Arrow Tail Quilt

I was initially going to make a hexagon quilt for both my son and daughter, but after a couple months of basting hexagons, I changed my mind. :) I needed to find something that I liked just as much, but that wouldn't take as much time. I came across this arrow tail quilt on Pinterest, and decided it was perfect.

I reduced the size of the "arrows" to be about the same size of the hexagons, so that they would look similar. I liked that the arrows were a little more masculine, too. I used quite a few of the same fabrics in this quilt, but added in a few more blues, greens, and grays and omitted most of the pinks. I cut out about 900 of these shapes, and then laid them out how I wanted them.

I put each row into a stack from top to bottom, and labeled the rows with numbers. Then I started sewing them together! It went pretty quick.

Sewing the rows to each other went even quicker, I just had to be careful to try to match up all the points. I had to stretch some fabrics more than others to get the seams to all match up. I was worried that it would be hard to keep the points together, or that you would see a lot of mistakes from the front, but I'm really happy with how it turned out!

I ironed all the seams as I went, and that helped a lot. Soon, it was all sewn together! I trimmed off the points on the top and bottom, and got it all ready for quilting.

I love the gray hexagon print I found for the back because it ties in with the other quilt! I decided to just quilt every other row, and I followed the zig zag line. I might have quilted every row, but I was short on time and it was a little hard to maneuver the quilt in my machine with all those angles.

I'm really happy with how well it goes with my daughter's quilt, but yet still has it's own look. It was a pretty quick sew, although there were a lot of small pieces to work with.

I'm so happy to have these quilts completed. They make me smile every time I see them. I didn't do much other sewing while I was working on these, besides a few quick things here and there, so I am looking forward to sewing up some clothes! On to the next project!

Hexagon Quilt

I had to take a picture of the back before I covered it up with batting and backing! I stretched it and layered it and pinned all the layers together, then machine quilted it on my sewing machine.

I chose to do a simple diagonal line pattern so it wouldn't take away from the patterns on the front. It was also the quickest and easiest since I was trying to get it done in time for Christmas! I felt bad about not hand quilting my hand-sewn quilt, but I also knew that I wanted it to be durable and not fall apart, and I thought machine quilting might make it a little more sturdy. I am really happy with how it turned out!! I did hand sew the binding, and then it was complete!

And here it is on my daughter's bed, with a little sneak peak of my son's quilt on top. This was definitely a big project, but I loved every minute that I worked on it, and my daughter knows just how long it took and how much work I put into it. Hopefully this is something that can be handed down to her daughter someday.

I'd love to do another hexagon/paper piecing project sometime, but probably not something this big. :)

English Paper Piecing - Part 2

I finally finished this quilt I've been working on for months and months! After I got all the hexagons basted to the papers, the next step was to sew them into rows. I stacked all the hexagons into rows in the order I wanted them, and stitched each straight side together (I don't have a picture of that step). It was a little time consuming because I had to knot and cut the thread at the beginning and end of each short side. But that way I could take just one stack with me somewhere, instead of sewing one hexagon onto a big group of other ones.

Then I sewed the rows together, which was also a little tricky because they didn't lay straight together because of all of the angles. I sewed 2-3 rows together, and then started a new group because it was easier to hold a small number of rows than a big group. Then I sewed all the 3-row groups into 6-row groups, and soon enough it was complete!

It took me about 1 hour each to sew the 20 hexagons into each row, and then another hour to sew each row together, 32 rows in all. So adding that to the 25 hours of basting the hexagons, that was AT LEAST 90 hours of hand stitching. Probably more.

Next was the fun part - taking the paper out! I used a seam ripper to cut all the basting threads, and then slipped the paper out from the back. This part went really quick and it was so rewarding! It really felt like a quilt once the paper was out! I trimmed the hexagons on the end and actually stitched the half-hexagons into the other end of the quilt, so I didn't waste any of them.

Up next: the finished quilt!

English Paper Piecing

I've been trying to figure out what kind of quilts I wanted to make for my kid's beds, but I couldn't settle on anything that I really loved. Then one of my favorite ladies here taught me how to do traditional English paper piecing, and I knew that was what I wanted to do! It is all done by hand and is really time intensive, but it produces such a beautiful quilt.

I ordered most of the fabric from Bloomerie Fabrics and I love all the colors and patterns so much! I'm not sure what the total yardage is that I used, but it is probably around 1/4 yard (some more, some less) of 26 different fabrics - so maybe 6.5 yards? I cut the fabric into 3.75 inch squares, which I then basted around a paper hexagon template that I got here. I made 630 of these hexagons! It took me about two months to get them all done. I would usually sew while watching a movie at night, and I really liked that I didn't have to be at my sewing machine to do it.

