I’ve been on a somewhat long and unintended hiatus. My last post was in January 2022 although the last time I was really actively and regularly posting was August 2021. It is not as though I wasn’t thinking about quilting or Singer 15-91s. Over the last two years I was occasionally buying fabric, patterns, and sewing equipment. I even had a grand plan to go over all the different sewing feet you can use on a Singer 15-91 and film demonstrations of it. But of course that didn’t happen.
Health-wise I had things going on that made it difficult to set aside time to quilt (or even blog about Singer 15-91s). I was often too tired and all my projects gathered dust. And then, when I started to feel better about six months ago, I was busy planning for a wedding. It wasn’t until very recently that I pulled myself together (and stopped staring guiltily at my fabric stash and quilting supplies) to actually work on one of my abandoned quilts. Part of the this was driven by the fact I had a coworker with a new baby and I wanted to gift a quilt to them. Another reason was that I had signed up for a class on hand quilting a binding and needed to bring in a project far enough along to practice on in class.
I think I’m in a better place now to post more actively here. I will first focus on wrapping up my abandoned projects and then transition into new Singer 15-91 content.
Quilt #3
Speaking of abandoned projects, I have just finished one. It is a long overdue baby quilt that I originally started for another baby. But after a year, it seemed like I had missed the window of opportunity to finish it and gift it. When another coworker recently had a baby, I decided I need to revisit this quilt and complete it. So eager was I to get this quilt at the door that I forgot to take good photos of it. I only have a few snapshots from my phone.
Mostly the front of the quilt with the back folded over. The top group of colors is repeated at the bottom.
Stitches from hand binding showing up on the back of the quilt
I followed the pattern ‘Angelos Mini’ from Southwest Modern (by Kristi Schroeder). As you can see it is somewhat similar to a diamond pattern although it is more like stacked rectangles. In terms of color, I picked Kona cotton colors (Sunny, Avocado, Snow, and white) mixed with a vibrant salmon corduroy and patterned blue and green fabrics. The back, which you can see folded over in the photos, is a Tula Pink cotton (specifically Wildflower in Snapdragon). I’m aware that some people have strong opinions that baby quilts should be pastels and neutral colors, but I think these colors came together in such a fun way. The corduroy also added some nice texture.
I didn’t do anything fancy with the quilting technique (just diagonal lines) but a fun part of the quilt was the binding. Recently, I learned 5 techniques for hand stitching and it was fun to apply one of them to the binding using Acorn Hand Dyed Threads (by Trailhead Yarns) thread for this particular project.
I did have some difficulties with the pattern though. Despite following the instructions, somehow the border strips were too short for the top quilt and I had to cut back some of my pattern at the top and bottom. Additionally, despite using color catchers, I also had a brief scare about color transfer when I washed the quilt. After seeing some yellow staining, I ran the quilt through the washer about three more times to remove it. All the washing though resulted in some weak points in my quilt top to come undone (specifically seams between two triangles). And I had to hand bind those weak points in two places. On one hand, it is better that I caught this now before sending it. Since this is a baby quilt I expect it to be washed often and these weak points would have been eventually exposed. Catching it now means I can reinforce those areas so the quilt can last longer. On the other hand, it is a bit of a disappointment that after all that hard work my quilt came apart a bit, and I have to put some visible mending on the front before gifting it.
I feel like every project I’ve done so far is a bit of a struggle in terms of piecing together the quilt top. If it isn’t cutting inconsistent fabric pieces, then it is inconsistent stitching which leads to things not lining up properly. Or sometime falling apart as in this case. While I’m sure I am improving since I first started, I still feel like I’m falling a bit short. Which is why it is one of my goals to really improve my piecing work.
One of the things that surprised me was my enjoyment of using hand stitching techniques. While it does take a little more time, I thought the hand stitching on the binding was very aesthetically pleasing despite me being a beginner and my stitches not being completely straight or even. I’m looking forward to doing more of that type of work.
I also really enjoyed using corduroy. It took a little bit of consideration to make sure I was cutting and piecing the grooves/wales (in the fabric) in the same direction, but having that texture in the finished quilt was amazing. I’m looking forward to using it in more projects (as I have a pile of corduroy sitting in my fabric stash).