What is Quilting?

Since starting my online fabric shop Fine City Quilting one of the questions I'm often asked is;

 What is Quilting?

You may have seen a quilted jacket or call the duvet you sleep under a quilt -  so what is quilting?

Well quilting is the process of sewing together layers of fabric in order to make a thicker, warmer layer. 

Three layers are usually used and often referred to as a quilt sandwich:

1) The Quilt top (the pretty patchwork layer you can see)

This layer can be as simple as a single piece of cloth (a whole cloth quilt) or hundreds of pieces sewn together.

2) The Wadding

Wadding can be made of a variety of warm materials making up this padding layer - cotton, cotton mixes, bamboo, polyester or wool.  At www.finecityquilting.co.uk we stock cotton and bamboo (which is excellent for allergies).

3)  The Backing

Plain solids such as these Sew Simple Solids are perfect for an economical quilt backing, but plain doesn't mean boring.  With the current trend for solids on the patchwork top layer, you may prefer to contrast and use a fun print on the backing of your quilt...

  Tip: using a print on the background may help to disguise any quilting mistakes, whereas a                 solid as backing could really show off your skills!

Once the 3 layers are basted (temporarily fixed together) either with a basting stitch that will be later removed or safety pins or an adhesive spray, the quilt sandwich can be quilted by machine or by hand.

Hand quilting with a needle and thread (make sure you're using a Quilting Needle, they're sharp) is sewing a running stitch through the three layers to secure them together.  This can be achieved with a stab stitch or rocking stitch.

Hand quilting as seen above is distinctive and can definitely make an item more personal.  It is a contemplative task which is slow and rewarding.

Machine quilting provides faster results but can be fraught if things don't go to plan.  Unpicking is harder.  Straight lines and gentle curves can be achieved with a walking foot like the section of a wall hanging below.

For anything that requires more curves, you'll need a Free-motion Quilting Foot, also known as a Darning Foot or Hopping Foot.   With this many effects can be achieved like the examples below.

Binding Achieved!

Breaking with convention somewhat I have bound my quilt before I've finished quilting it and it's turned out to be a brilliant idea!  The raw edges of the quilt were really stressing me when I working on it and I think I needed to feel like some more progress had been made to spur me on.  It's meant my quilt feels a lot more secure to work on  and I've fallen back in love with it.

The weather has been terrible these last few weeks in what is supposed to be summer.  Having taken the boys to France with my Mum for a week at the end of June/beginning of July in a 40 degree heatwave I wasn't expecting to work on this quilt again until the season changed.  This is the largest quilt I have ever attempted and when working on it you feel like you're sitting in bed as it fits on a double bed!  So in a way this cooler spell has been a blessing although wearing socks and slippers in late July is just rude.

As you can see there's a lot of work to do, spiraling every light grey square and quilting in the ditch between everything else but there's a sense of achievement already in that it is now a functional item. If it snowed tomorrow, unlikely I know, I could gather everybody under this and watch Disney's Hercules for the 5th time this week.

Also we're redecorating the living room and so when we're all snuggled under this we'll be perfectly co-ordinated, almost camouflaged!

Spiral Quilting

We have quilt off!
It's a relief to finally be hand quilting this project and I'm starting to see it come together.

I took the boys to my parent's for the weekend so my husband could have his friends over for a boozy 'Super Saturday' (last day of the Six Nations Rugby Tournament for those blissfully unaware).  This turned out to be rather handy for the making of my quilt sandwich.  As I had started to lay out the backing fabric the folly of having this hobby whilst living in a Victorian terraced house became apparent - NONE OF MY ROOMS ARE BIG ENOUGH TO LAY OUT MY QUILT!!

Thankfully Mum & Dad's living room is bigger than mine

So when the boys were napping I started.  This was the lovely clear sky that followed the morning where we had a near total eclipse.  We didn't see any eclipse as it was so cloudy but it did turn eerily dusk like for half an hour or so and the day that followed was beautiful.

I feel the Emilly Herrick fabric is really working with this pattern but made me realise I will not quilt all of it in the way suggested in the pattern as the individual squares were solid colours.  I plan to quilt in the ditch around the coloured squares and the white strips and do straight line spirals in the larger grey squares.  My backing fabric is a darker grey from the lovely ladies at Sew Simple  in Taverham one of whom not only cut my backing fabric to size but also said that my children were definitely in the better behaved end of the spectrum she saw in the shop.  We thanked her and hastily left before they showed their true colours!

Quilt Update!

Well, it's taken me ages to cut out most of my blocks.  Caspar has been cutting his 2nd tooth and refusing to sleep at the same time as his brother at lunchtime so I've still not finished cutting out the white strips that frame them....BUT I couldn't resist any longer and had to join a few blocks up to motivate me onwards.

I've decided to machine piece this quilt as I want to see results quicker which has some irony as my sewing machine (we'll call her The Beast), is two floors up so escaping up there without waking sleeping babes is often time consuming in itself.

The Beast

The Beast used to belong to a lady who lived on the Isle of Wight in my Father-in-Law's Parish (he is a Church of England Vicar), and when she died her husband gave her sewing box and machine to my Mother-in-Law. Along with the Beast came a box filled with bobbins, a few different feet and threads.  I don't know the lady's name or anything about her but the smell that comes when you open the box is very much a person's smell (not in a bad way), and consequently I feel strangely linked to her whenever I use it.  The Beast is my first sewing machine - she is a Singer and I love her.  Except when I'm having bobbin dramas but more of that another day.

