sew much fun

Sorry, bad post title. Heh.

But, I've been itching to share a few photos of my latest quilt project; I just love sewing. Remember last weekend when I went to the cabin with my cousin Deb? We met the PJ's there and had a giant sewing fest. Check it out.

This is actually Deb by the window with the three J's (Jean, Jeanette and Jeri). Her Mom (Pat) was most likely sipping a cup of coffee over on the sofa. So, what did we make? Here's Deb modeling my finished quilt top (she made one that is almost identical, too).

How on earth did we do that? Let me share.
First, ALL the fabric we made into polka dots were scraps. 100%. The thrifty Finn in me loves that.

Step one, grab a template for your circle (in this case a handy CD) and trace about 500 circles on the wrong side of your scraps with some sort of quilt marker (the lines disappear after washing).

Okay, maybe not 500; how about 25 for each quilt, plus a few extra for mistakes?

Then, you will need lightweight fusible interfacing cut into strips about 5 1/2" wide. Naturally, these strips then get cut into squares, one for each scrap of fabric.

Now, here's the tiny bit tricky part. Layer each fabric with a piece of interfacing RIGHT sides together. In this case, the fusible side of the interfacing is the RIGHT side. No problem? Good. Next, sew each circle with your sewing machine following right along that line you've drawn on the wrong side of the scrap. Here's a photo with the sewn circle, and also two circles which I've trimmed with pinking shears.

See? Sew completely around the circle, leave no opening, nothing. Um, so how do you turn them right side out?

I'm so happy you asked. Carefully pull on the interfacing side of your sewn circle and carefully cut a slit in the interfacing and carefully pull your fabric through that slit. (Note: I say carefully for a reason since I did cut one of mine right through the fabric. Doh. One out of 50 is not too bad, is it?)

Check it out! At this point, you will have lovely fabric on one side and fusible interfacing on the other (yes, with a slit cut in it - doesn't matter). Finger press only. You can imagine what would happen if you pressed these with an iron. Um, not good.

A lovely stack of polka dots. Deb is sewing circle like crazy, I'm turning them, finger pressing and laying them out on our backing. It's so fun to do this with a partner.

At this point Deb is asking "How many more?" (In this photo, she really is asking).

And I just say "Keep sewing. Keep sewing". Maybe 50 circles doesn't sound like a lot. But, it is. It is.
Finally, they are done. We pin them to our backing (plain white muslin this time), and iron them on.

Seriously? Just iron them on? Yep, the interfacing holds them on like nobody's business. And they turned out soooo cute.

The next step is to sew around each circle (maybe with a zig zag, blanket stitch, or blind hem stitch) then add the backing, quilting and binding. But, we will save that for another day. I'm actually taking a machine quilting class (to learn stippling, etc) in September, so this little guy may be waiting until after class to be quilted. But, I promise to share the finished quilt with you all then.

Yeesh, I'd better run. I've been under the weather for a couple days (sore throat, cough) thus the lack of blogging, but I have a bagel and coffee waiting right now. That ought to perk me up.

Later.

think fast

a zany momma of eight who loves paper crafting, photography, quilting and other crafty ventures.

August 27, 2009

sew much fun

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Kim Kesti

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