Combining Fabrics and Ideas (Step Two)

Step Two!

(A series on How to Quilt Just About Anything)

See The Original Blog Here! 

Now, that you are super inspired to quilt something, what are you going to quilt? Did you see a quilt on Pinterest, that you want to gift someone? Did you buy some fabric at your local fabric shop, that made your heart melt? Did a friend or family member ask you to make them something specific? Fantastic! Now, you are ready for the next step! Here is my advice, on how to put two and two together:

I have an idea, but no fabric:

 Did you see a picture of something, that you wanted to try?

 Or maybe you found a pattern, that seems just right for your level of skills.

Or did you find a handmade gift you wanted to make?








That's wonderful! The first thing you need to do, is get some scrap fabric. I find all too often, that when I try to make something for the first time, mistakes WILL appear. No matter how 'easy' or 'simple' the project may seem, do not start out with your final projects fabric. Of course, this is optional, But! This is my advice.
If you don't have a collection of scraps just yet, go out and buy the cheapest fabric you can get your hands on. Do not keep colors pr patterns in mind, ugly is fine. Ugly fabric is the first thing I grab, when making a project for the first time, or working on a prototype.

(Not the most flattering for a bag and clutch, but! That doesn't matter :)

Even when practicing a large quilt, I recommend the same. Not for the whole quilt! Quilt's are made up of small 'blocks', which you could practice making one or two of.
Now that you feel confident in your pattern, let's buy the final fabric! Fell free to buy only what you need, or buy lots of it, so you can make multiple, or even start your scrap collection. I always reccomend buying a little more that what you need for a little 'give' room. Here is where I like to buy all of my fabric:
Precuts: MSQC   Scraps/cheap fabric: Walmart   Yardage: JoAnn's (I go in store , though)
Remember when buying fabric by the yard, to order it in yards:
"I would like half of a yard, in this color, and two yards of fabric in this kind here."

I have fabric:

 "Courtney! I was at JoAnn's and I found this fabric that I just HAD to have!, What should I do with it?"

"I'm not really sure what these are, but I LOVED the colors! So I just threw them in my cart."

"I have this stash of fabric, that looks nice, but it's just been sitting collecting dust."









My first question to you is:
How Much fabric do you have?
When working with Yardage, You have many possibilties!(When I say yardage, I am referring to buying your fabric buy the yard).I reccomend, a large/regular size quilt if you would like to use up all of the yardage.
I also, just keep Yardage laying around for when purses need lining, quilts need a border ,and times when you just need a large solid to do the job.
Sometimes I buy fabric on sale, and just make something only out of that, with no added bought fabric. See my Reversable Baby Blanket for a perfect example of that. I made up the measurements strictly up on the fabric that I had bought. I do that a lot.

I bought this pack of 1/8ths at JoAnn's some time ago. (1/8 - It was cut before I bought it) I love this fabric, and I had been afraid to cut it for some time! Should I make a quilt? Should I invent a new purse?I ironed out the fabric, measured it, and stared at it on my floor for some time.  I then decided to invent another purse, so i took some scrap fabric and tested it out. See photo of farm/bug, and bowling fabric above to see result :) Purses,wallets,oven mitts, and other smaller things are perfect for small or pre-cut fabric.
I paired up the fabric and decided to make 5 purses to give for Christmas (One for myself too!). I did have to buy some yardage to match, but sometimes you have to.

(It's July, my sisters won't remember in December :)

After writing this blog I now have TWO new blog ideas! One on pre-cuts and another, on my original purse patterns. (The last one will be a few blogs, since I like to write my own purse patterns, and have a few)
Thank you so much for your time! Be sure to comment below! What blogs would you like to see one day? Are you working on a project right now? Do you do things differently or the same as me? I'd love to know!

Easy Oven Mitts! - How To Quilt!

 Originally there were 52 pictures in this blog. I then decided, that even myself would not want to read that much. I deleted replicated photos. Still almost 50 pictures. So then I made the decision, not to go into detail on the binding. I have a segment coming up later for that, so I will spend a whole blog on binding then :) (What is binding?...) You will see :)So! I thought that showing you how I make my oven mitts would be a great idea to briefly show you how to quilt! It's doesn't show everything but, close! Let's just jump in.

