Little Jack's Corner: November 2010

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Blue and Brown Cuddle Quilt

This quilt is made from super soft and warm Cuddle fabric. The customer bought a kit from a craft store and then asked me to put it together for her. I used a high loft batting and both the front and the back of the quilt are made with Cuddle. It was a chance to try out basting spray again, and I don't know how you would sew Cuddle fabric without the spray! It's so slick! This was a sew and flip project, or I've also seen them called quilt-as-you-go.

The end result is an extremely soft blankie that none of my kids could resist stroking whenever they passed my sewing desk. I'm eager to try more projects with Cuddle fabric and I have a few ideas of things that I will do differently next time.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Monster Quilt is Finally Done!

This quilt started out as an experiment with applique. I have wanted to try it for a while but have been too intimidated. I got the idea for a monster quilt from Little Birdie Secrets. Their monsters inspired some of mine and the remainder I made up. Each piece is hand drawn, cut out and fused, then machine stitched. There was a ton of time involved in the making of this quilt but it was a lot of fun and I love the end results!

I also used this quilt as an opportunity to try out a few other firsts, namely basting spray and stipple quilting. The basting spray was nice and I think I'll be using it again in the future. The stipple quilting took a while to get used to. I had trouble getting the tension right and there were issues with the top looking great but the back being too tight. Also, I learned the value of good quality thread. I thought that I was using good stuff but after it broke innumerable times and I finally switched to a different brand, I was much more pleased with the results.

All in all, it was a great learning experience and I'm very proud of the end results! I think that for a quilt that started out as just an experiment it turned out very well. If I was asked to make one of these for someone, I'm not sure what I would charge because I worked on this quilt off and on for over six months and didn't pay attention to the total amount of hours put in, but I'm sure there were a lot of them! If you're interested, let me know and we'll work something out.

Materials

I use good quality fabrics on all of my items, usually 100% cotton. While there are bargain fabrics available, the cost savings aren't worth what is given up in quality.

Most of my quilts are basic woven cotton on the front and snuggly flannel on the back, although there are exceptions. I like to use a high loft synthetic batting as well. I hand-bind the edges of all of my quilts with a French binding, which has a double thickness for added strength. Additionally, I have begun binding my quilts with a bias-cut binding, which is stronger and lasts even longer.

The burp cloths are 100% cotton flannel on both sides and I have found that that is plenty absorbent for most baby spit-ups.

Receiving blankets are also 100% cotton, with flannel and/or lightweight cotton for each side. The double flannel blankets are great for winter, while the double lightweight blankets are good for summer.

All of my baby products are made to be used well and often! Let your baby sleep with it, use it as a cape or a tent and then throw it in the washer. I believe that motherhood is a dirty job and I personally don't have the time for items that require special handling or (gasp!) dry cleaning.