Saturday, February 1, 2014

A new year and a quilt from 2013

Wow, it's the first of February and this year seems to be going fast already.  I haven't been crafting as much as I'd like lately but I did manage to finish my first quilt a few months ago!  This was such a long process mainly because I worked on it intermittently over the last 5-6 months but it was worth it!  I didn't create it with much overhang but enough to cover the top of a twin size bed.  It's my first quilt and with very limited crafting space, I made it a size comfortable enough for me to handle. I had some left over Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) fabric from a pillow I made for my son several years ago.  I thought a quilt would be a great use of this leftover fabric plus I've been wanting to make a quilt for a while now.  I did have to buy additional fabric to complement the colors in the TMNT fabric and I think it worked out fine.  And as I've read and heard from other quilters online, there is no quilt police!  You have creative freedom to make it your own!  I had to keep telling myself this to keep my nerves at bay and to keep from getting discouraged, when some of the seams didn't exactly line up, as well as reminding myself that it's my first quilt!  Woo, but I got through it of course, LOL!  I used my basic sewing machine (a Kenmore) and my dining room table!  I created a scrappy binding from strips of the various leftover fabrics.  And the backing? Oh my that was a challenge but I found a video on YouTube titled Backing.wmv by sewandquilt.  I am so glad that popped up in my search because it was the visual instruction I needed.  It helped me a great deal!  Also, one thing I would do differently is to mark the quilting lines before quilting.  I thought I could wing it and keep the lines straight but at one point, I was getting crooked so I tried doing a wavy design but that wasn't working so I went back to a straight line in the middle of stitching; oops, LOL!  Hey, it's the thought and love that goes into making it that counts, right? LOL!  Well, here are a few pictures.  Have a nice day!