More Quilt Squares
Wednesday evening marked a pretty momentous occasion in my house: I sat down in front of my own (well, my own borrowed from mom) sewing machine and put together two more quilt blocks (the middle center and bottom left blocks). This doesn't seem like much, but it was quite a milestone for me, since it involved
1) Getting thread on the bobbin.
2) Threading the machine
3) Getting the bobbin threaded properly
4) Adjusting the stitch length
5) Positioning the needle horizontally so I could use the edge of the presser foot as the 1/4" mark
6) Actually sewing
all by myself.
Most of you still won't be impressed, but my mom will probably be cheering a little bit. Working with this machine (a Husqvarna Romeo -- a moderately priced machine that mom uses as her "traveller") made me appreciate a few of the creature comforts that the class Berninas have -- like the big "tables" that make it a little easier to control and support fabric. But table or no table, Romeo did the job and I am two more blocks closer to having a completed quilt top.
I really wish that I had a bigger blocking board -- I'd like to be able to pin all the squares up and move them around. Maybe if I really take to this I'll go to the Home Depot and invest in a big piece of foam board.
There is something a little magickal about seeing those quilt blocks after I press them out. I'm enjoying this process a lot more than I thought I would, even if it does still require a lot of effort on my part because I have to think carefully about everything I am doing. But the more I sew, the more I get to thinking that this whole sewing machine may not be so bad... and that it might even be fun to have one of my own.
Before I sign off for the night, I do have one admission to make -- I appreciate all of your kind comments on the colors, but while I did put the blocks together, the fabrics were all picked out by Colette at Quiltology for the Serenity quilt kit. I went with the kit because I just loved the colors batik prints fo the fabrics and I really wanted to focus on the basics of sewing not on the color selection process. Between the class and the kit, Colette makes it easy to work towards a good result. My next project (yes, there will be a next project, more on that later) will involve me doing my own color selection. I think it will be easier to focus on that after I have gotten to the point where I feel like I no longer have an adversarial relationship with the sewing machine. In the meantime, playing with these blocks is still a lot of fun, even if I didn't have to do so much of the heavy lifting on fabric selection.
Those squares look really nice :-)
If you want to be able to look at your squares in sequence, and also carry them around, you could pin them onto a sheet or any other large piece of fabric - a blanket, or a bed cover. Then you could even roll it up and transport it to quilting class, or over to your mothers house for a quilting fest.
Hi Teresa,
pin a flanell sheet up and stick the blocks to that or use the back of a "wax" tablecloth. That will give you a cheap design "board".
Karin
Sounds like you've mastered the sewing machine - good for you! Your blocks are lovely.
when i was quilting a bunch I bought a few yards of felt at the store - I hung it up on my wall with thumbtacks and it makes a perfect quilt board! i could lay out squares and re-arrange them and it worked perfectly!
Things are really coming along! It looks beautiful so far. I may have missed this along the way, but will you be hand quilting or machine? My mom was a hand quilter and I've always hated hand sewing, so I left the quilting to her. Many of my 4-H projects were hemmed, and hand finished the night before the judging. I just don't enjoy it the way I do the machine construction. going from flat fabric to a constructed garment was more rewarding than from unhemmed to hemmed :)
That's beautiful. I haven't tried too much with quilting yet. I did a small pillow for my daughter. I'm definitely in awe of your work.
Yay for you! I am not a sewer either, and I can definitely appreciate the accomplishment of threading a bobbin and setting everything up. I think it's why I took to knitting with such excitement, the preparation to begin work seems less daunting to me.
Mastering a sewing machine is no small task; you should be thrilled. I have been sewing since I needed the telephone book to prop myself up at the dining room table and have let too much time lapse since I last tackled a sewing project. I have a Bernina that I love and just the other day commented to my husband that I wanted to "fire it up" soon. Your project is lovely and, as always, inspirational.
I love ironing a quilt block after it's been sewn! Suddenly it's all crisp and perfect looking :)
Great looking quilt! I can't wait to see the finished product. Although I love to knit, sewing is my first love. And quilts are the best!
I've never been interested in quilting, but your quilt squares are so beautiful and your enthusiasm so infectious that I'm tempted to find a quilting class of my own this summer (after classes are over) and learn to quilt.
Hello
Can I get some feedback on this company? - http://bodybuilderschoice.com
I just got an order of winstrall capsules from them.
Regards
you actually don't need to be able to PIN them to anything / no blocking board or foam board needed. if you put felt on the wall(or wherever), the blocks will stick to it, no pins needed. just find a wall you don't mind losing whie you're working on that project, tape a big piece of felt to it (or pin it up) and there you go.
felt or flannel. i can't remember which i have. i think i CALL it a felt wall, but it's actually flannel? either way, works the same, eliminates pinning. i've had the same blocks stuck to it for years now and they've never fallen off the wall.
Wonderful accomplishemnt! I always used batting on the wall for a design surface, that way, if needed, I could just take it down and use it! Geat job, wonderful colors. Quilts are the best! KC