Time Management and WIP's

With an active 18 month old toddler our house is feeling smaller and time seems to be going by so much faster! 

We have been working on ways to update the house so it's more usable for all of us, and one challenging room we are working to tackle is our dining room. Which has been my quilting room since I started quilting. In November 2013 we finally moved the dining room table out of the dining room and got a great space saving quilting table from Joann Fabrics. 

Now as we look to organize we are talking about making it a space my husband can also enjoy at the same time as me, meaning we will set up a place for him to be able to play xbox/play station. What a wonderful thing it would be to be able to be in the same room when were partaking in some of our favorite activities! 

Well while in the process of rearranging and space planning I had to do some organizing and that lead me to a drawer of WIP's. 

First up was a ziplock bag that I had 36 blocks already made for an I Spy quilt. They just needed sashing added and then to quilt and bind. 

I know myself well enough that making a good size quilt does not keep my interest. So I separated out the 36 blocks into 3 sets of 12 and went to town making 3 seperate I Spy quilts. 

The quilt tops feature fruits and vegetables. For the back on one quilt it has the Alphabet jumbled up and the other two have the numbers jumbled up. 

I am so happy with the finished products and so is my son! We have been practicing pointing out the fruits and veggies and he is picking them up quickly. 

Here is a photo of the quilts while they were in progress- it showcases what the quilt tops look like as well as the backing choices.

Here is a close up of each finished quilt:

On the 2nd quilt I improved my process by using spray basting to create my quilt sandwhich. On the 3rd I improved even more by using a Pinterest tutorial for bringing the backing forward as your binding. What a time saver!! And way less frustrating- I hate binding. 

Once all three quilts went through the washer/dryer I did find a few seams that didn't catch completely so I had to go back and do some extra top stitching. Not ideal but I'm not into quilting for perfection.

Once these quilts were put together I opened another WIP- my mini Sudoku quilt. I made a lap size version in March 2013 and knew I had enough fabric to do a mini version. 

My WIP had all the pieces cut and most laid out even as I'd been using fusible grid paper. The reason I stopped working on the quilt the first time was because the squares were not sticking to the fusible grid when I was sewing. I aborted the project with only one and a half rows sewn together. 

So when I picked up the project last night I had to seam ripper both rows to get the fabric organized. Once I have the fabric organized, I took to using the grid paper again but added in basting spray as an additional adhesive. Boy did it make a difference. 

My setup was simple I placed my fabrics 

 In a 3 by 3 layout so I knew which fabric was 1, 2, 3, and so on. Then on the fusible grid I used a frixion pen to write the sudoku pattern out then working in columns of 3 I would spray the basting spray and quickly layout the pieces of fabric. Once all the fabric was laid out I took the fusible grid to the ironing board. 

Note: I don't think spray basting and fusible grid are supposed to be used in this way but I was bound and determined to make these two inch squares adhere so I went for it. 

Once at the ironing board I laid down a piece of flannel that if it got spray basting on it I would have no problem throwing it out. Then got my appliqué pressing mat out and placed it over the quilt top. Then I used it as a barrier between the iron and the quilt top/adhesives. It worked beautifully.

As I sewed all the rows they came together great, and nothing had issues staying in place. 

After completing the top I took my lessons learned from the I Spy quilts and spray basted my quilt sandwhich and used the back/binding method to complete the quilt. 

This mini quilt came together in 2.5 hours and I am so excited to find a place to hang it up. 

Here's a picture of the finished product.

My First True Quilt!! The Sudoku lap quilt

I am so excited to share this post because it is showcasing my first true quilt. The quilt is a lap size quilt which I quilted by doing stitch in the ditch. I pieced the backing together on my own (more to come on that), and I did the binding on my own as well. 

For this quilt my inspiration came from the fact that in my Craftsy Grab Bag box I received back in December it had a Fat Quarter Bundle from Robert Kaufman of 9 fabrics from the Perfectly Perched and Modern Slicker lines. The all matched gorgeously but I wasn't quite sure what type of quilt I would make that had birds, chairs and other random images on it. Well lucky for me my husband and I were talking about Sudoku and how it features 9 unique numbers. I ran with that and actually found a free Craftsy pattern for a Sudoku quilt. 

It was perfect, 9 nine-patches with sashing in between. I knew I could handle nine-patches and that since I was working with fat quarters I made sure to use the Robert Kaufman Quilt Calc app to be check what size squares I should make to ensure I had enough fabric. I settled on 3.5 inch squares. 

The hardest part on this quilt is making sure you keep track of where each square in each block goes. If you don't the Sudoku pattern will not be correct. 

After cutting all my fabric squares and laying them out I labeled the blocks and laid them out on one surface. Then I worked from there to stitch each block together so I knew they were in the right order. 

Knowing which side is the top, bottom, left, and right of each block is important for this quilt. I kept my blocks spread on one surface at all times in the same was I was going to put them on the quilt. I also made fabric swatches identifying which block represents what number so I could reference that information later.  

For the sashing I had 1.5 inch strips. For a future quilt I would have done a little bigger I think. Cutting strips is one area I really need to work on. I will try to cut a few layers of fabric but it never seems to come out great, one part is always about a quarter inch to narrow, which in quilting can cause a huge accuracy problem.

When it came time to prepare the backing I ran into some surprises. I purchased 4 yards of the fabric For the backing from a website online because it was one of the fabrics that went with the fat quarter set that I had. And if you look closely you will notice that it is numbered zero through nine, which kept and perfect theme with my said Sudoku pattern. I purchased 4 yards, because I wanted to make sure I had plenty and I would be able to use it with the scraps left over from my fat quarters. Thank goodness I ordered extra fabric. The quilt top turned out to be wider than the 42 inches that the fabric comes, which meant I had to piece two pieces together to make the fabric cover the back of the quilt. 

Having never pieced a backing together before, I had not thought about the fact that when I cut the two pieces of fabric I should make sure they line up after the quarter inch seam was sewn. It wasn't a huge deal, however I would want to change that for quilts in the future.

The end result of the quilt I was very happy with, and it is used all the time at my house now.