Today was a bit of a tough day at work, and it left me with a lot on my mind. As always, the obvious way for me to relax and get my mind off things is to sew – it’s pure zen. As was the case today, however the quilt below isn’t from today, it was finished last night.
Frida saw a picture of a patchwork blanket for a teddy bear in one of my sewing magazines a few days ago. She was quick to order a blanket for her Hello Kitty build-a-bear, and I didn’t put up much of a fight. A year ago or so when I last wanted to try making quilt, I ordered a few charm packs from Fat Quarter Shop. I broke open one of those for the picnic blanket – one from Moda called Patisserie.
So I got everything aligned nicely and sewed up all the little squares, and then I thought: “Well, this didn’t take too long, and I’m almost done!” And then I got started quilting, and found out that I was not nearly done.
I struggled a bit with the quilting foot, and I’m learning from the beginning how to control pace, movement, pattern and everything.
As usual, I have been using different sources for instructions: I found help for many things on YouTube, and especially Leah Day has gathered what seems like a year of quilting lessons there, and she is quite pedagogical. Check out for instance her thoughts on basic quilting designs here. And I used her tutorial on how to bind the quilt here and then for the final. She has loads of detailed and really great videos on how to make different quilting designs, which is really inspiring.
All in all – including watching lots of videos on YouTube, learning new techniques, using a new presser foot etc. then for the final closing of the binding after I had attached it all the way round, I used a tutorial from Heather Bailey, which shows clearly how to join the two ends.
To the right here, you see Frida just after she made Hello Kitty at the Build-a-Bear shop following her birthday last year. The cat is almost as big as Frida is, and it takes up just as much space in her heart.
Now Hello Kitty will definitely be able to go picnicing with Frida – which she has been today actually. 🙂 So here’s the result:
I’m fairly happy with it, although I acknowledge, that I have a lot of learning to do when it comes to quilting. Anyway, while I was attaching the binding yesterday evening, Ronja was watching. And now she wants one. And that is what I’ve been working on today, but it isn’t done yet, so you’ll have to wait. See ya! 🙂
Du er altså god, Astrid. Sikke et fint tæppe til Fridas Hello Kitty bamse. De to kan bestemt tage på skovtur med stil. :))
Patchwork fænger virkelig. Da jeg lavede babytæppet til vores lille niece, blev jeg bare SÅ vild med at sy de mange små lapper sammen. Jeg gjorde det godt nok i hånden og det samme gjaldt quiltningen, men uanset om man gør det ene eller det andet, så er det en lise for sjælen at sy lapper af stof sammen! :))
Jeg kan sørme godt forstå at lille Frida også ønsker sig et af dine tæpper. :))
It’s lovely! And your quilting looks great – it is really hard isn’t it to get going. It took my years to work up the courage to use my free motion foot and I’ve still pretty dodgy. I forget to breathe and hold my shoulders all hunched up and then get to the point where I simply have to stop, take a deep breathe, shake my arms and then start again! Enjoy quilting your next one 🙂
It’s beautiful! I’m sure Frida and Hello Kitty will have hours of fun with it.
Your quilt turned out great! I’ve enjoyed looking over your blog these last few weeks, you have made some really nice dresses for your girls, I’m looking forward to seeing what you make next 🙂