I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your quilt, Kelly!!! My mom is a quilter... a very good one. In fact, I'm sitting here covered up in one of her quilts right now. She does them entirely by hand and even though people are always telling her they'd pay her for one, she knows they'd never be willing to pay enough to make it worth her while. That's one of the reasons why I see quilt-making entirely as an act of love. There's no other way to describe it.
I was cracking up as you described how you laid out all the pieces to make it random (yet not random). That is totally something I would do! I totally want to learn how to make them myself, but I can't keep up with my current projects. I'm so far behind with my scrapbooking, and heck, I'm even having trouble getting my trip reports written any more!! I guess I need to take less trips.
I think you'll be really happy that you decided to keep it as a blanket to snuggle up in, instead of making it for your bed. Again, congratulations... it's absolutely beautiful!
Thanks, Holly. If your mom is a hand-quilter I'm quite sure my little raggy thing doesn't hold a candle to her work. I wish I had that kind of patience. It seems this quilt was just about my limit. I need more frequent gratification. LOL!
I agree with your mom, for me quilts are a labor of love. I have to really love the quilt or have a really strong sentiment to drive me through. I really, really, really want to make one for each of my boys' beds. The only thing that holds me back on those is the primary fabric. I've found what I want for each. Unfortunately, they're Disney prints that are only distributed in the Japanese market. I can't quite bring myself to pay $25/yard x 6-8 yards + international shipping.
Laying out the squares to force a random look....I know! When I was doing it I kept envisioning my mom who's like major, major OCD about a lot of stuff. She'll even tell you she's "CDO" because the letters need to be in order! LOL! She a crazy list person. She has to be super-organized all the time so she makes lists for everything. When I was on my floor laying out those squares I kept thinking to myself, "Oh God! I really am becoming my mother!" Not that it's such a horrible thing. I had a lot of giggly moments that day. The worst part was standing on top of a chair to snap a picture so I'd know I had the layout correct as I was sewing. I thought about making a coded list from the picture listing the order of the squares by row but then I thought that'd be a bit too far into Mom's realm so I opted to skip it. LOL! I'll have to tell her all about it when I see her next and show her the quilt. Should be later this month. She'll think it's hysterical!
Thanks for the kind words about my quilt. It's soooooo me in every way. LOL! I'm so glad I made it and kept it. Most of what I make I have always given away. It's fun to do something specifically for ME for a change.
I think you need to make one for Gabby & Jerome!!!!!
I've been thinking that for a while but wouldn't know where to begin as far as characters, fabrics, motifs, etc. Do they have favorite colors or characters that they are most like that you can think of? I can't think of a better way to send my hugs to my sweetest little cousins than to have a quilt made by me to wrap around them. ((I do have a load of Finding Nemo fabrics already cut into squares. Lots of vibrant blues. Somehow I don't see your 2 kiddos being Nemo-ish, tho. LOL!))
Oh! The raggies are pretty lint-y. That's not going to be a big problem for their breathing, huh? Wanna be sure. I'd
if I made them sick.
OMG, Sweetpee!!!!! That is totally the cutest thing I've ever seen!!!!!
I so love it and really want one! Too bad I completely don't know how to sew! Although, I now am considering taking it up...
I so wish I had more money than sense so that I could throw a sick dollar amount at you, because it totally rocks! I adore the hidden mickeys stitched into each square! So adorable! Congrats!!!
Thanks! The quilt is the reason why I'm so miserably behind on your trip report. I was doing okay keeping up even with doing all the school stuff with the boys but then pile on all the sewing and the computer totally took the back seat. Lots more sewing coming up...and the floors around here are almost frightening. I'll have to stop everything soon and just do some good ol' scrubbin' around here. I'd rather catch up on trip reports, tho.
Sewing is sooooo not hard. I swear! It's like anything else in life, you don't start out an expert. But it's not hard. Rag quilts are a great start into sewing, too, because of their simple as pie design. If you're ever really curious I can send you a link to a great website that walks you thru them. The best thing about these quilts is even if you're work is kinda rough still, it's okay! You'll never know it by looking at the quilt!
I wish I had the time & money to make quilts for all my friends and family. I really, really do. To me, there's no better way to send a hug to someone than to have them wrap a quilt I made around them.
Thanks again for the sweet words about my quilt. I can't get the hang of Photoshop as easy as a lot of folks, don't take very good pictures, but I *can* sew. I guess instead of wishing I could do stuff I can't I should enjoy the stuff I do know how to do more often. Silly me, huh? :hammer:
OMG! your quilt is awesome! I cant believe that is ur first one. I have been gettin in to disney quilts a lot lately and I am thinking about making one for myself. I have a few questions for you, if you dont mind.
Where did you get your disney fabic?
How did you do the hidden mickeys? Those are awesome!
Also If you have any tips for me, i would appreciate them.
