A Finished Quilt

I've been sewing a lot lately and getting a lot of odd sewing things finished. I've been working on this quilt for my sister and new brother in law for awhile. They got married the beginning of June - I almost made it but my sewing machine needed servicing badly and I had to give up. I'm finally finished and it's awaiting delivery later in the summer.

My sister has seen the fabric and pattern, but none of it put together. This is a duvet cover - and it's heavy. It should keep them warm in winter.

I'm very happy with how it's turned out and I'm sure my sister and her husband will love it too.

This is on my queen size bed. Their duvet is 86" x 86"; after consultation with the ladies at Thursday Therapy sewing I made it a bit bigger to account for the height of the duvet. It's about 87.5" x 87.5".

Note to self: you really need something over your bed to liven up that wall.

T-shirt Memory Pillow

My best friend is married with two sons and her oldest is off to college in the fall. He's had a few bumps getting there - all character building in my opinion - a little grey hair making in his mother's opinion.

A long time ago we started looking at a box of t-shirts my friend has been saving since both boys were little. She always had the idea to make something for them when they leave home. My friend is very good at many things (and my chief organizer when I need it), but sewing isn't one of her many talents.

She stayed over a few weeks ago and we got to work creating a memory pillow for her oldest. He didn't want a quilt and preferred a pillow.

It sewed up very quickly and looks great finished

I offer myself, and anyone else, a few recommendations:
-knits stretch, a lot, stabilize them with light weight woven interfacing to help them keep their shape
-cut the squares bigger than you think you'll need
-lay everything out first using a template the size of the finished pillow (I used both a paper template and tape on my table)
-use some kind of woven backing to quilt the t-shirts to - it will help stabilize them; I just used some cheap broadcloth/muslin

The younger son has seen the pillow and announced that he wants something to wrap himself up in - we've got a little bit until he graduates.

Family Reunion Dress

My friend L is a great quilter and loves all things handmade. She only sews quilts and calls on me when she wants something else sewn. I'm always happy to oblige. L has great taste in patterns and fabrics, she's very easy to please, and she's easy with my timelines.

Last year, or maybe the year before, we were on a shop hop and she found the Family Reunion Dress by Oliver+S made up and decided she wanted one for her little girl. Would I make it? Of course.

I had a gap in my quilting and got started - it made a great break in the middle of trying to quilt my sister's wedding quilt.

Everything went really well and I can happily recommend the pattern - I'd use another one made by this company (and they don't sponsor me at all).

I made a few adjustments to the pattern - see below. I'm really happy with how it turned out - and so is L. The fabric is from Art Gallery but I can't remember the pattern or line. If you check below, L might leave it in a comment.

To make the neck facing the pattern called for sewing a fold line and gathering it - instead I made a freezer paper template and used the applique technique of starch and pressing and I got great results - see below for how nice and flat the facing sits

there were some instructions I first thought were funny - like this pressing above, but it made sense in the end

I had a little trouble in the sleeves with attaching them correctly - without pleats in the wrong place. That is totally me and nothing to do with the pattern.  I made size 12-18 months and really, those sleeves are pretty small. It took a few adjustments but they got in there the way they should be. Certainly not a deal breaker for the pattern.

See the little ridge between the sleeve and dress - it shouldn't be there.

And the finished product - L loves the buttons - so do I (cuz I picked them out)

The only other adjustment I made, and I don't have photos, is I changed the fully buttoned back to a snap closure and it only opens to the waist, so I sewed closed the rest.

The Quilting Is Finished

I've finally finished the quilting on my sister's wedding quilt. I've also attached the backing that makes it a duvet cover. All that's left is binding - I really want to be finished to work on other things.

Here are a few shots to mark my progress

Quilting in progress at Thursday Therapy day

Last border seam in and finished

Trimmed and ready for duvet backing

Another template to the rescue

I was debating whether or not to quilt the melons in this quilt - most people I asked said yes - that's what I really thought too but there are 64 of them.

I tried a bunch of different ideas and finally settled on something simple that filled the space, was easy to mark, and echoed the other designs. A lot of people online used a lot of pebbles in this quilt and that's just not in my repertoire with my current machine.

I made myself another template and got to work. These went together really quickly and I have no issues quilting the melons.

My template (the straight lines align with the seam line down the middle)

My dots:

Finished:

The templates I made and used for this quilt have been simple but very effective and I'm really happy with how they turned out.

Heading for the Border

I've finished the quilting (I think, still have to check the back) of my sister's wedding quilt. The wedding was June 5th so I'm a little late.
The borders are one. The quilt was pretty square before I put the borders on and they are laying flat (on top); the underside is a slightly different story, but it's going to be hidden inside the duvet cover. There were some border issues earlier - I'm much happier now.
I'm just doing straight lines in the borders, using painter's tape to mark with. The quilt is now so heavy and awkward I'm not as interested in finishing, but finish I must!

  The quilt is so big now and I'm not tall enough to get it all in the picture

1.5" wide painters tape marking the borders.

What are you up to?

More Templates For Machine Quilting

I really got into the dot-to-dot method of quilting for my sister's quilt. In the big white shapes I needed to put something. My first idea didn't work too well, then I came up with this:

Sorry it's a bit hard to see - I guess my thread blends really well.

This is my template

 And my resulting dots

Then I quilted it. I'm pretty happy with these results and there is so little marking to remove.