Pistol
Diamond
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Post by Pistol on Sept 21, 2020 6:45:26 GMT -6
Never pay full price at Joann's unless you have to have it right that second (or its cricut brand) because there's almost always coupons or sales going on. Download the app and you can get coupons in there.
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Post by sudokufan on Sept 21, 2020 7:57:31 GMT -6
Can anyone recommend a batting brand they like? I’m a little overwhelmed with the choices. And do you buy it by project or in bulk? It’s more expensive than I thought. I want to make a quilt soon and think I will just buy as needed because I don’t know what my productivity will be like. I have become a batting snob, because I've now had 2 quilts ruined by the stuff. One, the batting pulled apart inside the quilt, the other it 'bearded' - it was a dark colored quilt and the batting started pulling through to the surface of the quilt.
So, for quilts that I really, really love I suck it up and buy from the local quilt store and it is $$ compared to sale prices at Joanns. And I don't buy until I've finished the top, because it has literally taken me years to finish some quilts.
(I still buy from Joanns for quilts where it's a quicky type thing that isn't meant to be an heirloom, like nap quilts for DS or H, and then I buy what's on sale or the right size)
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jaygee
Diamond
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Post by jaygee on Sept 21, 2020 8:28:44 GMT -6
Can anyone recommend a batting brand they like? I’m a little overwhelmed with the choices. And do you buy it by project or in bulk? It’s more expensive than I thought. I want to make a quilt soon and think I will just buy as needed because I don’t know what my productivity will be like. I have become a batting snob, because I've now had 2 quilts ruined by the stuff. One, the batting pulled apart inside the quilt, the other it 'bearded' - it was a dark colored quilt and the batting started pulling through to the surface of the quilt.
So, for quilts that I really, really love I suck it up and buy from the local quilt store and it is $$ compared to sale prices at Joanns. And I don't buy until I've finished the top, because it has literally taken me years to finish some quilts.
(I still buy from Joanns for quilts where it's a quicky type thing that isn't meant to be an heirloom, like nap quilts for DS or H, and then I buy what's on sale or the right size)
Thank you. This is so helpful. I was reading about some of those issues and wanted to know how concerned I should be. What I want to do is make everyday use quilts. My family wants some but I also have a charity project that once I’m done practicing on my family and can make decent quality, I would like to donate to. So I am looking for value, but anticipating these quilts will be used and washed a lot. |
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Post by sudokufan on Sept 21, 2020 9:08:20 GMT -6
jaygee, when you get to the point you want to quilt your first quilt, check out this book: www.amazon.com/WALK-Master-Machine-Quilting-Walking/dp/1940655218/I took a class at my LQS (local quilt store) and we used this book as our reference. It was very very helpful. The LQS owner helped us all pick out batting and taught us how to spray baste the quilt without making them too sticky, then got us started quilting. This is the quilt I did during that class:  I tied my first few quilts, and that works ok, but you need to tie them in a LOT of places, and they don't hold up as well to washing and use IME.
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Post by thechickencoop on Sept 21, 2020 9:13:27 GMT -6
Same here. Don’t touch mom’s orange (Fiskars) scissors is one of the first rules I remember 😂 As we got older, it turned into you can use them if you ask, but don’t you dare use those scissors on anything but fabric. Lol and I don’t have kids, but DH knows not to use my sewing scissors. Someone gave me a pair of Gingher serrated 8 inch scissors for my birthday, and he used them on paper a couple of days later. I just about died. So now he knows not to ever use my orange scissors on anything but fabric, and he doesn’t touch my Gingher scissors. My mother's sewing scissors were monogrammed. You do not mess with a woman's monogrammed shears. I had my grandmother's old singer stainless sewing scissors that were just THE BEST. I took them outside one day last summer. WHY??? No clue. But i set them on my bumper and forgot about them and drove away 😭😭😭 |
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Post by sudokufan on Sept 21, 2020 9:15:20 GMT -6
Here's another one I did. For this one, I used cheap batting because I knew it would rarely be washed and because there's a good bit of quilting in it to keep the batting from shifting:  (^^this was a gift to my folks) And this one I used cheap batting and just tied it, because although it gets washed a good bit, I didn't spend much time making it. I bought 3 cheater quilt panels, cut them apart and assembled them to make a "big boy" sized quilt, where the original panel was sized for a crib/stroller. If the batting gets lumpy or stuff comes apart, I'm willing to patch it, or take the whole top off and refresh it - easy to do with a tied quilt.  |
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Post by saltypearl on Sept 21, 2020 9:27:05 GMT -6
I wouldn't recommend a Singer machine anymore. Their quality has gone way down. A bunch of the previously metal parts are now plastic and as I am sure you can deduce, this is ending up problematic. That said, I have a Singer from circa 2012 that I quite like.
