Sunday, February 25, 2007

My first quilt!

Whose tail is that?


Why, it's my assistant for my first finished quilt!



Pattern - A Flock of Triangles from Denyse Schmidt Quilts
Fabric - A bundle purchased from Purl Patchwork, and other fabric from F&S Fabric

In the end, all of the hard work was worth it. I can't believe I made a quilt! Sure, the triangles don't all match up and I realized a mixed up a couple of rows, but it is so satisfying to have created something that came out better than I imagined.

Making this quilt was alternately a joy and a headache. The parts of quilt making I loved were creating the top, quilting the sandwich, and seeing the final product. The items that gave me problems were basting the sandwich and sewing the binding.

I decided to create my own bias tape for the binding, but I just kind of sewed it on without really thinking about it. After an initial horrible binding, I tried again. This is where my lack of precision was a problem. I should have taken the time and done it the way they suggest in the book, which is to sew one side by machine and finish it off in the back by hand. But I was impatient. I attached the tape with items I had on hand and sewed away.

So the binding could be neater, but I've learned my lesson.

I chose a green fabric for the backing, mainly because I love the combination of pink and green. When quilting the sandwich, the instructions sad to quilt around the white triangles. I ended up sewing horizontal lines across the quilt and then did zigzag lines to complete the effect.


Before I washed it, the quilt was crisp.

The beautiful rumpledness came out so nice after I washed and dried it.


While I was trying to do the photo session, Unki jumped on the quilt,

sniffed it,

and promptly fell asleep.


So in honor of Unki, and wonderfully suggested by SJ, the quilt will be named "Unki Paw Quilt". Which is beyond appropriate, because not only are his toepads brown and pink:


(So close to having all four feet with alternating toepad colors!)

his front paws resemble white triangles.


Maggie watched all of this from the comfort of her Kitty Pi, wondering when she's going to get a quilt named after her paws.


But it would have to be the shaggiest quilt in existence to get that honor.

Gyah! How does she manage with all of that hair between her toes?

12 comments:

Rose Marie said...

Your first quilt .... wonderful! I can see you beaming from here. Good job done! Don't give this one away, ever.

Anonymous said...

The Unki Paw Quilt turned out very nice. You did a great job on it.

Anonymous said...

Ooh, pretty! I have yet to wash my quilts (2), I'm scared of dye running! What a great first effort. And I love the cat's paws.

- MJ

Agnes said...

Congratulations! You should be so proud of this ... I know I would if I were to do something like that!
Love those alternate coloured paw pads! So lovely!

MinaG said...

The quilt looks awesome! And love the washed quilt look!... as for Maggie's paws, I say, "Gyabo!"

Anonymous said...

That sure is a lot of hair between the kitty's toes! The quilt is gorgeous, and I'm impressed that this is your first one! Way to go!

Sarah said...

So happy I could help out with the name!

shizzknits said...

The quilt turned out beautiful! I love the color combos. You are brave, tackling all those triangles for your first quilt. I did a log cabin first, and have done some other patchworks....but the triangles scare me! LOL

Nice job!

Anonymous said...

Awesome! Have you already planned your next one?

Kristy said...

The quilt looks so good!! Great job!

the daily purl said...

Beautiful quilt! Those paws are so cute!

pukey b said...

wow! i've been busy cutting my triangles out for this quilt and having second thoughts, but seeing yours makes me think i can do it! did you keep with the crib-size or make it larger?