machine vs hand stitch for quilt

[buddhasbelly]

Total novice Am making a quilt for my daughter's first birthday (decided on inspiration gained from another thread!) and wondered would I be mad to try and hand stitch this? I could borrow a machine for it but wondered if a novice could hand stitch or am I creating a rod for my own back? Thanks for any advice

Oh, there are so many things that you can do with any leftovers! You can buy precut 5" squares called charm packs, and there are hundreds of tutorials online for projects using them. Sounds like you've caught the bug!

well that was an eventful day in the world of quilting. Things are being cut etc. I went into town briefly as there is a quilting shop there but well, I'm all for supporting small businesses but this wee independent shop was three times the price of dunelm mills where I bought my initial material. I'm on a bit of a budget so had to pass on the quilting shop.

One other daft question before I continue on my cutting, would it be bizarre to use 100% cotton pillow cases and cut them up? A 2 pack of cath kidston ones were reduced to £2 in TK Maxx and they had a high thread count (feel the same as the material i've already bought). I just thought they would give me more squares (of a lovely design) for a cheaper price, or is that just a bit silly to do? I really am hopeless aren't I?!

What other fabrics do you have?

the ones i've picked so far i've gotten off the metre from dunelm mills (got a few different ones, half metre of each) - the highly embarrassing part in all of this is that my weekend job as a teenager was working in a fabric shop, cut all the different fabrics, net curtains etc, sorted all the sewing patterns out when the deliveries came in... did I ever take hold of a needle and thread? no... but back then (quite a while ago now!) I did actually know a fair bit about all this, my mind must've just decided that this was not knowledge I would need for later life!

I know what you mean there! I used to sew loads but gave up a long time ago because I had a dodgy machine. I started again in October to make Anna dresses for the girls & have been merrily planning all sorts lately

I meant what sort as in are the fabrics you have cotton/polycotton etc? If they're all the same sort then I don't see why you couldn't add the pretty pillow cases into the mix.

ah I see (haven't woken up properly all day and now it's time for bed!), it's all cotton fabrics that I have. That settles it, the pillow cases (that I don't really need anyway and were a snip at £2) are for the chop and the pretty pattern will be added into the mix.

It's rather nice having this thread (and the others in the never explored arts and crafts section) as it is kind of spurring me along.

I'd love to get to a stage where I can make dresses etc, baby steps, baby steps

I had a thread running while doing the girls' dresses - was handy to have everything all in one place.

Dresses are not that hard really if you start out simple - I was leafing through the New Look pattern book the other day and there were a fair few girls ones that weren't too taxing.

I need to build up my basic collection again, no idea where it's all gone over the years.

You do know, now you've started, pics will be required of the finished quilt

Ready cut quilt pieces are standard sizes, yes. But of course you can use anything.
I made this one out of leftover oddments. It's the second one I've made so really I'm a novice too.

Try this link for a very simple tutorial I make quilts too It's very addictive. I finally finished this one for my DSGS and the main things are to be accurate with your cutting (although I have been known to cut slightly bigger and trim) and stick to a 1/4 inch seam. Pintrest is your friend and biggest source of procrastination and there are a lot of tutorials with very useful tips. Have fun getting sucked into the stash habit

This is a handy tip for accurate seams

I will of course be uploading a picture of the finished article (no matter how it turns out!)

Thank you (and wow!) for the PP's pictures, they are a great inspiration and show me what I could go on to do after this project is done (a loooong way away!)

Oh and thank you for that link!

Got a fat quarter bundle from hobby craft today, going to finish cutting the squares to size tonight and then decide on a pattern tomorrow

oooh exciting!

I wish there was a hobbycraft near us - I went to the market today & the only fabric stall was upholstery. No dress fabric at all

lucy it's not as good as seeing it in the flesh but they're are lots of online sites for buying fabric.

Lady Sew and sew is generally more reasonable than most.

Nowhere near like buying in the flesh so to speak . I went with UK Fabrics Online this time. Will have a look at the link, I have plenty more projects lined up

Fabric Guild and Plush Addict are very good, and if you're on ebay and don't mind a bit of a wait Lucky Fabrics are very good too. I often buy from Lucky fabric because they are £1.45/FQ for 100% cotton and they ship quickly. Plush Addict are UK based and are very fast at delivering and they have a wide selection. Fabric Guild are good too but a bit slower, so I tend to use them if iIm not in a hurry.

Mothership, you do realise that I now have to go and check the site out and resist try not to add to my already heaving stash? I quilt with a friend of mine and her attic is bursting at the seams as is the very large storage boxes in mine

I now have a (tiny) amount of scrap material from trimming my squares , I feel like i'm becoming less of a sewing/quilting impostor!

oh i'm going to have a look at these websites!

Hide your debit card budd, there are some lovely fabrics in that link . Thanks Mother, have bookmarked for future use

How's it going budd

ah! sorry a late reply, have been v hectic the last few days. This again may be a daft question and am checking my pic by pic guide but should I iron in the 1/4 inch edge on the squares before pinning? sorry if that doesn't make sense, a little confused!

I don't iron before pinning. I pin, sew and then iron seams flat and in the direction I want them to go in.

Does the machine you're using have a measure to one side of the needle so you can stitch the right width of seam? My mam's did have & it made life much easier.

I did iron a seam first on something the other day but was kicking myself when my stitches deviated from it slightly.

thanks lucy for the quick response! yes the sewing machine does have the measure

As you say if when i deviate from a seam that has been ironed it'll be a wasted effort as my sewing on the machine will just not be that precise.

Sorry for my endless stream of questions over making this, I try not to think of how much I have left to do and am only think of the stage that I'm on so that it doesn't feel too daunting.

As PP's have said, I need to be accurate with my cutting - the smug me thought 'well that can't be too difficult - how wrong was I?!

I've ended up with 9 different fabrics all in. I know it seems a lot and most step-by-step guides I looked at seems to advise fewer but they do go well together and it doesn't look "too much" if that makes sense

Just a thought, pin across rather than along the seam, if that makes sense!?

I've been forgetting to remove them all bloody afternoon while sewing dd2's dress & I'd pinned along my seams because they were curvy...I swear my machine was giving me looks as I was going!

took me a second to get what you meant there but thank you! you keep giving me lots of time saving, practical tips that no way in a million years would I have the common sense to do myself

The foot lifts up & down over the head of the pins if I've pinned along & I end up with wonky seams. It's frustrating to have to start over. Just go steady when you get to a pin so you don't catch the needle and break it (I do that often too...race on and completely forget about the pins).

Probably doesn't help that I use pins with massive ball heads though.

thank you for that

hides stash of pins with massive ball heads