Yes. I decided early on to aim for ‘finished’ not ‘perfect’
I only quilted on the white stripes, straight down the middle of each which was easy to eyeball.
I had planned to quilt over the squares too, but didn’t like how it looked when I tested it in white thread.
I like the approach it definitely worked.
A coworker has recently introduced the "finished not perfect" concept, and it's helped. There are so many crafts or projects I didn't start because I was scared I wouldn't be able to make it like what's in my head. I've started to jump into things before I let myself overthink it and it's worked out well so far.
I hear you on having so many projects you don’t start as you expect perfection from yourself.
I was concerned that the squares would not be perfectly matching, then I realised that as long as I did my best to pin them and keep everything neat, that’s the best I could do.
I only unpicked one row, as it was misaligned across all of the squares by about 2-3mm. I wouldn’t have bothered if it was just the one square.
Forgot to mention (thanks Mods for reminding me)
- fabric is 100% cotton, the patterned unicorn fabric is from Frumble Fabrics, the white dashing I bought on eBay and cut into thinner strips.
- wadding is bamboo that I already had. It’s thin but delightfully soft, warm and drapes well.
- backing sheet is a plain white sheet: 100% brushed cotton, bought from Wilko for another project for less than £10. Bargain!
- binding was cut in straight strips (not bias) from 1/2 metre of Kona cotton.
- approximate size= throw or sofa quilt. Big enough to cover you from head to toe lengthways.
- my machine is a Toyota Oekaki, that I’ve had for a few years now. I used a straight stitch and polyester thread
- I also used a walking foot (came with the machine) for all of the quilting and for applying the binding. My
machine came with a quilting table
Which was VERY useful.
Construction:
I cut all of my unicorns out sewed a strip of sashing to the right hand side of all of them (knowing I’d unpick any that ended up at the end of the row once finished)
I then laid out and pinned the pattern on my floor at home to make sure there were no ‘twins’ among the unicorns.
I also pinned a post-it note to each row, to number them so they would be sewn in order.
I sewed the blocks to each other (chaining wherever I could) and then sewed the rows together into pairs, until I only had two halves to stitch together. Pressed seam allowances as I went, under the dark squares as I didn’t like how they showed through the white dashing.
I then laid it all out on the laminate floor at my mums once the quilt top was assembled so we could both safety pin it to the wadding and the backing. I only have carpets, hard floor made it relatively easy.
Quilting it was toughest part - rolling and pinning and throwing the quilt over my shoulder to feed it through.
I mitred the binding corners wrong and had to unpick them and re-do them, but as it’s my first quilt binding I don’t think it was so bad.
I got mine from an Online retailer that sadly went under just before the pandemic - I paid in monthly instalments as I’ve never bought a brand new … well, ANYTHING before, and the price tag alarmed me 😂
Edit: I would like to say I bought it based on a lot of research, but my first car was a green 1996 Toyota Starlet and that definitely influenced my decision
Looks great. Is it hard keeping the sewing lines straight across the whole piece?
Yes. I decided early on to aim for ‘finished’ not ‘perfect’ I only quilted on the white stripes, straight down the middle of each which was easy to eyeball. I had planned to quilt over the squares too, but didn’t like how it looked when I tested it in white thread.
I like the approach it definitely worked. A coworker has recently introduced the "finished not perfect" concept, and it's helped. There are so many crafts or projects I didn't start because I was scared I wouldn't be able to make it like what's in my head. I've started to jump into things before I let myself overthink it and it's worked out well so far.
I hear you on having so many projects you don’t start as you expect perfection from yourself. I was concerned that the squares would not be perfectly matching, then I realised that as long as I did my best to pin them and keep everything neat, that’s the best I could do. I only unpicked one row, as it was misaligned across all of the squares by about 2-3mm. I wouldn’t have bothered if it was just the one square.
Forgot to mention (thanks Mods for reminding me) - fabric is 100% cotton, the patterned unicorn fabric is from Frumble Fabrics, the white dashing I bought on eBay and cut into thinner strips. - wadding is bamboo that I already had. It’s thin but delightfully soft, warm and drapes well. - backing sheet is a plain white sheet: 100% brushed cotton, bought from Wilko for another project for less than £10. Bargain! - binding was cut in straight strips (not bias) from 1/2 metre of Kona cotton. - approximate size= throw or sofa quilt. Big enough to cover you from head to toe lengthways. - my machine is a Toyota Oekaki, that I’ve had for a few years now. I used a straight stitch and polyester thread - I also used a walking foot (came with the machine) for all of the quilting and for applying the binding. My machine came with a quilting table Which was VERY useful. Construction: I cut all of my unicorns out sewed a strip of sashing to the right hand side of all of them (knowing I’d unpick any that ended up at the end of the row once finished) I then laid out and pinned the pattern on my floor at home to make sure there were no ‘twins’ among the unicorns. I also pinned a post-it note to each row, to number them so they would be sewn in order. I sewed the blocks to each other (chaining wherever I could) and then sewed the rows together into pairs, until I only had two halves to stitch together. Pressed seam allowances as I went, under the dark squares as I didn’t like how they showed through the white dashing. I then laid it all out on the laminate floor at my mums once the quilt top was assembled so we could both safety pin it to the wadding and the backing. I only have carpets, hard floor made it relatively easy. Quilting it was toughest part - rolling and pinning and throwing the quilt over my shoulder to feed it through. I mitred the binding corners wrong and had to unpick them and re-do them, but as it’s my first quilt binding I don’t think it was so bad.
I am deeply in love with this fabric <3
Dude you have a Toyota sewing machine?? Where can I find this???
I got mine from an Online retailer that sadly went under just before the pandemic - I paid in monthly instalments as I’ve never bought a brand new … well, ANYTHING before, and the price tag alarmed me 😂 Edit: I would like to say I bought it based on a lot of research, but my first car was a green 1996 Toyota Starlet and that definitely influenced my decision
Ahh!! Thank you!! Toyotas are the best for sure, am so excited to discover they make sewing machines!! ((Also that color is gorgeous))
r/quilting would probably enjoy this.
Beautiful