Our house |
Tea service for one from London, a gift from my daughter! |
Last October, my somewhat local (35 miles away and over on the other side of the mountain) quilt shop was offering a beginner Quilt class! And I signed up! Yes ma'am. BEGINNER QUILT CLASS!
Now up until that point I had made approximately a dozen quilts. Every single one of those quilts except one was a patch quilt of some sort. Either 9 patch, 4 patch or scrappy patches sewn together in really random order. Just patches, patches, patches. The one exception was a quilt I made when I was expecting my daughter. It was a yard of yellow gingham with a brown teddy bear appliqued in the center and 4 brown hearts appliqued in the corners. I was ready to learn something new! And now I had the time to.
Me as Sunbonnet Sue, My hubby up above as Overall Bill. |
Grandmothers Fan for my grandmother. |
I decided that I wanted to have it longarm quilted. The local lady that did the quilting only does pantographs. I thought the rose was appropriate for the fabric and I think she did a fairly good job quilting. I knew I certainly could not handle an 84x84 quilt on my machine.
Backing is Summer breeze II |
Binding front. Stitched in the ditch to catch back of binding. |
So what made me finally finish this quilt? Learning how to machine bind! I have always sewn bindings onto the front of a quilt with my machine and then would hand sew the binding down to the back. Well it is too hot in Georgia in the summer for hand binding a large quilt so I had decided to wait until winter to finish the quilt until I made Benjamins quilt the other week and machine sewed the binding.
Binding back- pretty consistent for something you cannot see from the top when you are stitching. |
I really like the way the binding turned out on this quilt. Since you stitch in the ditch on the front you do not have the extra line of thread going around on the front. And if you sew the binding onto the front with a 1/4" seam then you will have plenty of binding folded to the back to catch the thread and you will not have any missed or skipped sections. I do pin the corners under and down in a mitered fashion. I will definitely be doing more of this in the future. And I wasn't even nervous this time!
I am really glad that I finally took the plunge and finished this quilt. I hope to make a couple of throw pillows or pillow cases with my scraps.
Sadly, my LQS is closing. I will always be grateful to my teacher for that class! (She knows! I have already been to see her and show her my finished quilt) That Beginner quilt class opened up a whole new world for me. I know that sounds cheesy but it is true. It also gave me the confidence I needed to branch out and make other things. And I think it even gave me the confidence to start writing on my blog. You see I set up this blog in March of 2012, took that class October thru January and wrote my first post in February 2013!
Ready to go! |
So I guess the saying is true, "You can teach an old dog new tricks". Geez, did I just call myself old?
Anyway, no matter your age, do not be afraid to go outside of your comfort zone and try new things. If I had not put my big girl panties on and walked into that class that first day I would still be making nuttin but patch quilts.
I hope yall have enjoyed seeing my first "Proper" quilt! I hope you step outside of your comfort zone and try something new. Who knows what you might learn and I guarantee that you will make some new friends along the way!
Speaking of which, I would like to give a "Warm Welcome" to two of my newest friends and followers:
Dorian of Ridge Top Quilts
and Kim Paradisio of Kit Six Designs.
I am so glad to have ya'll plowing along with me feel free to grab my tractor button on the side bar for your blog!
Thank yall so much for stopping by! I hope you have a quilty kind of day and get to play with a little fabric and thread.
xo jan
Oh, Jan! I adore your finished quilt and am sew proud of you for doing such a fine job of the binding! It sure makes you feel good when you get it right. The fabrics are beautiful and I love the sampler style of design used. It truly is a very sweet quilt. Thanks for sharing this!
ReplyDeletePS. Hope you don't mind if I sharee this with a link back on my facebook page at http://facebook.com/sewfreshquilts.
ReplyDeleteIt's too good not to share!
Wow, it is beautiful and so many gorgeous details!! I think I need to take a class like that!! All your fabrics are so pretty together!! xo Heather
ReplyDeleteAaah, so much cuteness! You're killing me Jan! Especially love you and Mr. Overalls.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great story! Thank you for sharing!!! Sad to hear that the LQS is closing. I am lucky that there are two LQS within an half hour drive. Mind you, I do not visit them often as they carry more traditional fabrics. I do most of my shopping online.
