kapachino

Category: sewing

  • my first quilt FINISHED

    Slow and steady wins the race. The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Better late than never. 

    All the cliches apply to the making of this quilt, but my favorite is:

    Better done than perfect.

    blue flying geese quilt

    In 2013 I decided I would make a quilt. For Christmas I received this rotary cutting set and this pattern book. I had a hand-me-down sewing machine from David’s grandmother. I got it serviced and practiced a little (very little).

    I made a plan. I gave myself a year to do it, and broke it down month by month with manageable steps. Choose the size and design. Obtain fabric. Cut blue triangles. Cut cream triangles. Lay it out and stack the rows. Sew something.

    blue flying geese quilt

    That last step there – sew something – is where I got stuck. First, I got pregnant with Liam and lost all ability to do anything other than survive for a few months. Then when I finally did try to sew something, it came out in a bunched up mess. I Googled. I texted my quilting friend for help. I got lots of tips but none of them fixed it. So I put it aside.

    I went ahead and gave birth to Liam, and had a productive maternity leave. Then in early March, my best friend Becca visited me and she tackled the problem. If you’re curious, the tension had to be WAY loosened. Like, way looser than “normal” or I expected – maybe because it’s an older, quirky machine. But finally, finally, I started sewing the rows together.

    I loved it.

    blue flying geese quilt

    Eventually I had all the rows sewn together and pressed. It was at that point that I realized I had completely forgotten to account for the seam allowance with the triangles. I had consulted the pattern, but obviously not carefully enough. I knew then that when I sewed the rows together, the tips of the triangles would be cut off.

    I made peace with it.

    blue quilt back

    Once I finally had the quilt top done, I realized I didn’t have enough fabric for a solid back. So I cut and pieced together a few rows without planning ahead, basted it all together with the batting, and jumped right in to actually quilting it.

    I thought about hand-quilting for two seconds before deciding against it. This thing was already taking forever to make. I have an old machine, I don’t have a walking foot, and my triangles didn’t come to points like they were supposed to, so I had to do a lot of starting and stopping – but I was still set on machine quilting this sucka all by myself. And I did.

    blue flying geese quilt

    It’s completely messy and there are too many puckers to count because I wasn’t that precise with my seams. I was learning to sew at the same time I was learning to quilt, after all. By this time I was embracing the imperfection anyway, and I just wanted it to hold together.

    When the quilting was finally finished I was so excited – I could actually use it at this point! But it took me another month to finish the binding because the process was so new to me. I thoroughly read several different tutorials and pieced them together. I found out how important it is to accurately square up your quilt. I did a lot of trimming and seam ripping and I even shed a few tears at a point when I thought one of the corners was beyond repair.

    blue quilt corner

    But I pushed through, and on October 4, 2014 at 8:15 p.m., I finished that quilt. My first one. And now I am a quilter.

    blue flying geese quilt

    blue striped quilt back

    The end, or, the story continues. Because I’ve already got the fabric for my next one. :)

    p.s. – here is the first thing I ever sewed.

  • two new holiday traditions : december daily and advent calendar

    I know it’s just about time for Thanksgiving, but that means December and advent (my favorite) are right around the corner and I am already preparing for it. One of the fun things about starting your own family is figuring out what your holiday traditions are going to be. I’ve written before about what my family’s traditions were, and many of them are still intact, but now that we have a kid we are adding new ones. Here are a couple that I’m starting this year.

    December Daily

    One of the memory-keeping blogs I read is Ali Edwards. She has so many great ideas, and one of them is that every year she makes a December daily album with a photo a day focused on the holidays. I’ve been interested in making more minibooks, but at first I wasn’t sure if this project would be redundant for me since I’m doing Project Life. But once I thought about it, I realized it would be really nice to have because I can capture some of the details of the holidays that I might not otherwise, I wouldn’t feel the need to inundate my Project Life with holiday stuff, and I can display the completed books every year as seasonal decor.

    In order to simplify things I wanted my album to be as ready as possible before December starts so that all I’ll have to do is print photos and add journaling & extras. Since I already had a pack of chipboard on hand I decided to make mine the same format as the Book of Lists. On the cover I repeated a stamp that says “December” for a patterned look.

    I made a simple title page with a stamp, some gems, and handwritten text.

    Then on the back inside cover I embossed “Noel.” I don’t do near enough embossing; it’s like magic.

    For the bulk of the album I bought these digital files by Ali and printed them on cardstock. I plan to just adhere the photos to the backs of them so I have a 2-page spread per day, and I’ll add embellishment as I go. I’m definitely going to keep it simple since it’s my first year and I don’t want to get overwhelmed.

    If everything goes as planned I’ll be sharing updates of the book with you throughout the month of December!

    Advent Calendar

    I love advent calendars and the feeling of anticipation they bring. I mean who doesn’t love a good countdown? But I especially love the kinds that are handmade and have you do something each day, whether it’s just adding a piece to a puzzle, filling in a picture, doing an activity, or hanging an ornament.

    Several years ago I bought a kit from this shop to make my own advent calendar, but the problem was that I didn’t know how to sew and I didn’t have access to a machine. Well finally this year I made it happen! David’s grandma is letting me keep her machine and she recently came over to teach me to use it. I sewed a few practice lines but I really couldn’t wait much longer before digging in to the real project.

    Here is what I came out with:

    It was the perfect first sewing project because it has a rough unfinished look so my mistakes really aren’t that noticeable. The hardest part was just cutting the numbers out. But if you look closely you can see some wonky stuff going on. For example, the second pocket I sewed looks like this up close:

    Yeah that’s not straight. :) But look! I got better!

    The back isn’t great either and I’m thinking the bobbin might be a little loose…? (I am still learning this technical stuff.) But anyway I am now sort of obsessed with sewing. I think I am actually going to try my hand at a quilt pretty soon. It could spell disaster but I’ve gotta practice!

    Back to the advent calendar though. Currently the pockets are empty, and this year I will probably just put chocolates in them. Next year, since Meredith will be old enough to sort of understand what’s going on, I am thinking I will either put mini ornaments in them for her own mini tree, or slips of paper with a family holiday activity. Or both!

    What kinds of things do you do to document the holidays? Does your family have an advent calendar?