The fabric on the left was left over from a pillow case I made for my mom, two Christmas's ago, and the fabric on the right is left over fabric from a quilt I recently made for my best friend Jacklyn.

 

The scrap fabric was long, and I didn't want to iron what I didn't need, so I cut them both down some, with out measuring them. 

I saw a pattern on the fabric I liked, so I cut an inch around it. We need six pieces total: Two tops, Two pieces of batting, two backs. Well, that is, if you are making two oven mitts :)

 For the middle (batting) You can buy special Thermal-batting that is heat resistant, or you can use 2-3 layers of regular batting. I just took some scrap batting and folded it over for a double layer.

 Now we make a sandwich! (Which is the actual term used for putting the three layers together :)
Always make sure your batting is about an inch bigger/longer than your squares, it may get tugged around in the quilting process.

 

 Next we need to pick out some thread! One for the top and one for the bottom/underneath!

 I chose a dark green for the top and a matching green for the bottom. You can also go abstract and chose a color that doesn't match, just so it shows through on purpose! Which can be neat sometimes.

 Next, we need to grab a few safety pins. Sewing pins usually have trouble going through all of the layers and easily fall out. I like to put mine, where I wont be sewing, so I don't have to take them out while I am sewing.

 Next we need to decide our quilt pattern. Using thread to hold the three layers together is the actual quilting process, If you don't, then(in my opinion) it doesn't count at a quilt or being 'quilted' . Next you will need washable chalk or a Heat pen(Also, called a Friction pen). I bought a few Heat pens because I LOVE them!! You just use your iron and it comes right off!

 After drawing on your quilted design, I set my stitch length to 4 for this one(Though I realized my pattern was small, and should have used a shorter stitch length) You can set it to whatever you want, but I like doing most of my quilting on 4, especially when I have a very large quilt to do only because it goes by faster.  I would recommend a smaller stitch for intricate patterns.

 My fiance brought me a friend, while he was outside with yard work :)

 Tada! This tuned out nicely! I decided to sew along the pattern that was already on the fabric. Trim any loose threads as you go....Or all at the end, like I tend to do ;)

 I transfered the same pins I was using to the other oven mitt. You can put a bunch of pins in both of them, I was just doing one at a time for tutorial sakes.

 Next we need to trim them!I trimmed them down about half an inch on every side.

 Before trimming, and after. Very neat, and clean! Which is what we will need for the next part.

 I had to use the marking on my ruler rather than my mat because I was using my fabric as a guide.

 Aaaaaand, I don't know where my friend is anymore. Maybe the cat and him are playing...

 Next! You will need 2.5 inch strips! This will be for your binding that you will see on the very outside. You can cut these strips in the very beginning when you are cutting out your squares too. You will need enough to go around your squares, plus extra.

Now for a quick over view on binding : First, iron your strips in half

 Leaving about 4-6 inches from the top of the strip, begin with a few back stitches before sewing.
If you plan on using your machine for the whole process, start on the back of your project. If you plan to Hand bind , start with the front. I am staring on the back with this project. I have Hand bound my first project, it took a few hours, but it looks amazing!

 When you come to a corner, stop about a quarter of an inch before reaching the bottom, turn your fabric, and fold your strip up. (Excuse the band-aid, I got a small 'boo-boo' at work that day.)

 Bring the strip straight down.  And begin sewing from the top again. Like nothing ever happened :)

 When you get to where you started sewing leave a few inches gap. Sew the two strips together. Cut off the excess fabric and sew the gap closed.

 Turn the project over and top stitch the binding down as close as you can get to the edge. 
This would be the time for hand binding if you chose that. You would use needle and thread to bind it to the back of your project. 

 Fold the corners, and use any type of clip to hold them in place. Sewing pins may not work here due to the thickness.

 (Here you can see how close I was to the edge, and the green top thread I chose)

 For corners, just pivot and turn, nothing special, you don't need to sew the diagonal on the corner.

 I rushed through a few parts of this while sewing because lunch was nearing and I was VERY excited to make this for you guys lol  I really hope you enjoyed this!

 If you have any questions, feel free to comment below!

This whole tutorial will be featured in some of the steps for the 'Ten steps to quilt just about anything'