Posted by dravon in LiveJournal, Project Review | Comments Off on “My First Quilt” Class Project
“My First Quilt” Class Project
Just finished up the second class at The Quilt Emporium in Woodland Hills, CA. This class was entitled My First Quilt and the objective was to learn how to cut out pieces according to the design, assemble them crisply and cleanly, quilt, and then edge the finished quilt. It’s pretty simple, but I must say that I learned a lot. I did not expect that the piecing skills would translate into my clothing work, but it has. We’ll see what the long term benefits are.
Anyway, this quilt is a simple 9-block pattern and the finished size is roughly 30″ x 30″. I decided to give this to my grandmother to use as a lap quilt. Since she’s now in a wheelchair (she’s 91), this is a good size because it won’t be draping all over the place, drag the ground, or get caught in the wheels.
I was so darn proud of myself for getting the corners on these blocks so clean and precise! Some of the grey mini-blocks aren’t as good, but overall, it’s pretty awesome if I do say so myself. That said, I was surprised to discover how quickly a small mistake does compound as the assembly gets underway. That’s actually very good because it will force me to pay attention all the way through, even when making 54 of the same little things. heh.
Since this is for my grandmother, and she’s a bit on the dementia side, I decided to make the label for this quilt pretty darn big, so she can read it easily and remember who made it for her. I like my sewing machine – makes this very easy!!!
The back is pretty straight-forward. Nothing fancy, but the quilting shows up nicely. I like how the quilting lines on the front make the block pattern very visible. Until that quilting went on, it was not easy to see! Also, I decided to use the dark thread on the front as well as the back so that I could easily and immediately see how I was doing in terms of straight line stitching. Overall, fairly good. Could stand some more practice though…
Here’s the back of the border edging. Apparently this is supposed to be hand tacked down, but I am soooooo not doing that. I did a stitch-in-the-ditch from the front side while in class, then came home and selected this decorative stitch to add to the quilt so that back edge looks a bit better than it did. For future quilts, I’ll be designing the decorative stitch border closure into the design of the edging so that it looks more polished than this.
Overall, I’m really happy with it. yay!
I’m taking the “Next Step” class which will also end with a quilt, but that one will be feature triangles and some more challenging piecing techniques. Also, I’m taking a class on making a french-braid patterned table runner. The purpose for that class is to help get me thinking about color co-ordination in a final design, which is big weak point right now.
