I know how climbers feel when they take their last step to the peak of Mount Everest.

I know how it must have felt to drive the Last Spike in the railroad that unified Canada.

I know how a runner feels at the end of a marathon. Or better yet, the end of the Iron Man.

I know this because I have finally finished my first quilt. More than a project, more than a climb, more than a race, it was a labour of love (and determination).

I have a whole new respect for those little 'ol ladies displaying their quilts at the mall or the craft sale. Those are some hard core grannies who deserve our admiration and respect. Because quilting is not a project for pansies. Or the faint of heart. Or people who have anything else to do with their time.

Here it is:
I'm more than pleased with how it turned out, but I grossly underestimated the amount of time it would take once the top was assembled. The "quilting" is actually what I would have called "top stitching" prior to this class, and it's what gives a quilt its texture and reinforces its personality. After many YouTube videos and lots of practice, I attempted some free motion quilting on part of the quilt in a popular meander style. Or did I? You be the judge.

There was a big difference between practicing on a one foot square and doing the actual machine stiching on a lap-sized quilt.

Eventually I settled on "stitch in the ditch" quilting and a simple four-pointed flower pattern for the setting squares and the border. This nicely pulled out the inner border fabric pattern as well. I had to give up on free motion quilting as I just couldn't get the rhythm right (which throws your stitch length all out of whack).

I made a template for the flower border out of an empty cookie box. Tough work, eating all those cookies.

The final challenge was hand stitching the binding- another multi-night mammoth challenge. But again, the result is beautiful (if I do say so myself) and I think not bad for a beginner quilt.

It will go well in my living room as a warning against future big projects!

Cash likes it.

P.S. In case you missed it, you can read my first post about my quilting project here.

Where does the time go?

My sweet niece Everleigh is already one year old!

I heard that Ev recently moved into a different bedroom, so I thought a name banner to decorate her new digs would be a fitting birthday gift.

There are quite a few tutorials out there for bunting flags, but none were quite what I was looking for, so I came up with this on my own.

This is a project that you could easily complete in an afternoon.

Supplies:

• Layer cake pieces (10" x 10" pieces) in a design of your choice (I used Oh Deer by Moda, which I love)
• Contrasting fabric for the letters
• Contrasting thread
• Bias tape in matching or contrasting colour (I chose a medium size bias tape, not quilt size)

Since Everleigh has 9 letters in her name, I needed 18 pieces to make the bunting double-sided. I found that layer cake pieces worked perfectly for this project, and you can get two pieces out of each 10" x 10" square. (You might want to make a paper template to trace from like I did)


Once I had my 18 pieces, I arranged them in an order I found appealing (front and back).
I found a free font that I liked called Creative Block BB from 1001freefonts.com and typed Ev's name into an 8.5 x 11 document at 250 points. I upsized the document during printing to an 11 x 17 document.

Then, I set the contrasting letter fabric on top of the letter template page and traced the outline of each letter directly onto the fabric.

I applied fusible interfacing to the back of the letter fabric and then cut out each letter. Then, I applied the letters to each of the flags.

After that, it was time to practice my machine applique stitching. I created a sample flag to practice on, but I also came across this great tip for machine appliqueing so that you get a nice clean corner.



You'll want to increase density of your zig zag stitch for appliqueing as well.

It was while I was appliqueing the letters that I thought, "Whew! Everleigh has a LOT of letters in her name!

Once the letters were sewn on, place the right sides of each flag together and sew with a 1/4" inch seam.

Turn the flags carefully (or use a bamboo turner) and then give each of the letters a spray with speed starch before a ironing them flat.


Leaving at least a foot long tail on each end of the bias tape, pin each of the letters into the inside fold of the bias tape and sew using a zig zag stitch.



Tuck the ends of the bias tape in and stitch in place.

And voila! Admire the results:



Pop it in the mail - and wait to hear from...





...another satisfied customer!