Thursday, October 1, 2015

A Quilt For My Mom--TBT



Well it's that time of the month again...time to throw back to quilts of our past.  On the first Thursday of the month, Jenn over at A Quarter Inch from the Edge hosts a linky party for everyone to share posts about quilts from their quilty past.  Today I decided to talk about a quilt I made for my mother for her birthday.  It was her first birthday after my father passed away and I wanted to give her something made with love.  We all know there is nothing better than a quilt to provide for a forever hug.

The pattern is called Four Square Layer Cake Quilt by Sherri McConnell.  I would like to tell you I remembered the name of the fabric line I used, but alas I did not.  But all was not lost!  Last week Yvonne over at Quilting Jetgirl posted a great tutorial called Reverse Image Search showing how to use a picture to search on a search engine.  By following her instructions, I can happily tell you that I used charm packs of Moda's Puttin on the Ritz.

This was the biggest quilt I had attempted to quilt on my home machine and it was at our first house, so my sewing space was even smaller.


When you throw in Oliver's helpful guidance, this quilt was a challenge to quilt.



The only free motion anything I had tried at this point was stippling.  I had found a really pretty variegated thread at my LQS.  It had grays, pinks and whites in it and I thought it would look pretty all over the quilt...and it did...



However, very early on into this quilting venture, the thread kept breaking.  I would stitch for maybe a minute and snap, the thread would break.  This became quite frustrating, so since I hadn't gone very far, I switched to a white cotton thread I purchased at Walmart.  And honestly, you really can't tell there are two different threads on the quilt.  Here it is a few years later and I had to search for this tiny quilted spot...and I'm the one who quilted it.

One of the problems I had with my cheap cotton thread was it would knot up on me and there are several spots where you can see a little thread nest or two.  I didn't let it slow me down...I knew my mom would love it, imperfections and all.  I point them out now, not to be critical of myself, but to show for better or worse we all start somewhere.



Another first for me was attempting to do a machine binding and use a decorative stitch.  This was not as easy or quick as I thought it would be.



I think it took me twice as long as doing it by hand and I HATED it after it was finished.  Now, I love it.  Maybe I will give machine binding another go round sometime soon.



And here is a picture of my beautiful mamma and her quilt.  Aren't they both adorable?



Come join the party!!!  The more the merrier!!  
Today I'm linking up with




11 comments:

elle said...

lovely quilt for your mom. Thread is surely important and I agree that sometimes machine binding ends up as more time/trouble than hand work. :)

Heidi said...

I really like the soft colors of this quilt!
I am turning to machine binding more and more these days:)

Anja @ Anja Quilts said...

I've never tried a decorative stitch when I machine bind. It's a great quilt.

Linda said...

Your quilt turned out great! Only you notice the imperfections. Love the decorative stitch on the binding. I did that once, it does take a lot longer but a great result.

Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl said...

How awesome that reverse image search helped you identify the fabric! That is fantastic. :) The decorative stitch looks wonderful around the binding, but I can imagine that it did take a long time. I personally have finally learned to love machine binding - it is perfect for tiny finishes.

Jenn @ A Quarter Inch from the Edge said...

Love the soothing colour palette. I definitely agree with you that a quilt is one of the best ways we can offer comfort. It's the extra love sewn in that does it! Thanks for linking up with Throwback Thursday @ A Quarter Inch from the Edge!

JanineMarie said...

I really like the simple design and calm colors of this quilt. I'm sure your mom loved every stitch of your quilty hug. The decorative stitch might have been a pain, but it added just the right sparkle around the edge. And how neat that Yvonne's post helped you find the fabric!

Lori said...

What a wonderful gift to give your mother after your father's passing. I am very impressed by your first attempt at machine binding! I am still struggling to master it.

Lara B. said...

This is so soft and so lovely Tish! Your Mom must love her quilt very much! It was the perfect birthday gift.
The machine stitched binding is a really good - i love the effect the decorative stitch added. I can see why it would take longer though.

Brianna said...

Beautiful quilt and a special gift for your mom. I've done a couple 90" square quilt son my domestic machine too and they can be a bit of a challenge at first! Also, I just got a kitten and named him Oliver too :) He's sitting here, purring beside me and hoping to get a bite of my breakfast ;)

Sandra Walker said...

LIke I said to Anja, I need to jump in on this linky...I have, um, lots of material for posts! I love this quilt--did not read Yvonne's post, so I will go back and find that! Yay for Moda fabrics, and yay for, as you said, starting somewhere. This is a wonderful quilt, and your mamma looks wonderful too! ;-) 100% agree with you on the binding thoughts--I did a fancy stitch on a flannel quilt bound with flannel (now that was fun in and of itself) thinking it would get done faster (my parents were sleeping over on Christmas Eve and I wanted this new quilt for my mum for extra warmth for her at night) and ya, it barely got finished in time! Have never done another either in that way. I love the look of yours, think I used a very similar stitch as I was going for a snowflake look.

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