Sew I See!

There are too many random photos to give them each their own blog entry, so I'm going for the hodge-podge method. - - - - - - - I believe this was the first quilt top I pieced. (If it wasn't this, it was the string quilt from the kit Mom made for me, but I think  I sewed this one first.)  Half-square triangles (HSTs) in a simple herringbone pattern. I decided I was finally read to quilt it.  Here it is "before".  It's now ready for trimming and binding-- and its first trip through the wash-- and then photos! - - - - - - - You may remember (if I ever told you... which I think I did...) that I was working on a scrappy Arkansas Crossroads quilt as a leader & ender project?  I got impatient with whatever else I was sewing at the time and let that become my main project.  Here are some of the units and pieces waiting...  (This project makes a sneak-peeky reappearance further down the page.) - - - - - - - My current main piecing ...

Continuing where my last post left off... I made a couple of doilies for Granny W. using a dusty rose thread that matches some of her decor. First, a pattern that I've used before (in blue, that time).  I found the chart online, and I don't  remember much about it.  I don't know its name-- don't know if it even has one-- but I call it "North Star" because it looks vaguely star-like to me.  It's fairly small and very simple, so long as you don't mind trebles.  Possibly it's meant to be made in large numbers and joined together to make a tablecloth or lacy bedspread?  The other doily was worked using the same ball of thread. (Actually, I made this one first, then worked up the smaller doily with the remnant.) It's a Patricia Kristoffersen design-- "Majestic" from her Masterpiece Doilies booklet. (There are a more photos of most of these projects on my Flickr photostream, by the way...) - - - - - - - A few years (...

If you've ever sewn a rag quilt, you know what a mess they can be to wash and dry those first few times. Even after they come out of the dryer, the work isn't done, because they usually need a little haircut-- mostly for threads that are too much longer than the rest. Then there's the fuzz.  The pilling.  Admittedly, I mostly use fairly cheap flannel-- bought for 99 cents a yard at one of Jo-Ann's Black Friday sales a few years back-- for the backings of my denim rag quilts, and possibly you'll get less pilling with pricier fabric.  (I'm not sure, honestly.)  But I can't imagine you'll ever be complete pill-free, with flannel.  It's the nature of the beast.  That pilling nature and the loose threads from the "ragging" combine to make a big old mess. For my first few rag quilts and rag-quilted bags, I went through the painstaking process of picking off all those pills and threads-- the ones the clothes dryer left behind and that shaking...

Ok, time to really wrap up the (handmade) Christmas gifts.  When I started (and named) this blog, I didn't realize that I'd eventually become so enamored of crochet (and knitting).  I expected to spend more time learning to sew than I do-- but I do still sew a little, with plans for more, eventually-- and a couple of the gifts I gave this year were rag quilts. (Which I'm not very good at photographing, apparently. They get blurry. I need to either take them outside or get out the tripod, next time.) This one for my paternal grandparents: (I gave my maternal grandparents an almost identical one, last Christmas. Er... Actually, I'm not sure which one is pictured, but I think they were so close in appearance that it hardly matters.) Then there was this one for my husband, Donald: He's from Sweden, so when I really looked at this denim-- blue on one side, yellow on the other-- it seemed perfect for a Swedish flag rag quilt. The back of the quilt i...

Let's see... Has it really been two months since my last blog entry here?!  Where to start? ...Well, I've done a bit of sewing since my last post.  I made a denim rag quilt for my father's 50th birthday, back in November.  The "sandwiches" were denim on the front and flannel on the back, but because the denim was all fairly lightweight (for denim), I decided to put in a middle layer cut from a retired sheet.  (According to my mother, who has also used it, it's very warm, so that's good to know!) To liven things up a little, I added some patches and faux chenille-style strips on the quilt top.  (Note of possible interest:  The reason the denim was fairly lightweight was that most of it didn't come from jeans, but from a piece of denim I bought on discount from a store, a denim curtain, and a couple of denim shirts.  They all worked fine, but definitely seemed lighter weight than what you usually get from old jeans.) Here's a not-exactly...

After thinking about it for a long time (as usual), I finally got around to sewing a few rag quilt-style throw pillows. When I snapped these photos, the light was a little low, and they turned out a bit blurry. Maybe I'll take and post a few better ones, one of these days, but I thought I'd better share what I have so far, before I forget to blog about them altogether. ;o) I used a variety of fabrics in colors and prints that coordinate with the colors in the rug and sofas in our living room. There's a lot of tan/beige, cream, and brown in that room, with accents in green and rusty red. The fabrics I used ranged from denim and flannel to cotton blends. I followed the usual rag-quilting procedures. Each pillow is basically two (very) mini rag quilts sewn together around the edges and stuffed with fiberfill. You could get away with one mini rag quilt per pillow (using a single piece of fabric for the pillow back), if you wanted to speed up the process, but I thought it...

I decided to take a few more photos of my second rag quilt, and while I was at it, I thought I'd put them here, too: I think this orientation better shows why this quilt (on paper) reminded me of the window (as I wrote about in my last entry). Of course, these are just squares "on point"-- not real diamond shapes, but I'm not ready for real diamond shapes, at my current level of sewing know-how. (g)

Last weekend, I washed my second rag quilt. Before the photos, here are a couple of reminders for my future self-- or tips for anyone new to rag quilting: First Tip: Double or triple check that you've snipped all the seams of your quilt, but even after that , be sure to give it one more good look when you take it out of the washer. If you're like me, you'll probably find that you've missed at least one seam. It's much easier to notice at this step, and if catch it now, before popping it into the dryer, the seam will rag enough that it won't be glaringly obvious. Second Tip: Even after removing copious amounts of threads and lint after washing and repeatedly cleaning the lint filter during drying, I still find that the back of my quilts-- the flannel sides-- are very messy. (This is after the first laundering. I hope that this will be less of an issue on subsequent washings, but I haven't needed to wash them again, yet, so I can't say for sure. Pilli...

