of all perfect points go and move on! And move on I did - quiet happily I might add!

 

The Backing

Having many leftover HSTs I decided to incorporate same of them in the backing. I decided to go with a strip with an easy heart design. The design and making of the back was probably the most fun part for me. No major hiccoughs either!

Back of the Falling Waves Quilt

The Quilting

Oi vey!

I started off with simple stitch in the ditch - or in my case to the left or the right, over and through the ditch! But it looked a little unfinished so I decided to add a few more lines. Naturally, I didn't really manage to space them evenly. Oh, well, who said it was planned that way anyway?! :P

The Quilting on the Falling Waves Quilt

Of course the whole quilting process didn't go smoothly. Somehow the spare backing and batting got caught in the quilting not once, not twice, but seven times!

More swearing, groaning and foot stomping ensued.

And out came my much used and dearly hated seam ripper!

I don't know why, it never happened before this quilt and never ever after this one (touch wood!).

Let's just say I'm very happy I got this quilt finished (big woohoo!) and bound and stored away!


I still have quiet a few pink HSTs left over in a baggy somewhere. I might pull myself together some time and make a few pillows are mini quilts out of them. Maybe when I'm finally gifting that quilt to someone...



All the best,
Cat.

My First Quilt

I decided to show you the quilts I've made so far. I only started quilting this January, so there are not that many to share yet (but I have a little booklet where I collect quilting ideas, I'm at a whopping 20 new design ideas!).

 

The Fabric

I picked up two batik jelly rolls in Walmart when I was in New Orleans last Christmas. I actually wanted to go to Michael's or JoAnn's. However, they were a bit too far out and not really reachable with public transport so I had to make due with Walmart's. It certainly wasn't the best quality quilting cotton, but I figured it was good enough to start with. Who wants to spend a fortune when you don't even know it'll turn out ok? Besides I'd already spent a lot on a cutting mat, a rotary cutter and a couple rulers.

 

And this is what I came up with for my first ever finished quilt:

 

"First Rainbow"

I called it "First Rainbow". It's about 36"x36".

The Piecing

It wasn't actually the first quilt top I pieced, I made a Strip 'n Flip top first, but then realised that it was rather big, so I decided to make a smaller baby quilt with the leftover fabrics. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to wrangle such a big quilt through my machine for all the quilting and wanted to have a smaller practise piece. Turns out it worked just fine!

I used one strip of each colour and added a thinner black strip, then cut them into three pieces, so that it would end up in a square. If you look closely, you realise the blocks are not exactly square. I didn't use a 1/4" foot at the time, but my normal presser foot and anyway, I was very knew to the whole inch concept. I am happy to report that I've gotten better - both with the 1/4" seam and the calculations with inches!


In the making - late at night


When joining the blocks I ran into another problem: on some sides I had additional black strips, on others there was none...It took some re-arranging and thinking, but in the end I only had to rip two seams. The Quilting Police would probably have stuck me into Quilting Camp for 5 years, no probation. Luckily, I escaped that fate!

The Quilting

I used plain black fabric as backing and a fleece throw from Ikea for batting. Batting is quiet expensive around here (even when ordering in the US online, the shipping costs always floor me). That's why it turned out rather thick and should probably be called a play mat.

I bought specially waxed quilting thread (66% poly, 33% cotton) for the quilting and it worked fine. It is mostly quilted in the ditch - or I should say in, next to, over and in the vicinity of the ditch. :D

The border is quilted rather heavily and I used my foot as guidance. As you can see (don't look that closely, leave me some dignity here, please!) they are not that regular and there were a few puckers, too. Oh well, who cares? Non-quilters won't look that closely anyway! Right? Right?!


 

Detail of the quilted border

Adding the binding was the only frustrating part for me. First, I mucked up the joining of the two strips (they were twisted) and of course, I had already cut off the ends. So after trying and re-trying, the only thing that I could to was cut off the ends and join them in a straight seam. I also blame this unfortunate event - I secretly call it The Big Binding Bind of 2014 - for now being very obsessive when joining binding strips. I at least check 10 times before cutting anything off.

I tried to sew on the binding by machine, but after doing one side I realised that there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that it would look good. So I ripped it all and hand sewed it. It sure took more time, but the result isn't bad at all!


As of now, this little quilt is still waiting for a new owner. I hope some family member or friend will get pregnant soon! :D


All the best,
Cat

Hello and welcome!

Hi everybody out there!

Great that you found your way to my little corner of the www!

I plan to give you a few insights in what I'm up to when I'm being creative. Right now, I'm very much into quilting (and petting fabric, but shush! :D). I like to come up with new (to me, maybe also to you) quilt designs and ideas.I enjoy the process from the original idea, to the actual design, to a viable pattern to the finished quilt.

So hopefully, you will soon find some of my recent ideas and finished quilts on here, sprinkled with a few adventures from my kitchen activities.

Feel free to leave me questions or other comments, I'd love to hear what you think!

Hope you'll enjoy it and hang around!

Best,
Cat