Quillow & Pillowcases & Baby Quilts & Placemats, Oh! MY!!

Last week I got together with a cousin to do some quilting. She’s a beginner and I just like doing it! We enjoyed 3 days of visiting, cutting, sewing & eating. All essential components of quilting.

See our sewing set up:

April 2011 - Quilting with Karen Hampton Inn

The sewing machines were set up so we could face out the window — great light for sewing! The cutting mat is on the desk to the right, and the ironing board is on the other side of the room. We had a regular quilting assembly line set up!

This was the first quilting experience for my cousin, so we began with something simple – Pillowcased Flannel Premie Quilts. Eighteen inches of two pieces of flannel, laid right-sides-together, stitch a 1/2″ seam all around the edge, leaving a 4″ opening for turning. After turning right-sides-out, and pressing, we used a decorative stitch to close the opening, and add quilting. TaDa! 2 Baby Quilts for the NICU!!

Quilting Practice - NICU Baby Quilt

We then moved on to a placemat and coasters. These projects had several skills which are needed to make a quilt – 1/4″ seams, matching points, adding borders, quilting 3-layers (front-batting-back) and binding. (Binding is not easy!)

Karen's Placemat and Coasters

Karen even got to practice some ‘un-sewing’ a very necessary aspect of quilting. We also discovered that binding is not easy and the decorative stitch we selected is NOT one we will ever select AGAIN!!

Not bad for 3 days of quilting for a novice!!

2 NICU Baby Quilts, Placemat & 2 Coasters

While Karen learned & practiced basic cutting and stitching, I worked on a few projects of my own. Karen helped with some of the stitching to practice on the sewing machine and working on her 1/4″ seam accuracy.

I completed two pillowcases I had started earlier (pictures later). Then there were two standard pillowcases with matching travel-sized pillowcases, and a quillow for two other cousins.