Saturday, June 16, 2012

Archer's quilt

Our good friend's baby Archer arrived a few weeks ago, I had to wait til he arrived before I could get started on this quilt (wasn't sure if he'd be a she or a he!). So all the other WIP's went on hold for a while and this had my full attention for a couple of weeks.

I've made this pattern once before (one of my first quilts ever), using Cluck Cluck Sew's stack-n-whack  method (it's pretty quick and easy). For Archer's quilt I started with 8 inch squares, I cut 2.5 inches off each side to end up with 7 inch blocks. The finished quilt is about 52 inches x 45 inches.



The fabrics are a mix of prints, solids and cross hatches, some from the stash and some were in a bundle I bought from Fabricworm. There's a few Birch organics from the Circa 50 line, Children at Play by Sarah Jane (the red stripes and boys with kites), Flea Market Fancy grey seeds, and Alexander Henry Heath in grey (the cross hatch). There's a gorgeous grey linen robots print which I'm sure is something japanese, it was in the Fabricworm bundle and the main reason why I bought the bundle. The binding is just a navy stripe, pretty much my favourite type of binding. Machine quilted in a simple grid.

For the back I made some extra blocks, and used some more of the Children at Play boys with kites fabric. The grey cross hatch is cut from a quilt cover I bought from Ikea, it wasn't one of their cheapest quilt covers, but it's enormous, the cotton is soft and crisp, and it'll make quite a few quilt backs, without having to join fabric! magnificent.



I also tried, for the first time ever, machine stitching the binding. I always machine stitch it to the front, then hand stitch to the back. I've been nervous about machine stitching binding, I couldn't imagine how to do the mitred corners, but they were actually easy and I am so happy with how it worked out! I used a stitch in the ditch foot that I'd bought ages ago but never used, it helped enormously! It looks neat and will be pretty strong I think. I might still hand stitch really special quilts, but I think I might be hooked on this new method! You can see the front and back in the 2 photos below (and that adorable robot print).




I'm currently working on a quilt for Claudia's bed (blue triangles, she's obsessed with blue!), so will post that soon, I need to get cracking on it as my best friend's baby is due next Wednesday so as soon as he/she's born I'll have drop everything and get started on another baby quilt!

8 comments:

  1. oh love the boys quilt!!!!! the quilting looks great and love the stripe binding....so hard to find lovely boys quilts - well done :)

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    1. Thanks Caity! I'm enjoying making boys quilts, there's a lot more options with colours and fabrics than I thought!

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  2. Cath you little rock star! So talented!
    Looks great

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  3. I have never attached a binding by machine like that (the last step). Do you have a source online for instructions to do this? Any tips yourself after doing it? Thanks! Beautiful quilt and I am going to try this one using her instructions.

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    1. hi Denise, no I didn't really use a tutorial, but you don't need to! I attached the binding by machine to the front as you normally would, then I wrapped it to the back, and used clips (that I kept moving as I sewed) to keep it down. I sewed again from the front of the quilt (in the ditch). The tricky part is making sure you catch the back of the binding into the stitching, I did have to unpick and restitch a few bits where I'd missed, but probably one of those things you get better at the more you do it. The corners really just sorted themselves out by folding (although one corner I did have to have a couple of goes at). There probably are some good on-line tutorials though. Try Red Pepper Quilts (she machine stitches all her quilts).

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  5. Okay thanks Catherine! I think I will give that a try on my next quilt. It sounds like I just need to go slow while doing it. I appreciate the help!

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  6. Your fabric design quilt is better...
    To get more design in weaveron textile so click on this link..: https://www.weaveron.com

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