Thanks so much. I hope if you make anything more, you share with us, I really would love to see more from you =)
Yep! First quilt! Believe me, I shocked the socks off myself with it, too. LOL! I just kept thinking about the stuff my mother-in-law taught me about patience: when you feel you lack it most, it's time to put the sewing down & walk away for a bit.....and take the time to visualize how every detail will affect the next step and the next step all the way through to the end. Visualizing the way things will or won't work really helps!
As for your questions:
The Disney fabrics came from eBay and Etsy. Every day, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day, I will go to those websites and run quick searches for fabrics. I also don't limit myself to just plain fabric. I also search for duvets and sheets. Clothing, bedding, etc. can all be great sources for fabric and are often cheaper than buying sewing fabric. The pink stripe and pink swirly Mickeys on the back of my quilt were cut from a deconstructed used duvet & matching bedskirt that I got off eBay for like $20 or so. Love those fabrics! I've been collecting Disney fabrics for about 3 years or so. I have quite a little stash going on. LOL!
The Mickeys. Heeheehee! How much do you know about the construction of rag quilts? Basically, the squares are assembled into individual sandwiches (top, middle, and back layers) before you stitch them together into rows, then the rows together to make the quilt. When doing the square sandwiches usually you would either stitch over them in a big "X" from corner to corner or do a tie in the middle or something just to hold everything together. Instead of doing the "X" or a tie, I used a Mickey quilter's template (purchased from eBay for like $4) to trace the icon onto the center of each square then slowly stitched over it on my sewing machine. I traced with a water soluble marker so it'd wash out later when I had to do the washing for the rags to fray. Doing the Mickey on each square was pretty time consuming but it was a fabulous touch I felt was worth the extra effort. In hind-sight, I didn't need the quilter's template to do the Mickey icon at all. You could use any simple shape with a simple outline (like a heart or a big block letter or something...I could've printed an icon off my computer easily), trace it onto a solid piece of stencil plastic, cut it out with an exact-o knife, and bam! You got your template to trace!
Tips. Ugh. I don't consider myself all that good at sewing in general. I think because I compare my work to my mother-in-law's or my sister-in-law's and these ladies have some mind-blowing talent & skill. My mother-in-law has custom designed and made wedding gowns for several of the girls in the family. I even got to help with the beading/crystals which was a maaaaajor honor. I've learned so much from both of them. The one thing they have that I totally lack is patience. Patience is key. Do NOT get in a hurry. If you start to feel hurried or urgent while sewing you really should stop or you'll end up having to take stuff back apart and redo it which always completely infuriates me because it's so avoidable. Just like in construction, measure twice (or 3 or 4 times!) and cut or sew once. Take your time in every step of every project you do. Pin things. Turn them over, around, piece things together with pins and visualize how things are interacting. This helps you to see where your work is going and sometimes where you need to make changes so that the piece finishes best. There's still a lot I can't do. Like zippers.
Zippers are my nemesis. I always avoid them like the plague. ((Funny story! When Brian was a baby I made him a monkey costume for his first Halloween. It was adorable and I was so proud of my work....until I put it on him. I sewed the stupid zipper in backwards so the zipper-pull was on the inside vs. the outside. I cried and cried even tho Tracey showed me it still zipped up just fine and looked adorable. Funny to think back on that stuff 12 years later.... :lol
)
If you have any questions, feel free to PM me here. I'll send you my email address and/or phone number if you need me. I also have a killer link to some great instructions on rag quilts that I used to work out my game-plan on my quilt that I could share with you!
Thanks for the love and kind words about my quilt. It really is one of my bestest treasured pieces now. My mother-in-law and father-in-law both came by to see it last week and they both really gushed over it. The first thing Mom did was turn it over and comment on how nice & crisp I got all my corners. I could've popped with pride! I was sooooo cautious when piecing the rows together to match each corner perfectly so the back would be flawless. And it is! And Mom
noticed!!!!!! :sohappy:
Future projects. One of my old cabbage patch buddies has found her niche creating beautiful, mind-blowing heirloom-quality teddy bears. She's enlisted me to make little lined pouches to store each in (makes for great presentation) and designing clothes for them. Talk about tedious stuff! There aren't patterns that small! So I'm taking my ability to sew clothing from patterns with instructions a step further by creating my own patterns from scratch and making tiny outfits. Very, very tedious stuff. It's a real workout for my patience-muscles. LOL! Also, she has sent me a stack of books about making teddy bears. I purchased a quantity of mohair last week. I'm also working on my own custom pattern for teddy bears and will be trying my hand at the art of bear-making. I'm in the process of selling off another batch of my cabbage dollies to fund bear-making supplies. The good materials are pretty pricey. But when I see her making a bear with $35 or so in materials and selling it for over $300, I'm willing to take the plunge and give it a shot. The best part is the fun in making something so awesome. I love to make stuff! I always have! :sohappy:
