Allietare Mystery Part 1

Hi, my name is Jenni and this is my first time doing a Bonnie Hunter Mystery.  This is my first year of quilting and will be my 5th completed top... Once it's done anyway!  This is also my first time attempting to do a mystery link up so pardon me if I do it wrong LOL.

This is the fabric that I chose for the mystery.  I figured that it would be more fun if I was using colors that spoke to me as MINE!

Here are my clue #1 half square triangles. They look MUCH better than the first ever half square triangles that I did when I chose to do Scrap Crystals.  I am most impressed with how much I learned about accuracy and technique while doing Scrap Crystals.

I have 319 here.  I made a few extra because I wanted to use up all of the grey strips that I had cut.  I'm sure that I will find a place to use them someday!

To go back to Bonnie's Blog click Here!

My First Year of Quilting - Part 4

My 4th ever completed quilt top is "Scrap Crystals" by Bonnie Hunter from her book "More Adventures With Leaders and Enders".  I learned A LOT from this quilt. I learned what accuracy really means when piecing everything together so as not to chop of your points.  I learned that I can make a beautiful quilt if I just do one step and a time and follow instructions carefully.  However most of all I learned that not all pattern writers are equal (more about that later) and Bonnie writes awesome instructions that even a newbie can follow and feel amazed at what was created.

Someday I will figure out how to move pics where I want them. Anywhooo.... Here is where I learned that if you, like me laid out your strips wrong so you had a right side to a wrong side you can just sew them together right sides together and clip a dog ear from both sides.  Love the easy angle ruler by the way. So I made a ton of these half square triangles. and this was one of the pretty ones.  There were many that were kind of wonky.  However I just kept putting pieces together....

 

And put more and more and more and more together....

 

And made the sashing with my first ever stich and flip corners...

 

I think I did pretty good... and put everything together in a webbed top.

 

 And sewed that together....

Added my border and rushed out the door to make my appointment with the long armer that is also going to quilt my dragon top. And spaced taking pictures.  So what did this quilt teach me?

1. That scant quarter inch seam is of the utmost importance. But it doesn't mean much if you didn't cut accurately in the first place.

2. Even if the piece is not "perfect" you can sew it in anyway and it will still look awesome!

3.Bonnie Patterns are super easy to follow even for a beginner.  

4. The more you keep piecing on and don't give up if it gets hard or things are perfect the more you will learn. And when you are done you will be that much better of a quilter because every piece you sew teaches you something new.

 

My First Year of Quilting - Part 3

My 3rd quilt I made my own pattern.  I made it for my son.  I asked if he wanted a Mine Craft quilt.  Then  I went looking for patterns and couldn't find one. So.... what is a girl to do but figure out how to make one from looking at a picture.

I drew it up in Excel... I asked him if it needed any changes.  This is why it doesn't look like a traditional creeper.  I cut all my squares, and laid them out like in the picture. And then I started sewing them together into 4 patches.  I got some of the inside squares in the wrong places. He never noticed.  On this quilt I started teaching myself how to "spin the seams". Somewhere in here I discovered Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville I have learned SEW much from her!!!  I got it figured out to a point however when I started to sew it all together into columns are rows I discovered that for spinning the seams to work properly they all have to spin the same.

 Duh.. Anyhow I persevered got it all sewn into a top. Stitched it in the ditch with my walking foot. Which is harder than it looks.  My lines jump in and out of the ditch, and cross the ditch...
 and oh well he seems to like it!

Here it is all laid out flat.  He chose the binding and backing fabrics.  He is in that in-between stage of kid and teenager.

Front side.

So what did this quilt teach me?

1. When you pick up your pieces after laying them out pick them up in the order they will be sewn and LABEL them. 
2. Perfection is in the eye of the beholder.  My son isn't looking at it and telling me what I did wrong.  He is telling me that he loves that I made HIM a quilt.
3. Warm and Natural 100% Cotton batting or 80/20 is way easier to work with than the big fluffy polyester batting.
4. Hey look I can build a pattern!!!
5. If you are new to quilting and are trying to teach yourself about it from online sources late at night as a single mom.  Bonnie Hunter is amazing.  She has quilt cams where she sews in her studio and shows you how to do stuff.