Most of what I do is quilting, though I dabble in garments, masks and minor repairs/alterations. I taught myself, without a pattern (don't do that). 90% of what I do is straight stitch. For your first few quilts I recommend "stitch in the ditch" as your quilting mantra. This basically means when you create your "quilt sandwich" (top+bottom+batting), stitch along the top where you already have seams. It hides all the errors!
For starter quilt projects I echo others recommending buying a kit. Maybe a table runner or set of place mats to start. Get yourself a good rotary cutter, cutting mat, ruler and fabric shears. These I would say are more important than the machine. Almost anything can straight stitch, but the frustration when cutting out your pattern/pieces will trump the machine every time.
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jaygee
Diamond
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Post by jaygee on Sept 21, 2020 9:27:57 GMT -6
Wow sudokufan that is beautiful work. I’m so impressed. I’m going to be starting with something much less ambitious. Essentially scrap quilts but I’ll probably use charm packs for awhile to make it easiest on myself and since I don’t have scraps yet. I will have to figure out how I want to secure the batting. Although I think I have time before I get there, because just assembling the top will take me a long time. I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos. |
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Post by thechickencoop on Sept 21, 2020 9:40:17 GMT -6
sudokufan those are so pretty! I love the first one!
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Sept 21, 2020 9:43:36 GMT -6
My mother's sewing scissors were monogrammed. You do not mess with a woman's monogrammed shears. I had my grandmother's old singer stainless sewing scissors that were just THE BEST. I took them outside one day last summer. WHY??? No clue. But i set them on my bumper and forgot about them and drove away 😭😭😭 Oh nooooooooo |
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Post by babybean on Sept 21, 2020 9:57:57 GMT -6
sudokufan amazing work. I love quilts but they are so intimidating to me.
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Post by thechickencoop on Sept 21, 2020 10:04:09 GMT -6
I had my grandmother's old singer stainless sewing scissors that were just THE BEST. I took them outside one day last summer. WHY??? No clue. But i set them on my bumper and forgot about them and drove away 😭😭😭 Oh nooooooooo I know. I was (am) still very sad and mad at myself. I looked everywhere, we have a super long driveway so I was like, they MUST be in the yard somewhere. Nope. |
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Pistol
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Post by Pistol on Sept 21, 2020 10:10:14 GMT -6
jaygee, have you looked at rag quilts? I want to make some of those (likely what I will do for the boys' quilts) because they look pretty easy.  Edited tag. Not sure why I tagged dc. 🤦♀️
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Post by sudokufan on Sept 21, 2020 10:10:47 GMT -6
thechickencoop, thanks! Do you mean the dino quilt? I love how playful it turned out. babybean, we almost all start with squares because all the seams are straight ones :-D But there's so much new technology in quilting making the fancier stuff more accessible. Like applique - that turtle quilt I made for my parents used a fusible technique, so I could iron the green pieces onto the blue background and have them stay where I wanted them until I had time to stitch them down. Here's another one that uses the iron on fusible stuff for the letters, then there's just a bunch of squares to frame it: 
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jaygee
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Post by jaygee on Sept 21, 2020 10:28:05 GMT -6
Oh and I didn’t update here but I did my first project this weekend. I made cloth napkins from DS’s old comforter that had a tear in it. It was a good recycling project and now we have reusable napkins. It was basically a hemming project but it was a great way to learn to set up the machine and practice some long stretches of stitching. I improved so much from the first one.