I finally completed the ragging process on my lap quilt, this afternoon. Here's the detailed play-by-play, in case anyone's interested (and in case I should forget my own process, if it takes me another couple of years to get the next rag quilt ready for ragging): First, I made a "blanket bag" for washing the quilt in, to catch the lint and loose threads that might otherwise clog the drain. I took an old queen size flat sheet, folded it in half, and pinned the two halves together. I sewed together two of the open sides, leaving one of the two shorter sides unsewn. I then removed the pins and turned the whole thing so that the seam was hidden inside. (That might not have been necessary, but it's a force of habit.) I decided to try out one of the tips I recently wrote about-- that of throwing the quilt into the dryer on "air" (without heat) for a few minutes prior to washing. It did take out a fair bit of lint and loose threads, but I don't know t...

I don't think I've linked to these pages before. . . The following are a handful of rag quilting-related sites and photos I came across within the past couple of weeks. - - - - - - - - - - - - I really like this type of rag quilt , with its "circles and diamonds" pattern. It's a nice change from the rows of squares you typically see. (Don't get me wrong-- I like the simple squares, too, but if you're going to be making very many rag quilts, you'll likely want to spice things up a bit, somewhere down the line.) This pattern reminds me of a stained glass window, for some reason. (Incidentally, I'm pretty sure I've seen photos of that pattern done as a traditional quilt-- without exposed seams-- but I'm such a quilting novice that I have no idea what the design might be called. Anyone care to educate me? (g)) If you like the quilt, too, and are interested in giving it a try, then you're in luck; Cathy Brose has generously provided us ...

I finished snipping my rag-quilted lap quilt last night, during the commercial breaks in the LOST season premiere. Now I just need to figure out how to wash it. I think I'm going to make a "washing bag" out of an old sheet. I've used an old pillow case before, to catch the loose threads from smaller projects. We'll see how it works for a small quilt. . . The snipping wasn't too bad. Doing it in stages really helped keep it from becoming too much of a chore. Be advised, though, that when people talk about "watching TV" while they snip a rag quilt, what they really mean is listening to the TV. (g) It's best to do this with something that's more audio than visual. (As a matter of fact, I think I'll listen to an audio book the next time I have some snipping to do.) The snipping went much faster and easier after I oiled my snippers. I wrote yesterday that they were sticking-- not springing open as much as they were supposed to. I ...

Here are a few rag quilting-related tips I stumbled across on a message board (I think) called something like "Craft Exchange Friends". I was only able to read them thanks to Google's cache, so I thought it worthwhile copying them down for future use, while they're still available: "Cutting Tip: If you cut the squares diagonal on the fabric instead of on the straight grain of the fabric you don't have to spend all that time ragging the edges. After sewing all the squares together place the finished quilt top in your washing machine and dryer, the edges will come out fringed. This method is called Faux Chenille." --Sharon I haven't tried this myself, so I can't recommend it from personal experience, but it makes sense to me. There might be times, though (such as when you're cutting squares from cast-off clothes), when it would be impractical to have to cut on the bias-- mainly because it takes more room. . . if you understand what I mean. (...

I'm almost ashamed to admit how long it took me to finish sewing my first denim rag quilt. . . I started cutting the squares in November 2007, and I didn't finish sewing it until a day or two ago! Rag quilts are just about the simplest quilt you can make, I guess, and yet it has taken me a bit over a year to finally finish my first one. (g) (And it's still not technically finished, since I have lots of snipping to do-- not to mention putting it through the wash a couple of times to get it really raggedy.) In my defense, once I started sewing at it in earnest, it didn't take me long to do. I ran into a problem-- a broken needle on my sewing machine-- early in the project (probably back in 2007). After that, I set it aside and was hesitant to pick it back up again, wondering if my machine (and I) could handle all those layers of fabric. It turns out I needn't have worried, though. I went through the rest of the project without breaking any needles. All in all, the p...

In my previous entry, I showed how you can use the rag-quilting technique to make coasters. Well, as you've probably realized, that's just the tip of the iceberg! After all, who says rag-quilting has to be restricted to quilts alone? Why not use this super-simple sewing technique for any of the following?: throw pillows pillow shams wall-hangings smaller pieces to frame and hang table runners table centerpieces plant coasters shower curtains (only to be used w/ vinyl liner) rugs (w/ slip-guard material underneath) window curtains tablecloths Of course, for items that will be hung (curtains, for instance), you'd need to take the finished project's weight into consideration. Also, you might not want too much bulk in a curtain or tablecloth, so you'd have to choose fabric carefully. You could even make some clothing (vests, maybe) in the rag-quilted style! But maybe that's taking things a little too far. . . ;o) I recently rearranged my houseplants, consolida...

Do you have stacks of old, worn-out, out-dated, or out-grown jeans lying around the house? Why not give that durable denim another life as a set of cute 'n' cozy rag-quilted coasters? (You can also get a more modern look by leaving off the hearts and flowers-- or opting for simple square or circular patches. But why would you want to do a thing like that?) The prototypes for these coasters happened "by accident" last year, when I wanted to try out the rag quilting method before starting in on the actual quilt I was making. I had some smaller denim squares lying around, so I gave it a try. The ragging worked great-- and then, because I hated to throw them away, I started using the squares as coasters. That worked great, too! This is a simple project that is easy for even novice seamstresses. It uses up smallish scraps of denim (whether new off the bolt or recycled from old clothes), and it's a fun way to test out rag quilting before committing to a large-sca...