With much fanfare here are my first two blocks, of course as soon as I'd chain pieced a few more a wished I'd finished cutting them out first BUT I find being purely logical a struggle and it is nice to be reminded again of why you're doing something.  So onwards and upwards, I hope to report back within a week or so with more blocks pieced!

The best kind of post!

My two year old had his birthday recently so was eager to open the package I received yesterday, I think he thinks all parcels are for him and was most disgruntled to be told 'No' this was Mummy's parcel!

After hours and hours browsing www.eclecticmaker.co.uk I decided to treat myself to a fabric pack of fat quarters.  The aim is to make a lap quilt for cosy film watching on the sofa this autumn and winter.  I want it to have a modern feel and I want it to reflect the rest of the living room which is a mix of contemporary and classic with the main colours being a dirty lime (sofas) and cream and light grey (walls & other bits and bobs).

SO.....this is what I've chosen;

Emily Herrick's Rustique Fat Quarter Fabric Pack

...and now I have to do something with it!  I think this has to be one of the hardest bits of quilting when you actually have to make the leap into a project.  Maybe one day I will buy a ready to quilt pack but not being quite sure whether something will work or not has to be more exciting.  I spent last night going through quilting magazines and rounded it down to four designs.

The quilt design I'm going to go with is one that was featured in Fons & Porter's Easy Quilts in the Spring 2014 issue.  The quilt is designed and made by Corey Yoder (who blogs as www.littlemissshabby.com) and in the magazine is called 'Gray Square Scramble'. 

Now the challenge is on to see if I can find time everyday to get this quilt going - I'd love to be able to watch a film under it by the start of advent or at least be kept warm by sitting under the sandwiched layers hand quilting it by then!  ONLY TIME WILL TELL.......

The Hungry Caterpillar Quilt

This next quilt was put together hastily with the onset of Winter.  Elias was born in September 2012 and within weeks the weather was getting cooler.  We had decorated his Nursery in the theme of the children's book by Eric Carle 'The Hungry Caterpillar'.

 A crib made for my brother Jonathan by my Grandad  was used again and a huge green leaf from Ikea stood over it.  The walls were painted sky blue and I made small pictures of the caterpillar chomping his way through leaves and all the other bits and bobs he eats (NB I could tell you - I know the entire wretched book by heart).

The quilt top was several simple 'Pinwheel' blocks.  I used two 'Hungry Caterpillar' fabrics and these were interspersed with a tablecloth which had belonged to my Grandparents.  Neither my Nana or Grandad are with us any more and so using something of theirs to help keep my baby warm felt right.  I think this is the reason I find throwing fabric away so hard, surely every piece is right for something!

This quilt was the first time I had used my new but old Singer Sewing Machine and close inspection would show it!  I'm still so new to patchwork and quilting that I couldn't tell you my preferred technique but given the practical need for this quilt I appreciated how quickly it came together because of the machine.

Soon it was time for Eli to move into his big boy bedroom to make room for someone else.  In February 2014 Caspar was born, and here is No. 2 son modelling No. 2 Quilt.

My First Quilt

The first quilt I made was a present for my Mum's 60th birthday (in May 2012).  My Mum loves blues and greens so this was to influence my palette choice.  I also wanted the quilt to be used at my parent's holiday chalet in France where my Mum has all her table and glass ware in lovely shades of turquoise. The chalet is somewhere we all love holidaying, it's right by the river, and we all enjoy the birds and other wildlife we see from the verandah.

When choosing fabrics I found myself drawn to florals and leaves and birds and even found a fabric that had a small 'tricolour' flag and an anchor on it.  I decided (thankfully!) to make it a lap quilt, I think retrospectively anything else would have been madness with no experience!

Here are a few of the blocks before the quilt top was assembled;

This block is Barbara Frietchie's Star & was made (except the blue floral) from old shirts.

This block is a Pierced Star & used a lovely batik along with the turquoise dotty fabric.

This block is called 'Susannah' and here you can see the French/Nautical fabric I was pleased to find.

When all the blocks were complete (along with the blocks seen, I also used an 'Anvil', 'Stars & Stripes', 'Puss in the Corner', 'King's Crown', 'Evening Star', 'Flyfoot', 'Crosses & Losses', 'Star of Le Moyne' and 'Flock of Geese'), one of our cats Boogle gave his approval to the proposed layout and a good sniff, so I was then ready to start assembling the quilt.

It is worth recalling that in the last few months before my Mum's birthday I was newly pregnant with Elias our first child and also working full time.  There were a few fraught and tearful telephone conversations with Vanessa my Mother in Law who did her best to reassure me as I struggled with my first attempt at quilting!

I chose a lovely batik in muted greens and turquoise to be the backing fabric.  Instead of binding I then wrapped the backing fabric round to make a sort of frame.  My memory goes a bit hazy at this point (possibly the stress!), but I then really enjoyed choosing things to quilt on the borders like a Mother Duck being followed by two ducklings.

Below is the finished article;

It wasn't perfect but it is loved and used all the time (Mum and Sasha the dog take their daily nap on the verandah on or under it depending on the weather!) and that, I think is about all you can hope for with a quilt.