My first quilt

I have finally finished my first quilt over the weekend. And I couldn't wait to take the pics of it!!!
So here they are...























I have to say that this first experience with making the real quilt and quilting was a very long learning process. My biggest mistake was to make all two sides in patchwork, which leaded me toward getting some not so nice quilting areas on the back of the quilt. I think that my sandwiching process was a bit wrong from the start, but now I now what to do next time. Another big mistake was to do some free motion quilting with bubble stitches doing some sort of pebbles first on the stripes (white calligraphy print) and only than to apply the meandering stitches to the larger patchwork areas. I thought that it would be easier that way, but now I know that I should always start from one corner, even if changing the free motion quilting designs. I have to say that E. Hartman's "The Practical Guide to Patchwork: New Basics for the Modern Quiltmaker" book helped me a lot while figuring out some things and I am strongly recommending it.



I also think that the best thing of the finished piece that makes quite a big difference with sewing garment pieces is the quilted texture. I just love the way it feels under my hand, the touch of it. It's precious. I just can't wait to make another quilt and to challenge myself with some new endeavors. Hope you'll like it too;)
xx, Katarina

And so it begins...my first quilt!

I am so excited to share with you my new quilting adventure!!!
It's been a while since I wanted to try myself in proper patchwork and quilting.
I made some patchwork cushions before and had a lot of fun with sewing some clothes and other patched things, but after designing fabric, I really had the strong desire to learn more about real quilts, the designing and creating process. I have a few quilt books, but as well with designing clothes, I  like to find my own way in doing things. So challenging myself with something that might not be the easiest project to do, might be the great way to learn more. Even because, sometimes the best way to learn is from the mistakes.

 



So till now, I almost finished the first side of my very first quilt! So here are some pics from the very start, from selecting the fabrics, choosing the patterns, cutting and assembling the fabrics.


While I was browsing the net and leafing through quilt books in search of inspiration, I was attracted by the Drunkard's path tiles. I searched the net to find out something more regarding the history of these paths and here is what I found out:(from Pepper Cory's Easy Drunkard's Path Templates) : "Drunkard's Path, the easiest quilt block pattern for learning to sew curved seams, is one of few quilt block patterns with a recorded history. The block was first seen in ancient Roman mosaics. By the 18th century the design emerged in England with the name Rob Peter to Pay Paul. When the pattern traveled to America in colonial times, new names appeared - Wanderer in the Wilderness, Rocky Road, and finally Drunkard's Path.



As I didn't have any particular ruler (that is sure quite handy for cutting these), I used a simple 8" plate to cut the curves, as my squares were 4". It's just very important to leave some space for the seams when cutting these;)



As I choose 6 different fabrics for this project, I made 40- 4" squares from each of the 6 fabrics(about 1/2 yard of each fabric). Finally I had 40 x 6 = 240 squares. There were 30 different fabric paths to create (each fabric combined with other 5 make 30 possibilities), so I had 8 Drunkard's paths of the each of the 30 possible pattern/designs.














I had so much fun deciding about the pattern of this quilt and I really wanted to have some curved sort of the chevron. As the squares I created weren't enough to make a real size quilt, I inserted some strips of the antique calligraphy print and blend them together with other fabrics by adding some circle patches, randomly assorted.









So now the size of it is approx. 120 x 160 cm and I am not sure if I should add some more fabric, at least in length. For the other side of the quilt, I decided to go all stripy.
It will be something like I had previously in mind , but I don't want the chevrons for this side, just some random striping and sort of improvisational patching. I hope to obtain some exciting and non expected images or paths and hope to have even more fun with this unconventional patching, without any particular design in mind. Some more artsy look, I hope:) But will see, hopefully soon!:)



I am a bit worried about how I will do the sandwich quilting after all, as the first side (with all those pieces) is not quite flat. I just hope that it's just an charming "handmade" aspect of quilting and not my ignorance. I know that in sewing clothes, if something is not perfect, it is just not good and hope that quilting might be a bit more forgiving;)
Any advices or suggestions are warmly welcomed.
xo, Katarina