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| Sleeping Beauty in the tutu her Oma made her |
Deciding
the pattern was easy. I was
envisioning a simple block quilt, maybe a thick border, potentially a soft
backing made out of that fun minky fabric. Emily, who has always been very creative, described her
vision: a sky blue background fabric with branches appearing out of the sides
and cute little silhouettes of birds sprinkled throughout. I loved the idea… but I was
daunted. I drew a little sketch
that she loved. But all I had was
a concept!
Picking out the fabric was easy. It was a very happy afternoon
spent at Joann’s fabrics. We
picked up about 1 & ½ yards of a pretty sky blue fabric with chocolate
brown mini dots, a nice grassy green for the border, and a whimsical pale green
with grass green whirlies for the background. We labored over the decision of which fabric samples to get
for the birds. We ended up with
around 16 smaller fabrics that were going to be sweet little birds on this
quilt. I was so inspired after
buying that gorgeous fabric! And 2 months later, it was still sitting in its
plastic bag in my sewing room.
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| The gorgeous array of fabrics |
Emily was very patient with me. Time passed, and I threw her a(n
awesome) baby shower. The fabric
remained untouched. Friends asked
what my big present was going to be for the little one. I answered, somewhat embarrassed, that I
was working on a quilt, but was still in the beginning stages. With 2 months til the due date, I
enlisted the help of my domestic-goddess mother-in-law. She made baby quilts for her 3 boys, I
figured she could help me!
Tessa was a lifesaver.
We spent 4 or 5 long Saturdays together out at her farm. The first week we washed and dried all
the fabrics, so that we would ensure the quilt would be washable. (Kind of a
must when it’s designed for a baby!) Then we determined the measurements we
would use for the quilt. (If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m sorry, this
is not a tutorial! I’m lucky I figured anything out at all.) We made the first cuts into the sky
blue fabric. Then I sketched out
bird silhouettes until I was satisfied.
I don’t get much cell phone reception at the farm, and I wanted to text
pictures to Emily for approval, but I did alright on my own! I pretty much adore the sweet little
bird silhouette that I ended up with.
Emily and I had pinned different bird images back and forth, and had
found our favorite, but I was doubtful of my artistic abilities. Then we traced and cut the bird
silhouettes out of each fabric.
With 2 woman who love sewing, we somehow ended up with only one pair of
fabric scissors. Now, I think that
you can never have too many pairs of fabric scissors, and you should always
bring one with you when you’re planning a day of sewing. (Hindsight is 20/20!)
Tessa told me that we were going to appliqué the branches and
birds onto the blue fabric, then sew on the green border, cut out the batting
and the backing, sew it all together, and quilt it by hand. She said this all very calmly and with
a straight face. I was nervous,
but I trusted her. I had never
done appliqué before, but she promised me that once I got the hang of it, it
would be easy enough. We had 2
options – machine appliqué or hand appliqué. She showed me how to hand appliqué using some scrap fabric. I felt kind of clumsy, but after a
while I got the hang of it and was able to get nearly invisible stitches. What a feeling of accomplishment! But how time consuming. I turned to the sewing machine. There were tons of different kinds of
fancy stitches I could use to appliqué by machine. I tried out a few, but none felt right. The invisible stitch appealed so much
more than a chunky machine stitch.
And that is how I spent the next 5 weeks of my life!
Every evening after supper, my grandma (who I live with and take
care of at the moment) and I would retire to the den to watch TV, usually
westerns (gag) sometimes The Big Bang Theory (hooray!) and later, season 1 of
NCIS (intriguing and sometimes creepy).
I was slow… There were 6 branches and they took me about 2 weeks. Tessa got the urge to appliqué, and
invited me over for a day of group appliqué (kind of like a really, really
small quilting bee) and we knocked out the last 2 branches. She figured out the secret to sewing
those partially curvy, partially pointy birds on. And that was the next 3 weeks of my life!
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| The birds laying out on the fabric, branches sketched on |
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| My favorite bird family; I loved the vivid fuschia |
Though this is not a tutorial, I will attempt to describe how I
go about appliquéing. Some people
do the fusible interfacing (never used it, didn’t want to) to fuse their 2
fabrics together. I used good old
fashion pins. I’m sure at least 10
are lost around the carpet in the den, waiting to be stepped out. We left about ¼ inch – ½ inch border
around the drawn out silhouette of the birds when we cut them. That border was tucked under and sewn,
bit by bit, onto the main fabric.
