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The sorry saga of me trying to learn to quilt.

A few weeks ago I treated myself to a Bernina 730 sewing machine (which is very nice)



and then was told I needed a portable sewing machine if I wanted to join a quilting group so along came flipper:



Which made a total of four older sewing machines in the house I have looked into new ones but decided at the cost it is best start with something old and repairable rather than computerised and expensive and I really should show active interest before I fork out £5K

I started by making a couple of cheap Applique kits from Fleabay. First something cute:



I learnt that the iron on paper backed glue makes adding the applique shapes easy

Then something equally cute:



I learnt that it is easy to assume you have understood how to put on the binding and do something entirely different but I am not taking it off again

Then I moved on to something that actually required some skill



and learnt I have a lot to learn about sewing through the top layer, the wadding and the bottom layer. I also learnt that you are very limited what you can do on a normal sewing machine in the way of freehand quilting. I still have to unpick the first fruit and then stitch them in all five. This was my first bit of piecing and I "got away with it"

Jo

Now for some actual patchwork practice... another kit this time for a table top decoration.

I have read a lot of books, watched some videos and the long and short the best advice was to have a go on some scraps before trying something you want. So some old scrappy bits of sheet and:



The comedy of errors begins

Cutting out accurate shapes armed with a rotary cutter seemed to go ok. The stitching together and pressing back began to be a nightmare. Until after sleeping on it and reading yet another book it dawned on me: I was pressing back the stitch lines using a steam iron and the shapes were stretching an shrinking all over the place. Answer: Iron before you cut/sew and then only fold over and press using fingers, after that possibly dry press with an Iron

Stitching these bits together causes a seam behind, they say fold behind the dark colour. Umm right, you rapidly end up with lumps in the corners where multiple pieces are joined together. There must be a technique to minimise the thickness of all these joins. Remembering we are not allowed to steam iron as that makes it go horribly wrong.

I gave up on these as I realised the material of the old sheets had a mind of their own and were stretching all over the place so I did not know if it was my fault or the fabrics so onward.

The next attempt was the kit for the table centre.

First challenge was that the squares of fabric (they call them "charms") had pinked edges so trying to cut four squares 2 3/8" out of it was a challenge. I actually ignored the extra pinked bit and am cutting it off as I go along. Cut each in half diagonally and you get triangles. Lets be honest it takes as long cutting out the 500+ triangles and 80 squares as the stitching...



Armed with the lack of confidence from messing around with the bits of sheet I am stitching these carefully. The good news is in the background I have pieced together 2 blocks successfully (at the back under a sheet of Perspex with the weight on them). To the left is my next set. The trick is to join each of the pieces systematically triangles to triangles to make squares (cut off the pinked edge at this point and square up if required ), join three squares to make each row and finally three rows together to make a block. What could go wrong Some idiot sews the pieces together the wrong way, having sewn them the corners don't match, the pieces are not square or the block between two sewn joints is too narrow/wide to match the bits either side. The trick is the measure, measure and measure again.

I had found a piece of 1mm thick wadding for this thinking I don't want this too thick but with the thick lump that exists in the corners it will need to be much thicker.

Back to cross stitching

Jo

No wonder crazy quilting is very popular! I guess I never realised the precision needed for these named quilt designs, like Flying Geese or (my favourite name) Burgoyne Surrounded. Good luck!

I always wondered how difficult quilting is. I've tried veneering a chessboard pattern and that needed to be so precise that it was ridiculous. I always felt quilting should be the same - but have never tried. In retrospect, I'm beginning to be glad I've never tried!

Your initial freehand results look pretty impressive, though.

Regards,

Richard

I'm still learning ... and I have just learnt that I need to practice the art of unpicking stitches

This is because I was religiously following the command: Thou shall fold over your seams towards the dark piece of material. That works until you need to join up the bits and no one mentions that if you alternate the seams from one side to the other then you can reduce that horrible lump at the corners by half

The top left block I have alternated the vertical seams, I have just unpicked the bottom left and am about to restitch it. The two on the right show the build up of problems if you fold the same way. The joys of learning quilting

Working on my Woodland Fairy looks more fun

Jo

My word you are approaching this thoroughly, and it's really impressive what you have been achieving from the word go - the sky is the limit now that you've got some practice in!

Thank you Mable, I think I might have the hang of piecing these bits together:



I have to put together 36 of these blocks and so far I have done 12. In stitching together these I have used 100m of sewing thread I am beginning to see why they sell thread in 500m and 1000m reels.

Jo

By Jove, I think she's got it!

I've also brought another gadget to use for quilting:



The books of words say do not Iron your quilting pieces because you "push"/stretch the fabric pieces. Rather you should press the bits flat, without steam.

It swallows my quilting bits



But it does an excellent job of flattening them out I also have plans to use it to flatten cross stitching fabric and possibly I might extend to my sheets. I do like the feel of freshly ironed sheets but all that Ironing

Jo

Oh, my!

That's quite a machine

It is not as big as it might seem the entire quilt is only 28" square:



Even having learnt about folding the seam under on opposite sides some of the joints still have 8 layers of fabric. A number of the joints don't line up but my friend told me not to worry this or about wobbling along the quilting lines...



as it just proves it is handmade.

Jo

Very impressive!!

"Impressive" doesn't really begin to describe it.

I am, however, very impressed. Even more so when I imagine the result, had I done it...

Regards,

Richard.

You and me, Richard!

The outside is finished off by what is called binding. This has been done by what is termed double mitered binding. What this means is get a narrow strip of fabric, if necessary lengthen it by sewing lengths together on the diagonal, fold in half then sew through both sides of the strips and the outside of the quilt all round mitering the corners . The last stitching is to fold this strip round the outer edge and sew through all layers:



All finished:



Initially I questioned the rather bright colours of the pieces but they are growing on me. I seem to be getting the hang of this

Jo

I'd say you are definitely getting the hang of it. Personally, I love the bright colours, but I'm glad they're growing on you, too.

When you purchase a free motion quilting machine, then I'll know you've totally gone down the quilt rabbit hole.

That looks great, so cheerful and beautifully finished!

Beautiful quilting (which does’t surprise me in the least). Seeing yours makes me want to get my quilt back out and finish it. I’m to the border now…and have been for many months.

Thank you Ladies

I've pieced together the blocks to make a King sized quilt and have just started joining the blocks together. A line of blocks is rather long:



And now I have just started stitching all of those strips together:



We trim the blocks to the same size before stitching together, then as we want all of the joints to line up I have clipped the two strips together where ever there is a double join line so the trick is to stitch along maintaining the stitching lines (the sizes of the blocks seems to "move" during stitching ). I am planning to keep the main part of the quilt I have stitched to the left as I join each of the strips.

Once this is a single piece there are various borders to add

Jo