Looky look! My first quilt is finshed!

Hello Lovelypeeps!  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and you're still in the midst of enjoying a restful holiday.  I'm laying low, hibernating at home and getting cosy with my sewing machine. I'm also staying well away from the sales - they only lead to clutter, temptation and time away from messy workroom.

Right now I'm having the best time shuffling around in my slippers and sewing for fun.  It's so cathartic to be able to stitch things because I can (versus stitching for my work). I'm guessing that this will be one of the few times I'll get to do just that between now and next December.  I have a total whirlwind of a 2011 to look forward to - which I can't wait to share with you as it unfolds. 

So during my current 'sewing for fun' time I've just finished my first quilt.  I've been excited about making one since last August after the Fest of Quilts.  At the fest I bought The Gentle Art of Quilt Making (signed copy of course) and I also bought me some quilting gadgets too.  It's only now that I've had the time to put them to good use.  The quilt is for my sister.  I finished the quilt top and tacked the quilt sandwich together, but I didn't get to bind the quilt in time for Christmas. So at Christmas I took the near-finished quilt to my folks and showed it to Wendy. I asked her if she was genuinely happy with the quilt (cos I'd be happy to keep it for myself). Luckily there was lots of 'oooing and ahhing' and now my Mum wants to make her first quilt. Mum has already orgainsed a quilt sewing sesh in Jan. All of that sewing knowledge that my Mum has imparted to me and now many years later I have some new sewing knowledge to impart to her - it's going to be so much fun, I can't wait!  

 

I decided to call this quilt 'Opium Lounge' due to it's heavy rich colours and oriental-ness.

Click on pics to enlarge.

 

Making this quilt was cathartic in a few ways:

• I only needed to try and please my sister and myself (if I don't like it, I tend to avoid making it).
• I used some very precious hi-grade stash fabric that I've had for stupid ages - it was so nice to just use it with abandon and let it go to a good home.  Far better to see it made into something made with love than sitting in folded piles (to be drooled over by me Golem style).  I've now decided I'm going to stop coveting my 'precious stash fabrics' and just bloody well use 'em! 
• Actually, because I loved the fabric so much it made the quilt even more of a joy to piece together.
• I'm no longer a quilt virgin har har! I had thought I would just make one, get it out of my system, and leave it at that.  But as many of you have rightly warned me, quilt making is ace! I can see quilted bags and purses in my future...

The quilt is the 'Russian Shawl' quilt from The Gentle Art of Quilt Making.  If you're a quilt beginner like me I can't recommend this design enough.  It's basically a big ol' log cabin design, it's soooo easy and it grows quickly. As with anything you can make the simplest of designs really pack a punch if you use your fave fabrics. 

I had considered using pastel fabrics which really matched each other, but the overall effect of the pastels would've been too 'vanilla' for Wendy & me. So I opted for the above 'smack you in the chops' colour-fest fabrics. In certain lights the colour combo pretty much pokes your eyes out, but we're both colour fiends and we aint sorry!

 

I've actually got this pic as my wallpaper (cos I've got very little of that plum coloured fabric left!).  I used a pretty decorative star stitch for the quilt stitching - which took aaaaggess!  But as my sister loves the stitches it was worth it.  FYI the quilt was completely machine stitched on a Janome Horizon (such a joy to use I can't begin to tell you).

 

The quilt underside is a soft cuddly flannel fabric.  I used this excellent 2-part machine binding tute by Leah Day to figure out how to machine bind.  The tute works a charm!

For posterity. I'm not too hot at the ol' a free-motion stitching so I stuck to the machine script.

 

Mitred corners for breakfast (courtesy of Leah day).  I actually enjoyed machine binding so much I'm wondering what else I can bind...Beans looks concerned.

 

"Bye Bye quilt, be good and be warm for Wendy.  I loved making you."