I cut little slits every so often to make it easier to tuck the fabric
under. Around the inside curves, I
cut out little v-shaped sections.
I tried a few without cutting slits, and it was much harder.
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| Pinned on, with slits cut around yellow piece |
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| Sewn on tight - stitch is invisible |
Once all the birds were sewn on, I felt like I was practically
finished! Believe me when I say I was not. I went to Tessa’s farmhouse the weekend before Emily was to
be induced. We measured, cut, and
sewed on the green border. The
technique is called mitered edges.
Then we cut out the whirly backing and the batting – extra fluffy
batting makes a happy baby! We pinned
the 3 layers together, and then ran a basting stitch all through out it, so
that we could later remove the pins.
It was nice finally not having to mess with pins and get stuck
constantly. I felt like I was
truly almost done at that point. I. Was. Not.
I spent part of that evening and the entire next day
hand-quilting the baby quilt.
Experienced quilters tend to take their quilts to the quilters shop to
be professionally quilted. (I know
you were wondering how many times I could use a variation of the world ‘quilt’
in one sentence.) Tessa told me
that quilts that are sold are valued by how many stitches are in them. In that respect, professional quilting
is the way to go. However, you
will spend at least $100 paying for that service. It makes the quilt very flat, not like a fluffy comforter,
but has a lovely quilting stitch all over. I didn’t want to spend the money, and Tessa was confident
that hand quilting was the way to go.
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| just love those swirls |
We bought special quilting thread, which is thicker than
all-purpose thread. I imagine it
is in between all-purpose thread and fishing line. It was very easy to thread, so I liked that aspect! You need to start with one small knot. You want to bring the needle through all 3 layers, but just pop the knot through the first layer, leaving it stuck in between with the batting. I didn’t quite do the stitching quite the way Tessa
taught me, which was to use a quilting thimble and kind of rock the needle back
and forth through the layers to create a uniform line. I had a difficult time doing that, so I
just painstakingly went up then down then up then down to make sure I was
getting through all the layers.
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| Whimsical quilting stitch |
I
drew the most fun swirls and loops around each little ‘bird family.’ I had the best time on the
quilting. I felt really relaxed –
it was truly the easy part. But I
felt a little rushed, knowing that baby Shiloh’s arrival was imminent! I was still quilting we sat in
the hospital, anxiously awaiting the baby. I was still quilting after the baby was born! I actually
took a little break knowing I hadn’t quite made it to that day. But finally, when little Shiloh was 6
days old, I finished the quilt.
Since the responsible parents wouldn’t want to risk SIDS, we are making
the quilt a wall hanging until Shiloh turns 1. The front of the quilt has a border, and the layers came
together with the assistance of some matching green bias tape. Love! So
helpful. I used a thick bias tape
on the back to serve as a long loop so that the quilt can be hung on the wall
either with a dowel rod or a curtain rod.
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| Hungry little birdies! |
When everything was stitched on good, I washed it to give it a
good cleanse from my anxious, hard-working sweaty hands, and to get rid of
pencil lines. I was worried about
it unraveling (as if!) and washed it on delicate. That did not get rid of pencil lines. My ever-helpful MIL advised me to
dilute some detergent with water, and rub it over the pencil lines with a
toothbrush. She also told me that
the next cycle up from delicate would be just fine, my solid quilt would not
unravel. She was correct on both accounts! All fluffy and fresh, I grabbed my quilt and delivered it to
the cutest possible recipient alive.
And if you are still reading up to this point, even if you skimmed just
for photos and caught this sentence, you deserve a medal!
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| Backing, bias tape, border, and front |
I loved making this quilt.
I have found that I really, truly enjoy sewing by hand. I’m starting to get into embroidery,
for the wonderful designs, the array of colors in the threads, and the calming
handwork it provides. I’ve taken a
short break from any major projects, but I did sneak in this sweet little
birdie embroidery piece! (Am I destined to sew only birds for the rest of my
life?)
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| lovely pattern from Pinterest (Needlework board) |
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| My one attempt at artistic photography |
Stay tuned for more fun, and likely shorter, posts… but don’t hold your breath!