My First Year of Quilting and what is has taught me - Part 2

My second quilt that I made was for my mom, I picked two fabrics that I thought she would like.  I expected her to add more colors. She added plain white. You know what they say about expectations though right.  So I gave her a stack of 5 quilting magazines (My entire library at this point) and told her to pick a pattern.  I didn't care which pattern but I was not making another quilt without a pattern!!!

This is what she picked.

So I cut my 13" squares, I cut them all in half.  (oops if you want them all to line up in a certain way and you have a horizontal print.  Make sure your blocks are all cut in the same direction LOL)

I sewed all those giant have square triangles together.   I frog stitched a bunch of triangles (rip it, rip it)  I tried to get them all to go the right way... I laid out the quilt on the design wall in the way that the pattern showed. Mom came in and turned all the triangles so that there were stripes... sigh... It's her quilt.  This is where I learned that it matters some which way the print on the fabric runs...

 I sewed blocks into rows, then the columns.  Tried really really hard to get everything going the same direction. Gave up and sewed some in on the bottom row going the wrong way, after all its not like she stands at the end of the bed staring at it right.

I googled how to sandwich a quilt, and how to quilt a quilt.  And put my walking foot on Grandma's machine and off I went.  I stitched in the ditch and twice down each block... There are some squiggly lines.  The backing got bunched up in a couple of places.  It's not perfect but neither am I.  This is the quilt that proved to me that there is NO WAY I could quilt my dragon quilt myself.  I barley stuffed mom's through the machine and it is the same dimensions as the dragon.


Here is the finish product.

So what did this quilt teach me?
1. How you cut the fabric for each square & triangle WILL matter in the pattern.
2. 3 colors are not enough (boring).
3. 120 x 120 is a BIG Quilt.
4. Thank God this pattern and fabric is not MY quilt LOL.
5. It's harder to stitch in the ditch and sew straight lines than it looks.

My first year in quilting & what it has taught me - part 1

Hello,

My name is Jenni, I collect dragons. I have a 12 year old son, a dear boyfriend (here after referred to as DB) and two dogs, two cats, and a room in my house that I have staked claim to for the long haul.

I inherited my grandmothers sewing machine when she died and my son was 1 year old.

I decided one day to use her, to make a quilt.  I hadn't sewn since home economics in the 7th grade when I successfully made a pillow.  The dress that we were assigned to make is still a UFO. I knew then that while sewing was fun for me sewing clothing wasn't.  Fast forward many many many years and here I was 37 years old deciding to make a quilt.  I googled how to make a quilt, I watch Crafty's classes free online, I watched many hours of Hey Quilting episodes  http://www.heyquilty.com/index.html.  I made a plan.....

I made it out of denim.  The majority of which came from my size 28 jeans all the way down the pile to the size 22 jeans. I had decided that I was NEVER going to be that fat again. So turn them into a quilt and memorialize the almost 100lbs I had lost.

What this quilt taught me...
1. People start from patterns for a reason. Especially when they are first learning a new skill.  KNOWING that someone before you has been there done that and that it can be done is a wonderful thing.
2. There is also something to be said for just jumping off the deep end and diving in with no real clue as to how to get from point A to point B.  If you are successful you have taught yourself again that hard work and perseverance will gain you everything.
3. I had decided going in that this quilt was going to tell me if I wanted to BE a quilter or a person who had made a quilt.  I didn't put my cutting mat and rotary cutter on Craigslist when I was done so therefore I have decided to BE a quilter.

It has been a long journey. And my journey of my first quilt is not over yet.  I have a completed top, but it isn't quilted yet!

So in the effort to not make it an endless UFO in my room I'm off to ask the experts, at a local quilt shop how to accomplish the quilting part.  I have already come to the conclusion that this is one quilt that will be quilted by checkbook.  I don't have a long arm, or a mid arm or a anything that is going to allow me to feel comfortable quilting this sucker.  It is HEAVY!!!