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Pistol
Diamond
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Post by Pistol on Sept 21, 2020 11:09:09 GMT -6
Oh and I didn’t update here but I did my first project this weekend. I made cloth napkins from DS’s old comforter that had a tear in it. It was a good recycling project and now we have reusable napkins. It was basically a hemming project but it was a great way to learn to set up the machine and practice some long stretches of stitching. I improved so much from the first one. I've wanted to do this for a while but never have. Maybe I'll try to slide that into my list of projects. 🤣 |
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jaygee
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Post by jaygee on Sept 21, 2020 11:11:03 GMT -6
Oh and I didn’t update here but I did my first project this weekend. I made cloth napkins from DS’s old comforter that had a tear in it. It was a good recycling project and now we have reusable napkins. It was basically a hemming project but it was a great way to learn to set up the machine and practice some long stretches of stitching. I improved so much from the first one. I've wanted to do this for a while but never have. Maybe I'll try to slide that into my list of projects. 🤣 It would probably be really fast for you. I had to keep pausing and rewatching the video. And fixing my thread and a bunch of other beginner shenanigans. |
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Pistol
Diamond
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Post by Pistol on Sept 21, 2020 11:16:14 GMT -6
I've wanted to do this for a while but never have. Maybe I'll try to slide that into my list of projects. 🤣 It would probably be really fast for you. I had to keep pausing and rewatching the video. And fixing my thread and a bunch of other beginner shenanigans. Depends on which of my machines I use. One goes super fast and I could whip them out fairly quick but the second one is a PITA and likes to eat my fabric when I am working on thin fabric and small seam allowances like what would be hemming up cloth napkins. What video did you follow? I have an idea in my head of how to do them but never actually have. |
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jaygee
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Post by jaygee on Sept 21, 2020 11:20:20 GMT -6
It would probably be really fast for you. I had to keep pausing and rewatching the video. And fixing my thread and a bunch of other beginner shenanigans. Depends on which of my machines I use. One goes super fast and I could whip them out fairly quick but the second one is a PITA and likes to eat my fabric when I am working on thin fabric and small seam allowances like what would be hemming up cloth napkins. What video did you follow? I have an idea in my head of how to do them but never actually have. I used this one. The only thing I don’t like is how the corners turned out. She says to tuck them but she doesn’t really show what she did and the way I turned the corners there is a little flap on each one that I don’t like. I think because my seams are larger than hers to cover up some mistakes. I am going to go back through and add two stitches at each corner for a more finished look. |
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Post by Dramaphile on Sept 21, 2020 11:45:36 GMT -6
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jaygee
Diamond
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Post by jaygee on Sept 21, 2020 11:47:05 GMT -6
Thank you! I like that look better. |
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jaygee
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Post by jaygee on Nov 8, 2020 22:28:53 GMT -6
Just bumping this to say thank you for all the help getting started. I just completed my first quilt with my sewing machine. It’s not perfect but I learned a lot and I’m proud of it. It’s for my 2 year old nephew whose name starts with an L and loves baby shark. I have another quilt top that is about 3/4 of the way done so I will probably be back to ask some quilting questions for that one. Things that I’d like to improve upon next time.  |
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Pistol
Diamond
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Post by Pistol on Nov 9, 2020 7:23:32 GMT -6
I love it! And I love your floors, jaygee! |
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senneth
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Post by senneth on Nov 9, 2020 7:34:11 GMT -6
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piratecat
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Post by piratecat on Nov 9, 2020 8:05:38 GMT -6
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Post by sudokufan on Nov 9, 2020 10:09:00 GMT -6
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