ReplyDeleteEsther
esthersipatchandquilt at yahoo dot com
Ipatchandquilt dot wordpress dot com
It turned out gorgeous! I just love sample quilts and I hope to make one some day!
ReplyDeleteVery sweet quilt Jan!! And I just love that last pic of it on the old truck! :)
ReplyDeleteAnd, thanks so much for the warm welcome! Happy to be plowing along with ya! :)
DeleteGorgeous!
ReplyDeleteGreat quilt nd I love the photo with the blue truck.
ReplyDeletegorgeous quilt and photos, Jan!
ReplyDelete:) Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation
Thank you so much for sharing this at Needle and Thread Thursday, Jan!
Delete:) Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation
This is so wonderful!
ReplyDeleteVisiting from Quilt Story, love this quilt- especially the picture of it with the truck! ;)
ReplyDeleteWhat an absolutely wonderful 'proper' quilt! Your photography is wonderful! Your stories are always entertaining.
ReplyDeleteWhat a pretty quilt, with a great story! Me, I love machine binding, whether it's accepted or not. My quilts get washed and put to use in forts and picnic tea parties far too often to have me hand-stitch a binding on them. They need serious durability around here!
ReplyDeleteLove your blog - I'm following you over here too!
I love the quilt and the fabrics. I love your photos especially the last one!
ReplyDeleteIt's very pretty, Jan. I do love sampler quilts. =) It's been a while since I have done one. =)
ReplyDeleteWow it's so great that you took the plunge and went to that class! You have so much to be proud of, and it's wonderful that so many of the blocks have personal meaning to you. Congratulations on a wonderful finish :-)
ReplyDeleteOh! Congratulations! This is such a beautifully pieced, arranged and jilted quilt! You deserve a blue ribbon!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely tea service! Great pics too. Love the last one with the car.
ReplyDeleteVery fresh Jan...love the photo with the truck, very authentic x
ReplyDeleteWell I have to say I feel as though I was greeted with good old southern hospitality coming to your blog today. I am a transplant southern living in Charlotte, NC, just a hop and holler or two from you. I enjoyed hearing the representation of each block, especially about how Bill couldn't keep up with Sue - LOL! Congrats for stepping out of your comfort zone and learning something besides patches. Keep challenging yourself to learn new techniques and different blocks. You have a huge online quilting community and you can always buy fabric online with so many brick and mortar shops closing their doors. Your quilt is delightful, cheery and fun! And you did a great job on it too!
ReplyDeleteFabulous quilt!! You made yourself a golden award beauty!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful quilt! I have always loved Sun Bonnet Sue. And I adore your tea service. I love everything that has to do with tea and England.
ReplyDeleteIt looks fabulous! Such a pity the shop is closing - will there be a closing down sale?!!
ReplyDeleteP.S. I can't be the only one wondering what bad sewing habits your teacher had to break...
Great to see your finish, and to know how pleased you are with it!
ReplyDeleteWow wow..so nice!!!!Hugs Bambi
ReplyDeleteI love this happy quilt! You did a great job on all the blocks. It looks like a ton of work!
ReplyDeleteWow... it is beautiful! I love the colors, the blocks... Congrats! And thanks for sharing it!
ReplyDeleteThat's beautiful! I love the way it looks hanging off the truck (and am a little jealous that my Hubby's old trucks aren't nearly that photogenic)
ReplyDeleteI love sampler type quilts and I absolutely love the colors you picked! The blue and yellow looks great. Your longarm quilter did a nice job with the all-over roses too. I like it!
ReplyDeleteWhat a gorgeous quilt! It is impossible to tell from it that you are new to quilting. How sad your local quilt shop is closing, but thank goodness you took that class when you could. I just love the photo of the quilt hanging from the blue truck. Having it long armed was smart! And the pantograph goes with the fabric and design perfectly. I always machine bind my quilts, so I'm with you on that one. I just don't have the patience to sit and sew by hand for long stretches. Maybe once my kids are older, but not now!
ReplyDeleteA big Wow to you and great photography! It is beautiful!
ReplyDelete