I've been wanting to try a simple quilt for a long time. I made a dolls quilt for Miss M last year for her birthday that I am pretty proud of for my first attempt, but it lacked, well, 'technical quilting' and I made it up as I went along really. The arrival of a friend's very teeny tiny premmie baby has been a very convenient excuse for me (and being ever the fan of a practical handmade gift) to have a crack at the Bend The Rules scalloped baby quilt. (It's also on my BIG to do list this year.)
It is, I guess, a bit of cheating making a quilt that only has two solid sides, but I was more interested in this project for the decorative edge and actual 'quilting' bit - the bit where you sew all over it. I thought it was a lovely project to introduce me to these skills and try and demystify this technique enough to give me some confidence in trying a few more quilting projects. I'd love to make Miss M a large quilt full of love (and some level of technical correctness!).
Yesterday I made a start and bought these lovely West 22nd fabrics from Spotlight, followed the instructions and made my own template, tracing around my favourite chinese noodle bowls. I used some lovely white cotton flannel as the lining, so it wasn't too heavy, but still had a good feel to it with a little weight.
The cutting, scalloping and finishing, ready for 'quilting' has resulted in a lovely looking project so far, with which I'm really quite pleased. The bit I'm not pleased about is my sewing machine, who insists on sewing perfectly on every practice scrap, but when it senses my lovely project beneath, immediately throws it's tension and does something weird with the bobbin thread so it loops and wraps up underneath. So the sewing on top looks OK, but underneath is a mess. I only had my machine serviced last November, so am loathe to take it back for another look, but I think I'm going to have to. It's very frustrating and disheartening to the point of tears. Especially when all you want to do is straight stitch sewing.
So I'm now toying with the idea of hand-quilting. Which was not why I chose this project, but the universe always is pointing me in new ways, and often for good reason. So I'm Googling a 'how to' on hand quilting (do you, like, just stitch it like normal running stitch and what sort of thread and needle do you use?) and about to dash down to the shops again to pick up the supplies I need. I think it will be a good project to do some hand sewing. I need to stop and count the stitches at the moment, so this will be a good mediatation and I'm guessing, very satisfying to complete.
Moral support and hints are very welcome at this point!
PS I've just found this which is simple to follow and enough to get me started at least...