Thursday 22 May 2014

Get Crafty: My First Quilt Experience


Quilting. Oh my word! I have only recently discovered the art of modern quilting, thanks to the very talented soon-to-be mother in law, and I am in love. Granny Mcintyre very kindly made this delightful piece for Lena.


It is backed with a  gorgeous piece of Cabbages & Roses cotton and surrounded by the neatest hand stitched binding I have ever seen.


Featuring a bit of Kaffe Fassett (Granny's favourite) and Scandi influenced greys from her go to fabric shop Millie Moon it means the world to me, and I'm sure it will to Lena too as she grows up with it.


I have a long standing friend who is quite possibly the cleverest person I know. I was lucky enough to once study with her... well, ok we were at sixth form so there was a little more gossiping than studying.  She is an Astrobiologist and as of last year a Ted Fellow. Take a look at her intelligence in action here. As well as being a Space Whizz, she is now the mother to a gorgeous little boy called Renley.... Awesome name, or what! I wanted to make her a little baby quilt that she would hopefully find as special as I do the one from Granny.

Before I made her quilt all I was certain of was that I wanted to achieve something not too garish, that incorporated greys and was easy for me to make as the novice quilter. I am really chuffed with the result and I hope that it gets some serious snuggle use, even with its 'first time' faults. 


Using graph paper I made a little sketch of the pattern and then used this to work out how much fabric I needed, adding a 1/4 seam allowance to my measurements. My Grandmother has always told me to combine prints or colours in sixes, so that's the advice that I followed when it came to picking fabrics.

I wanted the binding to be a mismatch of prints, including those found in the quilt, so I made it myself. I did the double edge binding method so I didn't have to splash out on a bias binding maker or be restricted as to what print I used. For a great tutorial on how to do double edged binding head over to Comfort Stitching. How adorable is Renley!!!! 


The fabric was purchased from The Eternal Maker and Fabric Rehab, with the back being one piece of Riley Blake Chevron in grey. I used bamboo blend wadding due to both its antibacterial properties and the fact that the quilting distance is up to 8" apart.


I'm a little disappointed that the elephant print base colour is more brown than grey but overall I think it works well - using the same print in the binding at the opposite end of the quilt helps, I think.  It has certainly helped to give me the 'quilting bug.'



3 comments:

  1. Gemma - I love your quilt for Renley - I think the brown compliments the rest really well. You must share your Great Gran's idea of sixes - sounds interesting. Thank you so much for your lovely compliments about my quilt for Lena - I loved every minute making it. XX

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