The Winter Twist Endeavor!

  My first-ever, completed real quilt!

  

My two coworkers include my son who was hiding behind the quilt at left lol.  I'm appreciative of working with such helpful people.

Jason Yentner's booklet, The

Winter Twist Quilt.

It takes a lot to get me to think about making a quilt.  As a garment sewer, I love to take a 2-dimensional fabric and turn it into a 3D shape.  The challenge of fitting and molding a piece of cloth to the body to churn out a well-fitted garment that enhances the figure is a great feeling for me.  It's probably why I've never taken to quilting.

However, every once and a while a beautiful design comes along that inspires me to try my hand at making a quilt.  When I saw the Winter Twist booklet by Jason Yentner at work, I fell in love with
the design. We had the matching fabric collection too!  One day a customer purchased the booklet and encouraged me to try my hand at making this quilt.  She said, "It's actually very easy."  So I read the instructions, and it really was a simple, basic design.  The fabric and booklet made it way to the counter for purchase that day and the rest is history.

Honestly?  It took a while to cut all the pieces to a specific size and dimension.  It's pretty boring.  But I stuck to the task at hand and got everything cut.  Quilting definitely takes patience, so acceptance was key to spending a few days cutting everything out to exact sizing.  Anyone who knows me knows I'm NOT an exacting person.  Quilting here and there has made be a better garment sewer because of more attention to detail and the precise nature required for piecing.

Blocks stitched, border added, got the quilt sandwich 

assembled, now for pinning!

Sewing the blocks, again, was boring.  Perserverance is key!  Watching a few good TV shows helps fight the boredom.  Each block was assembled, then the blocks were all stitched together.   Then I added the border.  The mitered border as a beginner quilter is not the easiest thing to do with possible stretching across the grain, but I managed to get an acceptable result. I asked my coworkers questions about quilt batting, watched a few videos, and felt confident putting the sandwich together and pinning everything.  Sure, I could have used basting spray, but I felt more confident with the pins as a newbie.  Start at the middle, then move out from there.

Quilting supplies:  FMQ gloves, size 

14 Topstitch needles, good thread

and rulers with grips

Now for the quilting!  I was a bit befuddled at which quilting designs I should use.  Should I use free motion?  Rulers? Rulers won out.  The Handiquilter Ruler of the Month program was in full force at work, so I decided to use the rulers and create designs.  My coworker helped me choose a basic ruler design for the center blocks, but my designs on the edges and borders were inspired by the Quilting with Rulers class by Amy Johnson over at Craftsy.  She is an excellent ruler quilting instructor, and I highly recommend her classes, but my suggestion is to enroll through Amy's website if you're interested because I think the instructors get better financial compensation doing it this way.  Most of the more intricate designs were inspired by what I learned in Amy's Craftsy classes.    

Here is the simple center block design suggested by my

coworker.

I was loving the ruler work, and one simple

slice ruler create this fancy design.

Whew!  Binding added.  Almost 

finished.

When everything was done, it was time for the quilt binding.  My go-to resource for adding binding is Missouri Star Quilt Company's Jenny Doan's Ultimate Quilt Binding Tutorial.  Missouri Star Quilt Company is known by every quilter, but for garment sewers, this is a new-to-me company I discovered in the last several years via customers at work.  Trust me, I've learned a lot about quilting simply by hearing people talk about their quilts lol.  I've probably done about 3 quilt bindings in my life, and every time I screw up!  It's not just me. My customers have said they've done the same thing. Jenny's video is great, but somehow I still manage to twist my ends the wrong way, seam rip, then finally do it the right way.  When it does work the second time, it's brilliant!

Overall, I'm incredibly pleased with my first, real quilt.  By the

And finally?  A little crystal bling and my

embroidered snowflakes at the corner cuz I'm not as

proficient at the mitered quilt corners as I'd like to be.

time I finished, my confidence in using rulers soared and ultimately, my free motion skills improved.  What are my 2018 quilt projects amidst a slew of garments?  My king-size quilt is ready for quilting, and yes, I'm doing it on my Elna 760 with the 11" bed.  It will be a struggle, but it's going to happen.  Towards the end of the year, I'm planning on making a beautiful bargello.   Goals.  It's good to have them.  I'll never consider myself a quilter, just a garment sewer who occasionally makes quilts.  And as I've said before, my occasional quilting projects have made me a better garment sewer.  Who would've thought!?!?

Are you a garment sewer who has never tried their hand at quilting?  I encourage you to find a beautiful design and try it.  The perfectionism of quilting has definitely enhanced my garment sewing for the better!

Until next time, Happy Stitching!

--Kat