baby quilt - "in progress" photo :-)

[Renata L.]

I designed this baby quilt back when Alex had the baby quilt contest, only I'm way too much a beginner/frugal quilter yet to make a quilt w/o an actual recipient in mind, and so I waited for my sister-in-law to find out if she was/is expecting a boy or a girl before I got started.

This is only one third of the top, I'm still working (by hand, no machine repair yet...)(but I do enjoy the hand work) and it's going quickly, but this is enough of it done to give an idea what the finished product will look like and I wanted to show it off.

It's the "1000 Pyramids" pattern (just a million triangles), only turned sideways so that my diamonds go horizontal instead of vertical. It will have 2 more panels just like this (middle panel will have lighter colored purple as the diamond) and then I will applique over top some decorative trim of some sort in an X pattern over the diamonds, to resemble the thin lines of an argyle design. Then the plan is to quilt it in a criss-cross/X pattern in contrasting thread to mimic the argyle focus. I will be hand quilting -- wish me luck!

Luckily, the background being all one fabric means it doesn't matter if my points, triangles, bases, etc. all line up just right; the seams disappear into the pattern of the fabric. Whew! Good thing, because few of them do line up properly.

Just wanted to show my current project (or, one of my current projects...).


and a close-up --

[Terry K.]

I like it, a lot!

[Lois B.]

Wow! What a lot of work you are doing! The fabrics are lovely. I wish we were close by. I would love to sit and sew with you! Keep up the good work.

[Renata L.]

I like it, a lot!

Me too...!

[Renata L.]

Wow! What a lot of work you are doing! The fabrics are lovely. I wish we were close by. I would love to sit and sew with you! Keep up the good work.

Aww, thanks Lois! I'd love to sit and sew with you as well, you seem so kind!

I find it's not too hard to work on hand stuff, I can sit and sew while teaching my boys, etc. Just as easy to sew as it is to pick up a book or hop on the computer....I do have lots of projects going on, but this one will take all my time from now until August. It simply must be finished in time for our US trip so I can deliver it to the new baby!

And, on that note, must get back to work!! I cut all the triangles for the middle section yesterday and am pairing them up now. Thank goodness for chain piecing so I can pin 10 pairs together, sew in a nice line, then the next 10, and so on. I only need to do 8 sets of 10 pairs to have enough pairs for the middle section, then start putting the rows together....doesn't sound so bad when I word it that way. Eight sets of ten sounds like much less than eighty pairs!!! :mrgreen:

[Nancy R.]

It's very beautiful! I can't wait to see the finished project!! I haven't done much hand piecing because of time constraints, but would like to do more someday. That's one of many items on my "once I retire" list....

Nancy

[LORI M.]

Love your colors...I am a purple person! Piecing by hand is a great way to start. That's how I started. I could never get anything to match up when I tried the machine piecing at first. You're doing great. Keep us updated on your progress. Lori

[Rita C.]

I started making quilts by hand too and I don't think a single patch lined up properly - and they were squares! :roll: The great thing about doing a quilt by hand is that it turns you into a fast hand sewer which is always useful. Your quilt is looking really interesting and I look forward to seeing the next two panels.

[wendy w.]

Hi, it's beautiful and your ideas sound so exciting I'm really looking forward to see how it goes. Lucky baby

[wendy w.]

That looks as if it is coming to gether quite well.
I'm sure you will get the hang of easing fabrics to fit by the end of the top :wink: by pinning either end and maybe the centre and then just making them go together with a little stretching (but avoid tucks) You might find that as you are holding the fabric, one layer consistantly shifts as you stitch, so that what originally lined up now doesn't. See if you can work out if it is always the top or bottom layer that is moving, and that might give you some clues as to how to get back in charge of your points.

[wendy w.]

That looks as if it is coming to gether quite well.
I'm sure you will get the hang of easing fabrics to fit by the end of the top :wink: by pinning either end and maybe the centre and then just making them go together with a little stretching (but avoid tucks) You might find that as you are holding the fabric, one layer consistantly shifts as you stitch, so that what originally lined up now doesn't. See if you can work out if it is always the top or bottom layer that is moving, and that might give you some clues as to how to get back in charge of your points.

thanks, Rosemary! Good ideas here; I'll try that. I do pin at each seam, and the first two rows I joined I really tried to force it, and it mostly worked, but I did have some tucks here and there....the 2nd row, I saw that you can't even tell unless you are nearly holding it up to your face because the seams really disappear into that print, and I decided not to work quite so hard at making them line up properly. Shocking, I know! but I think the quilting will cover it even more and that this particular quilt wasn't worth the frustration.

I think the bigger error is that my template shifted some while cutting the triangles, so that first batch, not all the triangles were exactly identical. So a "little bit off" to start, then my quarter inch seam allowances being "a little bit off" and it just added up to the bases of the triangles not matching and one or two points getting eaten.

I think this next batch will be better as I realized I can use the ruler to secure the template and cut much more accurately, so at least the triangles I'm starting with are all truly equal to each other this time!

[wendy w.]

I am quite happy fudging my seams, because once it is in the quilt the QP can't see whether or not you have perfect 1/4" seams or not :lol: Looks like your 'Round Tuit' is working pretty good.