I could sew about 25 in an hour, so that is about 25 hours of work - probably more! It was so satisfying to see the stacks and stacks of complete hexagons! Once I had enough, I laid them all out how I wanted them. I'm making a twin size quilt, but I'm not sure what the exact dimensions are.

The next step is to sew them all together - again, by hand! I love that there are no seam allowances, so the quilt will look exactly as it does in the picture above. I've started sewing them together by rows, and it isn't quite as quick as I'd hoped, so I still have quite a few hours left on this project! :)

Initially, I was going to make one for each of my kids, one being more pink/orange and the other being more blue/green. But for a few reasons (maybe mostly time and difficulty!:) I'm going to do a different pattern for my son that can be sewn on the machine. But I'm really excited about that one too, because I love the pattern I decided on!

I'll update my progress once I get the hexagons sewn together! I used a few different tutorials to help me along the way, but I think I mainly used this blog, Texas Freckles. Just google "English paper piecing" or "hexagon quilt" and you will find loads of tutorials and information!

Sometimes I can't believe I'm going to this much work for a quilt for my 5-year old daughter, but it actually makes me really happy and I have no regrets! I love that it has ties to England and hopefully it will be a special keepsake for years to come!

Baby Quilt

I've been sewing a few things to sell at a craft sale next weekend. I put this baby quilt together with a bunch of floral scraps I have had for a while. I love the fabrics, but there wasn't enough of any one of them to really make anything with them. I'm so glad I finally used them and I love how this little quilt turned out!

I used a pink and white polka dot cotton for the back, and did a simple chevron quilting pattern that looks really cute from the front and the back! I hand stitched the binding. The final size is about 30 inches square.

I really love how it turned out and would be tempted to keep it if I had a little baby girl! :)

Sew-vivor: Challenge #3

The final Sew-vivor challenge is done and posted over on Family Ever After! The challenge this week was to make something quilted, and I had so much fun designing and sewing this look. Head over to Family Ever After to see the other amazing projects, and to vote for your favorite!! You can vote until Friday at midnight!

I knew I wanted to make a quilted puffy vest for Anna for this challenge. I had a small piece of this yellow wool that I have been holding on to, and it turned out to be just perfect! I based the pattern off a vest Anna has almost outgrown, but ended up making a ton of changes. I figured it out as I went, and I regret not taking more pictures or writing down the steps because I know I won't remember exactly what I did if I try to make another one! I used two layers of quilt batting in between the outer fabric and lining to make it extra puffy. I added pockets on the side and a pink zipper. The vest is fully lined with no exposed raw edges, and was going to be reversible until I couldn't find a reversible zipper anywhere! :) Here are a few pictures of the process:
Once it was all assembled, I pinned all the layers together to keep them in place, and then quilted the three layers together. I just did simple straight lines across the vest about 3.5 inches apart. Then I added a heart at the top on the back, and my favorite part - a little personalized note to my girl on the back. I found that the best way to stitch the words was to write on tracing paper, pin it on the fabric, and then slowly stitch with my machine along the words (mostly turning the wheel by hand and going very slowly around curves!). It took a long time, but the paper pulled away easily and it worked perfectly. I'm so pleased with how it all turned out!

I made the pants using a soft striped cotton-poly. They have a flat front, front pockets, pieced back pockets, and wide legs. I wanted to do some piecing for this challenge, too, so I put together a block of 1.5 inch squares of fabric in alternating directions. Then I cut out the shape for the knee pads, sewed it to some pink cotton, and attached them to the pants by quilting across the seam lines.

I finished the outfit with a simple gray knit top with elbow length sleeves and a pleat in the neckline, and I made the cute butterfly hair clip using the Purl Bee's tutorial.

Being in Sew-vivor has been such a great experience! I never sew under pressure or with a deadline, so it was interesting to see how it pushed me to be more efficient and productive and make fewer mistakes. All the things I sewed were on my list of things I had been wanting to sew anyway, but I feel like they turned out better than they would have because of the competition factor. I really focused on quality and correct techniques, and I definitely learned a few new things! I've only ever gotten feedback on my sewing from close family and friends, so it has been wonderful to read your nice comments and hear what you think about my projects. I'm so glad I've been able to be a part of this and I'm excited to keep on sewing, as always! :)