Wednesday, December 05, 2012

Better late(r) than never

It's late; I should be in bed. But I didn't do a bit of work on the charity quilt yesterday (mostly owing to sleeping away the day), so things needed to be done.

Monday, I finished the machine quilting and trimmed the quilt. The binding was already made; I've learned to cut and piece it at the same time as I cut the pieces for the quilt top. Having it ready to go speeds up the finishing process. All that was left was to sew it on, then fold it to the back and hand stitch it down.

It is possible to do the entire thing by machine, but I prefer the hand sewn look. This isn't a large quilt - roughly 48 x 64.

It took exactly two and a half hours to hand sew that binding. That was concentrated sewing time, sitting at the desk running the first Harry Potter movie off on the computer while I sewed. But it is done, so the thing can be washed, labeled and photographed tomorrow night in time to be taken to work on Friday.

Next up, a fun kid's quilt, of the type generally called "I Spy". The top is made of many different types of novelty fabric. A list is provided, in this case printed on fabric and sewn to the back of the quilt, of different objects that can be found in the fabrics.

The most difficult part of the process is collecting the novelty fabric. Thank heaven for a woman on Etsy who sells packs of six inch squares of fifty different novelties. Takes all the work (and time) out of the fabric collection process.

This quilt is also a gift quilt, for a five year old boy newly diagnosed with leukemia. He's got a three plus year journey ahead of him, and hopefully, this will help keep him both warm and occupied during those times he needs to be quieter.

Pictures coming soon of the work quilt.

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